Defects in Party Work and Measures for Liquidating Trotskijite and Other Double-Dealers
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of Defects in Party Work and Measures for Liquidating Trotskijite and Other Double-Dealers has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the edition published in the pamphlet Mastering Bolshevism, Workers' Library Publishers, New York City, 1937.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is a report delivered by Comrade I.B. Stalin to the Tenth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Council Union (Majority) on behalf of the Ninth Political Bureau.
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#DEFECTS IN PARTY WORK AND MEASURES FOR LIQUIDATING TROTSKIJITE AND OTHER DOUBLE-DEALERS
#REPORT TO THE TENTH PLENARY SESSION OF THE 17TH CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE COUNCIL UNION (MAJORITY)
#I.B. Stalin
#3rd of March, 1937
#★
#INTRODUCTION
Comrades:
It can be seen from the reports and the discussion on them at the Plenary Session that we are dealing here with the following three fundamental facts:
- First, the wrecking and diversive spying work of the agents of foreign countries, among whom the Trotskijites played an active enough role, affected to some degree or other all or almost all our organizations, both economic, administrative, and Party.
- Second, the agents of foreign countries among the Trotskijites penetrated, not only into the lower organizations, but also into some responsible posts.
- Third, some of our directors, both in the centre and in the localities, were not only unable to recognize the real faces of these wreckers, diversionists, spies, and murderers, but they were so careless, complacent, and naive that not infrequently they themselves assisted the agents of foreign powers to get into various responsible positions.
These are three indisputable facts which naturally arise from the reports and the discussion on them.
#1. POLITICAL CARELESSNESS
How can it be explained that our directors, who have a rich experience of struggle against every kind of anti-Party and anti-council trend, proved to be so blind and naive in this case that they were unable to recognize the real face of the enemies of the people, were unable to discern the wolves in sheep's clothing, were unable to tear the mask from them?
Can it be stated that the wrecking and diversional -- spying -- work of the agents of foreign powers who were busy on the territory of the Union of Socialist Council Republics [USCR] could be something unexpected and unprecedented for us? No, this cannot be stated. This is shown by the wrecking acts in various branches of national economy during the past ten years, starting with the Sahty period, which are set out in official documents.
Can it be stated that we have lately had no warning signals and forewarning directives about the wrecking, spying, or terrorist activity of the Trotskijite-Zinovievite agents of fascism? No, this cannot be stated. There were such signals, and Majoritarians have no right to forget them.
The foul murder of Comrade Kirov was the first serious warning showing that the enemies of the people will practice duplicity and, in doing so, will disguise themselves as Majoritarians, as Party members, so as to worm their way into our confidence and open a path for themselves into our organizations.
The trial of the «Leningrad Centre», like the Zinoviev-Kamenev trial, provided new foundations for the lessons arising from the fact of the foul murder of Comrade Kirov.
The trial of the «Zinovievite-Trotskijite Bloc» extended the lessons of the previous trials, plainly showing that the Zinovievites and Trotskijites unite around themselves all the hostile bourgeois elements, that they had become the spying and diversionist -- terrorist -- agency of the German secret police, that double-dealing and concealment are the only means by which the Zinovievites and Trotskijites can penetrate into our organizations, that vigilance and political keenness are the truest means of preventing such penetration, for the liquidation of the Zinovievite-Trotskijite gang.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Council Union, in its closed letter of the 18th of January, 1935, regarding the foul murder of Comrade Kirov, gave a resolute warning to the Party organizations against political complacency and parochial gaping. It says in the closed letter:
We must put an end to opportunist complacency arising from the mistaken presupposition that, in proportion to the growth of our forces, the enemy will grow ever tamer and more inoffensive. Such a presupposition is fundamentally wrong. It is a belch of the Right-wing deviation, which assured everyone that the enemies would quietly creep into socialism, that in the long run they would become real Socialists. It is not the business of the Majoritarians to rest on their laurels and stand around gaping. It is not complacency that we need but vigilance, real Majoritarian revolutionary vigilance. It must be remembered that, the more desperate the position of the enemies, the more willing they will be to seize on extreme measures as the only measures of doomed people in their struggle against council power. We must remember this and be vigilant.
In the closed letter of the 29th of July, 1936, regarding the spying and terrorist activity of the Trotskijite-Zinovievite Bloc, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Council Union called on the Party organization to show the maximum vigilance, to be able to recognize the enemies of the people no matter how well masked. It says in the closed letter:
Now, when it has been proved that the Trotskijite-Zinovievite scum unite all the most bitter and sworn enemies of the working people of our country -- spies, provocateurs, diversionists, White Guards, rich peasants, and so on -- in the struggle against council power, when every distinguishing mark has been obliterated between these elements, on the one hand, and the Trotskijites and Zinovievites, on the other, all our Party organizations, all members of the Party must understand that the vigilance of Communists is necessary in every field and in all situations. An indispensable quality of every Majoritarian in the present conditions must be the ability to recognize the enemy of the Party, no matter how well he be masked.
So signals and warnings were given.
What did these signals and warnings call for?
They called for the liquidation of the weakness of Party organizational work and the conversion of the Party into all impregnable fortress into which not a single double-dealer could penetrate.
They called for putting a stop to the underestimation of Party political work and making a resolute turn in the direction of strengthening such work to the utmost, in the direction of strengthening political vigilance.
And what happened? The facts have shown that our comrades took in these signals and warnings with more than stiffness.
This is eloquently shown by all the facts which we know from the sphere of the campaign for verifying and exchanging Party documents.
How can it be explained that these warnings and signals did not produce the proper action? How can it be explained that our Party comrades, in spite of their experience of struggle against anti-council elements, in spite of a whole series of warning signals and forewarning directives, proved to be politically shortsighted in the face of the wrecking and spying diversive work of the enemies of the people?
Is it that our Party comrades have become worse than they were before, have become less conscientious and disciplined? No, of course not.
Is it that they have begun to deteriorate? Again, no. Such a supposition is completely unfounded.
Then, what is the matter? Whence arises such gaping, carelessness, complacency, blindness?
The fact is that our Party comrades, carried away by economic campaigns and by enormous successes on the front of economic construction, simply forgot some very important facts which Majoritarians have no right to forget. They forgot one fundamental fact from the sphere of the international position of the USCR and did not notice two very important facts which apply directly to the present wreckers, spies, diversionists, and murderers sheltering behind the Party card and disguised as Majoritarians.
#2. CAPITALIST ENCIRCLEMENT
What are these facts which our Party comrades forgot, or which they simply did not notice?
They forgot that council power has conquered only 1/6 of the world, that 5/6 of the world is in the possession of capitalist powers. They forgot that the Council Union is in the conditions of capitalist encirclement. It is an accepted thing to talk loosely about capitalist encirclement, but people do not want to ponder upon what sort of a thing this capitalist encirclement is.
Capitalist encirclement -- that is no empty phrase; that is a very real and unpleasant feature. Capitalist encirclement means that here is one country, the Council Union, which has established the socialist order on its own territory, and, besides this, there are many countries, bourgeois countries, which continue to carry on a capitalist mode of life and which surround the Council Union, waiting for an opportunity to attack it, break it, or, at any rate, to undermine its power and weaken it.
Our comrades forgot this fundamental fact. But it is that precisely which determines the basis of relations between the capitalist encirclement and the Council Union.
Take, for example, the bourgeois States. Simple-minded people may think that extremely good relations reign between them, as between States of the same type. But only simple-minded people can think so. In reality, the relations between them are far from being those of good neighbours. It has been proved as plainly as two and two make four that the bourgeois States shower their spies, wreckers, diversionists, and sometimes murderers on each other, behind their frontiers; give them instructions to worm themselves into the factories and institutions of these States, to create their own network there, and, «in case of necessity», to smash them from the rear, so as to weaken them and undermine their power. Such is the case at the present time.
Such, too, has been the case in the past. Take, for example, the countries of Europe at the time of Napoleon the First. France at that time was swarming with spies and diversionists from the camp of the Russians, Germans, Austrians, and English. And, at the same time, England, the German States, Austria, and Russia had behind their lines no fewer spies and diversionists from the French camp. Agents of Britain twice made attempts on the life of Napoleon, and several times mobilized the peasants of the Vendee in France against the government of Napoleon. And what was Napoleon's government? A bourgeois government which had strangled the French revolution and retained only those results of the revolution which were profitable to the big bourgeoisie. Needless to say, Napoleon's government did not remain indebted to its neighbours. It also undertook its own diversional measures. Such was the case in the past, 130 years ago. Such is the case now, 130 years after Napoleon the First. France and England at the present day are swarming with German spies and diversionists and on the other hand, Anglo-French spies and diversionists in turn are at work in Germany. The United States is swarming with Japanese spies and diversionists, and Japan with US ones.
Such is the law of relations between bourgeois States.
The question must be put: Why should the bourgeois countries be gentler and more neighbourly to the socialist Council Government than they are to bourgeois States or their own type? Why should they send fewer spies, wreckers, diversionists, and murderers behind the frontiers of the Council Union than they send behind the frontiers of bourgeois countries, which are akin to them? Where did you get this from? Will it not be truer, from the standpoint of Marxism, to suppose that the bourgeois States must be sending twice or three times as many wreckers, spies, diversionists, and murderers behind the lines of the Council Union than behind those of any bourgeois State?
Is it not clear that, as long as capitalist encirclement exists, there will be wreckers, spies, diversionists, and murderers in our country sent behind our lines by the agents of foreign States?
Our Party comrades forgot about all this, and, having forgotten, were caught unawares.
This is why the spying and diversive work of the Trotskijite agents of the Japanese and German secret police was completely unexpected by some of our comrades.
#3. PRESENT-DAY TROTSKIJISM
To proceed. In carrying on a struggle against the Trotskijite agents, our Party comrades did not notice, they overlooked the fact, that present-day Trotskijism is no longer what it was, let us say, seven or eight years ago; that Trotskijism and the Trotskijites have passed through a serious evolution in this period, which has utterly changed the face of Trotskijism; that, in view of this, the struggle against Trotskijism and the method of struggle against it must also be utterly changed. Our Party comrades did not notice that Trotskijism has ceased to be a political trend in the working class, that it has changed from the political trend in the working class, which it was seven or eight years ago, into a frantic and unprincipled gang of wreckers, diversionists, spies, and murderers acting on the instructions of the intelligence services of foreign States.
What is a political trend in the working class? A political trend in the working class is a group or a political party which has its own definite political face, platform, and programme, which does not and cannot hide its views from the working class, but, on the contrary, openly and honestly carries on propaganda for its views in full view of the working class, does not fear to show its political face to the working class, does not fear to demonstrate its real aims and tasks to the working class, but, on the contrary, goes to the working class with open visor to convince it of the correctness of its views. In the past, seven or eight years ago, Trotskijism was one of such political trends in the working class, an anti-Leninist trend, it is true, and therefore profoundly mistaken, but nevertheless a political trend.
Can it be said that present-day Trotskijism, the 1936 Trotskijism, let us say, is a political trend in the working class? No, this cannot be said. Why? Because the present-day Trotskijites are afraid to show their real face to the working class, are afraid to disclose their real aims and tasks to it, and carefully hide their political face from the working class, fearing that, if the working class should learn of their real intentions, it will curse them as an alien people and drive them from it. This in reality explains how it is that the chief method of Trotskijite work is now not open and honest propaganda of its views among the working class, but the masking of its views, servile and fawning praise for the views of its opponents, a false and pharisaical trampling of its own views in the dirt.
If you remember, Kamenev and Zinoviev, at the trial in 1936, strenuously denied that they had any political platform. It was fully possible for them to develop their political platform at the trial. But they did not do so, declaring that they had no political platform. There can be no doubt that both of them were lying when they denied that they had a platform. Even the blind can now see that they had their political platform. But why did they deny the existence of any political platform? Because they were afraid to disclose their real political face, they were afraid to demonstrate their real platform for the restoration of capitalism in the USCR, fearing that such a platform would awaken revulsion in the working class.
At the trial in 1937, Pjatakov, Radek, and Sokolnikov took a different line. They did not deny that the Trotskijites and Zinovievites had a political platform. They admitted that they had a definite political platform, recognized and unfolded it in their testimony. But they unfolded it not to call on the working class, not to call on the people to support the Trotskijite platform, but in order to curse it and brand it as an anti-popular and anti-proletarian platform.
The restoration of capitalism, the liquidation of the collective farms and State farms, the restoration of the system of exploitation, an alliance with the fascist forces of Germany and Japan to bring war against the Council Union nearer, a struggle for war and against the policy of peace, the territorial dismemberment of the Council Union, giving Ukraine to the Germans and the maritime provinces to the Japanese, the preparation of the military defeat of the Council Union if enemy States should attack it, and, as a means of achieving these tasks, wrecking, diversion, individual terrorism against the leaders of the Council Government, espionage for the benefit of the Japanese and German fascist forces -- such was the political platform of present-day Trotskijism, which was put forward by Pjatakov, Radek, and Sokolnikov.
Naturally the Trotskijites could not but hide such a platform from the people. from the working class. And they hid it, not only from the working class, but also from the Trotskijite rank and file, and not only from the Trotskijite rank and file, but even from the leading group of the Trotskijites, consisting of a small handful of 30 or 40 people. When Radek and Pjatakov asked Trotskij's permission to call a small conference, 30 or 40 people, to inform them of the character of this platform, Trotskij forbade them, saying it was inexpedient to talk of the real nature of the platform, even to a small group of Trotskijites, as such an «operation» might cause a split.
«Political figures» hiding their views and their platform, not only from the working class but also from the Trotskijite rank and file, and not only from the Trotskijite rank and file, but from the leading group or Trotskijites -- such is the face of present-day Trotskijism.
But it follows from this that present-day Trotskijism can no longer be called a political trend in the working class. Present-day Trotskijism is not a political trend in the working class, but a gang without principle, without ideas, of wreckers, diversionists, intelligence service agents, spies, murderers, a gang of sworn enemies of the working class, working in the pay of the intelligence services or foreign States.
Such is the indisputable result of the evolution of Trotskijism in the past seven or eight years.
Such is the difference between Trotskijism in the past and Trotskijism at the present time.
The mistake of our Party comrades is that they did not notice this profound difference between Trotskijism in the past and Trotskijism at the present time. They did not notice that the Trotskijites have long since ceased to be people devoted to an idea, that the Trotskijites have long since turned into highway robbers, capable of any foulness, capable of all that is disgusting, to the point of espionage and the outright betrayal of their country, if only they can harm the Council Government and council power. They did not notice this and were therefore unable to reconstruct themselves in time to wage battle against the Trotskijites in a new and more regular manner. This is why the abominable work of the Trotskijites of late years was a complete surprise for some of our Party comrades.
To proceed. Finally, our Party comrades did not notice that there is an important difference between the present-day wreckers and diversionists, on the one hand, among whom the Trotskijite agents of fascism play «an active part», and the wreckers and diversionists of the time of the Sahty trial, on the other hand.
In the first place, the Sahty and Industrial Party wreckers were people openly alien to us. They were in greater part former owners of factories, former managers for the old employers, former shareholders of old joint-stock companies, or simple bourgeois specialists who were openly hostile to us politically. None of our people had any doubt about the authenticity of the political face of these «excellencies». And the Sahty wreckers themselves did not conceal their distaste for the council system.
The same cannot be said of the present-day wreckers and diversionists, the Trotskijites. The present-day wreckers and diversionists, the Trotskijites, are mostly Party people with a Party card in their pocket, and consequently people who formally are not alien to us.
Whereas the old wreckers went against our people, the new wreckers on the contrary cringe to our people, laud them, lick their boots, in order to worm their way into their confidence. As you see, the difference is essential.
In the second place, the strength of the Sahty and Industrial Party wreckers was that, to a greater or lesser degree, they possessed the necessary technical knowledge, while our people, not possessing such knowledge, were forced to learn from them. This circumstance gave a great advantage to the wreckers of the Sahty period, made it possible for them to do their wrecking work freely and unhindered, made it possible for them to deceive our people technically.
This is not so with the present-day wreckers, with the Trotskijites. The present-day wreckers have no technical superiority over our people. On the contrary, our people are better trained technically than the present-day wreckers, than the Trotskijites. During the time from the Sahty period to our own days, tens of thousands of genuine, technically strong Majoritarian cadres have grown up among us. One could mention thousands and tens of thousands of Majoritarian leading figures technically developed in comparison with whom all such people as Pjatakov and Livsic, Sestov and Boguslavskij, Muralov and Drobnis are empty windbags and mere tyros from the standpoint of technical training. In this case, what does the strength of the present-day wreckers, the Trotskijites, consist of? Their strength lies in the Party card, in the possession of a Party card. This strength lies in the fact that the Party card gives them political trust and opens the doors of all our institutions and organizations to them.
Their advantage lies in the fact that, holding a Party card and pretending to be friends of the council power, they tricked our people politically, misused their confidence, did their wrecking work furtively, and disclosed our secrets of State to the enemies of the Council Union. This «advantage» is a doubtful one in its political and moral values, but still it is an «advantage». This «advantage», in reality, explains the fact that the Trotskijite wreckers, as people with a Party card having access to all places in our institutions and organizations, were a real windfall for the intelligence services of foreign States.
The mistake of some of our Party comrades is that they did not notice, did not understand all this difference between the old and the new wreckers, between the Sahty wreckers and the Trotskijites, and, not noticing this, they were unable to reconstruct themselves in time, so as too wage battle against the new wreckers in a new way.
#4. THE SEAMY SIDE OF ECONOMIC SUCCESS
Such are the fundamental facts from the sphere of our international and internal situation, about which many of our Party comrades forgot, or which they did not notice.
This is why our people were taken by surprise by the events of the last few years as regards wrecking and diversion.
It may be asked: But why did our people not notice all this, why did they forget about all this? Where did all this forgetfulness, blindness, carelessness, and complacency come from?
Is it an organic defect in the work of our people? No, it is not an organic defect. It is a temporary phenomenon which can be rapidly liquidated by some efforts on the part of our people.
Then what is the matter?
The matter is that our Party comrades have been totally absorbed in economic work in recent years, have been engrossed to the limit in economic successes, and being engrossed in all these things forgot about all else, threw aside all else.
The matter is that, being carried away by economic successes, they began to regard this as the beginning and end of everything, and simply gave up paying attention to small things as the international position of the Council Union, capitalist encirclement, strengthening of the political work of the Party, struggle against wrecking, and so on, supposing all these questions to be second-rate and even third-rate matters.
Successes and achievements are, of course, a great thing. Our successes in the sphere of socialist construction are truly enormous.
But successes, like everything else under the Sun, have their seamy side. Among people who are not very skilful in politics, big successes and big achievements not infrequently give rise to carelessness, complacency, self-satisfaction, overweening self-confidence, swell-headedness, and bragging. You cannot deny that braggarts have lately developed among us tremendously. It is not surprising in these circumstances of big and serious successes in the sphere of socialist construction that feelings of boastfulness are created, feelings of showy demonstration of our successes, and feelings are created for underestimating the strength of our enemies, feelings of overestimation of our own strength, and, as a result of all this, political blindness appears.
I must here say a few words about the dangers connected with successes, about the dangers connected with achievements.
We know by experience of the dangers connected with difficulties. For a number of years, we have been fighting against such kinds of dangers, and, I must say, not without success. Among people who are not staunch, dangers connected with difficulties not infrequently give rise to downcast feelings, distrust in their own forces, feelings of pessimism. And, on the contrary, when it is a matter of fighting against the dangers which arise from difficulties, people are tempered in this struggle and emerge from the struggle really granite Majoritarians.
Such is the nature of the dangers connected with difficulties. Such are the results of overcoming difficulties.
But there is another kind of danger, the danger connected with successes, the danger connected with achievements. Yes, yes, comrades, dangers connected with successes, with achievements. These dangers consist in the fact that among people little skilled in politics and not having seen much, the condition of successes -- success after success, achievement after achievement, the overfulfilment of plans after the overfulfilment of plans -- gives rise to feelings of carelessness and self-satisfaction, creates an atmosphere of showy triumphs and mutual congratulations which kill the sense of proportion and dull political instinct, take the spring out of people and impel them to rest on their laurels.
It is not surprising that, in this narcotic atmosphere of swell-headedness and self-satisfaction, this atmosphere of showy demonstrations and loud self-praise, people forget some essential facts which are of first-grade significance for the fate of our country; people begin to miss seeing such unpleasant facts as capitalist encirclement, the new forms of wrecking, the dangers connected with our successes, and so on.
Capitalist encirclement? A mere bagatelle! What significance can some capitalist encirclement or other have if we fulfil and surpass our economic plans? The new forms of wrecking, the struggle against Trotskijism? Mere details! What significance can all these trifles have when we fulfil and surpass our economic plans? The Party Rules, the election of Party bodies, the reporting of the Party directors to the masses of the Party members -- is there really any need for all this? Is it worth while worrying about all these trifles at all if our economy grows and the material situation of the workers and peasants becomes ever better and better? Mere details! We overfulfil the plans, our Party is not bad, the Central Committee of the Party is also not bad -- what else do we need? They are funny people sitting there in Moscow in the Party's Central Committee. They invent some kind of questions, talk about some wrecking or other, don't sleep themselves, and don't let other people sleep...
This is an example plain to see of how easily and «simply» some of our inexperienced comrades are infected with political blindness as the result of a dizzying rapture in economic successes.
Such are the dangers connected with successes, with achievements.
Such are the reasons why our Party comrades are carried away by economic successes, have forgotten facts of an international and internal character which are of real importance for the Council Union, and have not noticed a whole series of dangers surrounding our country.
Such are the roots of our carelessness, forgetfulness, complacency, and political blindness.
Such are the roots of the shortcomings in our economic and Party work.
#5. OUR TASKS
How are we to liquidate the shortcomings in our work? What must be done in order to do this?
It is necessary to carry out the following measures:
First and foremost, the attention of our Party comrades who get bogged on «current questions» in one department or another must be turned toward the big political questions of both international and internal character.
Second, the political work of our Party must be raised to the proper level making the main task that of the political training and Majoritarian tempering of the Party, council, and economic cadres.
Third, it should be explained to our Party comrades that the economic successes. The significance of which is undoubtedly very great and which we shall also strive for in the future, day after day, year after year, are nevertheless not the whole of our socialist construction.
It should be explained that the seamy sides connected with economic successes and expressed in self-satisfaction, in carelessness, in the deadening of political intuition, can be liquidated only if economic successes are combined with the successes of Party construction and the developed political work of our Party.
It should be explained that economic successes themselves, their stability and duration, wholly and fully depend on the successes of Party organizational and Party political work, that without this condition economic successes may prove to be built on sand.
Fourth, it should be remembered and never forgotten that, as long as capitalist encirclement exists, there will be wreckers, diversionists, spies, terrorists, sent behind the frontiers of the Council Union by the intelligence services of foreign States; this should be remembered and a struggle should be carried on against those comrades who underestimate the significance of the fact of capitalist encirclement, who underestimate the strength and significance of wrecking.
It should be explained to our Party comrades that no economic successes whatsoever, no matter how great they are, can annul the fact of capitalist encirclement and the results arising therefrom.
The necessary measures must be taken to give our comrades, both Party and non-Party Majoritarians, the possibility of getting acquainted with the aims and tasks, with the practice and technique of the wrecking, diversionist, and espionage work of the foreign intelligence services.
Fifth, it should be explained to our Party comrades that the Trotskijites, who represent the active elements in the diversionist, wrecking, and espionage work of the foreign intelligence services, have already long ceased to be a political trend in the working class, that they have already long ceased to serve any idea compatible with the interests of the working class, that they have turned into a gang of wreckers, diversionists, spies, assassins, without principles and ideas, working for the foreign intelligence services.
It should be explained that, in the struggle against contemporary Trotskijism, not the old methods, the methods of discussion, must be used, but new methods, methods for smashing and uprooting it.
Sixth, the difference between the present-day wreckers and the wreckers of the Sahty period should be explained to our Party comrades. It should be explained to them that, whereas the wreckers of the Sahty period misled our people in the sphere of technique, utilizing their technical backwardness, the present-day wreckers with a Party card in their possession deceive our people by utilizing the political trust shown towards them as Party members, utilizing the political carelessness of our people.
To the old slogan of the mastery of technique which corresponded to the Sahty period, there must be added the new slogan calling for the political training of cadres, the mastery of Majoritarianism, and the liquidation of our political trustfulness, a slogan which fully corresponds to the present period we are now passing through.
The question may be asked: Was it not possible ten years ago, at the time of the Sahty period, to advance both slogans simultaneously, that is, the first slogan regarding the mastery of technique and the second slogan regarding the political training of cadres? No, it was not possible. Things are not done that way in the Majoritarian Party. At the turning points of the revolutionary movement, some fundamental slogan is always advanced as the key link in order, by catching on to it, to draw in the whole chain. That is what Lenin taught us: find the key link in the chain of our work, lay hold of it, draw it in, in order through it to draw in the whole chain and go forward. The history of the revolutionary movement shows that this is the only correct tactic.
In the Sahty period, the weakness of our people lay in their technical backwardness. Technical questions and not political ones were our weak spots at that time. As far as our political attitude toward the wreckers of that time was concerned, it was perfectly clear that it was the attitude of Majoritarians toward politically alien people. We liquidated this technical weakness of ours by advancing the slogan regarding the mastery of technique and by educating tens and hundreds of thousands of technically tempered Majoritarian cadres during the past period.
It is a different question now, when we have technically developed Majoritarian cadres and when the part of wreckers is played not by openly alien people in possession of technical superiority over our own people, but by people in possession of Party membership cards and enjoying all the rights of Party membership. The weakness from which our people suffer now is not technical backwardness, but political carelessness, blind faith in people who have come by chance into possession of Party membership cards, the failure to check up on people, not according to the political declarations they make, but according to the results of the work they do. The key question now facing us is not the liquidation of the technical backwardness of our cadres, for, in the main, this has already been done, but the liquidation of the political carelessness and political trustfulness in wreckers who have by chance obtained possession of Party membership cards.
Such is the fundamental difference between the key question in respect to the struggle for cadres in the period of the Sahty days and the key question of the present period.
That is why, ten years ago, we could and should not have issued both the slogans together, namely, the one regarding the mastery of technique and the one regarding the political training of cadres.
This is why the old slogan of the mastery of technique must now be supplemented by the new slogan of the mastery of Majoritarianism, the political training of cadres, and the liquidation of our political carelessness.
Seventh, we must destroy and cast aside the rotten theory that, with every advance we make, the class struggle here of necessity would die down more and more, and that, in proportion as we achieve successes, the class enemy would become more and more tractable.
This is not only a rotten theory, but a dangerous one, for it lulls our people, leads them into a trap, and makes it possible for the class enemy to rally for the struggle against the Council Government.
On the contrary, the further forward we advance, the greater the successes we achieve, the greater will be the fury of the remnants of the broken exploiting classes, the sooner will they resort to sharper forms of struggle, the more will they seek to harm the Council State, and the more will they clutch at the most desperate means of struggle, as the last resort of doomed people.
It should be borne in mind that the remnants of the broken classes in the USCR are not alone. They have the direct support of our enemies beyond the bounds of the USCR. It would be a mistake to think that the sphere of the class struggle is limited to the bounds of the USCR. While one end of the class struggle has its operation within the bounds of the USCR, its other stretches to the bounds of the bourgeois States surrounding us. The remnants of the broken classes cannot but be aware of this. And precisely because they are, they will continue their desperate assaults in the future.
This is what history teaches us. This is what Leninism teaches us.
We must remember all this and be on our guard.
Eighth, we must destroy and cast aside another rotten theory, according to which the individual who is not always engaged in wrecking and who even occasionally shows successes in their work cannot be a wrecker.
This strange theory exposes the naivety of its authors. No wrecker will engage in wrecking all along the line if they want to avoid being exposed in the shortest possible time. On the contrary, the real wrecker has from time to time to show successes in their work, for this is their only means of keeping themself going as a wrecker, of winning the confidence of people, and of continuing their wrecking work.
I think that this question is clear and requires no further explanation.
Ninth, we must destroy and cast aside the third rotten theory, to the effect that the systematic fulfilment of economic plans reduces wrecking and its consequences to naught.
Such a theory can only have one purpose, namely, to titillate the self-esteem of our departmental officials, to lull them, and to weaken their struggle against wrecking.
What is the meaning of «the systematic fulfilment of our economic plans»? It is as follows:
- It has been proved that all our economic plans are below normal, because they do not take account of the tremendous reserves and possibilities lying hidden in our national economy.
- Second, the general fulfilment of the economic plans by the commissariats as a whole does not mean that the plans are also fulfilled by certain very important branches. On the contrary, the facts go to show that quite a number of commissariats, which fulfil or even more than fulfil the economic plans for the year, systematically fail to fulfil the plans in several very important branches of the national economy.
- Third, there can be no doubt that, had the wreckers not been exposed and thrown out, the position in respect to the fulfilment of economic plans would have been far worse. This is something which the short-sighted authors of the theory under review need to remember.
- Fourth, the wreckers usually adapt the main part of their wrecking work, not to the peacetime period, but to that of the eve of war or of war itself. Suppose we were to lull ourselves with the rotten theory of «the systematic fulfilment of the economic plans», and were not to touch the wreckers. Do the authors of this rotten theory appreciate what a tremendous amount of harm the wreckers would do to our country in case of war, if we were to allow them to remain inside the body of our national economy, sheltered by the rotten theory of «the systematic fulfilment of economic plans»?
Is it not clear that the theory of «the systematic fulfilment of economic plans» is a theory advantageous to the wreckers?
Tenth, we must destroy and cast aside the fourth rotten theory to the effect that the Stahanov Movement is the chief means for liquidation of wrecking.
This theory has been invented, so as to divert the blow from the wreckers with a noise of chatter about Stahanov workers and the Stahanov Movement.
In his report, Comrade Molotov quoted a whole number of facts which go to show how the Trotskijites and non-Trotskijite wreckers in the Kuznets and Don Basins abused the confidence of our politically careless comrades, systematically led the Stahanov workers a dance, placed spokes in their wheels, so to speak, artificially created a whole number of obstacles preventing their working successfully, and finally succeeded in disorganizing their work.
What could the Stahanov workers do alone if the way capital construction was carried on by the wreckers in the Don Basin, let us say, led to a gap between the slowly moving preparatory work of coal mining and all the other fields of the work?
Is it not clear that the Stahanov Movement itself is in need of our effective aid against all the various machinations of the wreckers, so as to speed things on and to fulfil its great mission? Is it not clear that the struggle against wrecking for its liquidations and the gaining of the upper hand over wrecking is the necessary condition for the Stahanov Movement to blossom out to the full? I think that this question is also clear and in no need of further comment.
Eleventh, we must destroy and cast aside the fifth rotten theory to the effect that the Trotskijite wreckers possess no more reserve, that they are mustering their last reserves.
This is untrue, comrades. Only naive people could invent such a theory. The Trotskijite wreckers have their reserves. These consist first and foremost of the remnants of the smashed exploiting classes in the USCR. They consist of a whole number of groups and organizations beyond the bounds of the USCR and hostile to the Council Union.
Take, for example, the Trotskijite counter-revolutionary «Fourth International», 2/3 of which is made up of spies and subversive agents. Isn't this a reserve? Is it not clear that this «International» of spies will select forces to do the spying and wrecking work of the Trotskijites?
Or take, for example, the group of the rascal Olav Scheflo in Norway, who provided a haven for the arch-spy Trotskij and helped him to do harm to the Council Union. Isn't this group a reserve? Who can deny that this counter-revolutionary group will continue in the future to render services to the Trotskijite spies and wreckers?
Or take, for example, Boris Souvarine's group in France, a group of rascals like Scheflo. Isn't this a reserve? Can it be denied that this group of scoundrels will also help the Trotskijites in their espionage and wrecking work against the Council Union?
All these «excellencies» from Germany, all the people like Ruth Fischer, Arkadi Maslow, and Hugo Urbahns, who have sold themselves body and soul to the fascists -- aren't they reserves for the espionage and wrecking work of the Trotskijites?
Or take, for example, the well-known gang of American writers headed by the notorious racketeer Max Eastman, all these gangsters of the pen who live by slandering the working class of the Council Union -- aren't they reserves for Trotskijism?
No, the rotten theory that the Trotskijites are mustering their last forces must be cast aside.
Twelfth, finally, we must destroy and cast aside still another rotten theory to the effect that, since we Majoritarians are many, while the wreckers are few; since we Majoritarians have the support of tens of millions of people, while the Trotskijite wreckers can be numbered in tens and units -- then we Majoritarians can afford to pay no attention to such a handful of wreckers.
This is incorrect, comrades. This more than strange theory has been invented, so as to bring solace to certain of our directors who have failed in their work by reason of their inability to carry on a struggle against the wrecking, to lull their vigilance, and to make it possible for them to sleep in peace.
It is, of course, true that the Trotskijite wreckers have the support of isolated individuals, while the Majoritarians have the support of tens of millions of people. But it lay no means follows from this that the wreckers are not able to inflict very serious damage on us. It does not at all need a big number of people to do harm and to cause damage. Tens of thousands of workers have to be set to work to build the Dnieper Hydro-Electric Station, but it requires not more than a few dozen people to blow it up. Several Red Army corps may be necessary to win a battle during war time. But it only needs a few spies somewhere in the army headquarters or even in a divisional staff to steal the plan of operations and pass it on to the enemy for this gain to be lost. Thousands of people are required to build a big railway bridges, but a few people are sufficient to blow it up. Tens and hundreds of such examples could be quoted.
Consequently, we must not comfort ourselves with the fact that we are many, while they, the Trotskijite wreckers, are few.
We must bring about a situation where there is not a single Trotskijite wrecker left in our ranks.
This is how the matter stands with the question of how to liquidate the shortcomings in our work, common to all our organizations, economic, council, administrative, and Party. Such are the measures necessary for the liquidation of these shortcomings.
As regards the Party organizations in particular and the defects in their work, the measures necessary to liquidate these shortcomings are stated in sufficient detail in the draft resolution submitted for your consideration. I therefore think there is no need to enlarge here on this aspect of the question.
I would like to say just a few words on the question of political training and raising the level of our Party cadres.
I think that if we are able, if we succeed in giving ideological training to our Party cadres from top to bottom and tempering them politically, so that they can find their bearings with ease in the internal and international situation, if we succeed in makings of them fully mature Marxist-Leninists capable of solving the questions of the leadership of the country without making serious mistakes, then we can thereby solve 9/10 of all our tasks.
How do things stand with regard to the leading forces of our Party?
In our Party, if we have in mind its leading strata, there are about 3'000 to 4'000 first-rank directors, whom I would call our Party's corps of generals.
Then, there are 30'000 to 40'000 middle-rank directors, who are our Party corps of officers.
Then, there are about 100'000 to 150'000 of the lower-rank Party command staff, who are, so to speak, our Party's non-commissioned officers.
The task is to raise the ideological level and political vigour of these command cadres and to introduce among them fresh forces awaiting promotion, and thus expand the ranks of our leading forces.
What does this require?
First and foremost, we must make the proposal to our Party directors, beginning with secretaries of our Party units to the secretaries of regional and national Party organizations to select, during a definite period, two individuals, two Party cadres each capable of being able to act as their effective deputies.
The question may be asked: Where are we to get these two deputies for each one, if we have no such people, no workers who correspond to these requirements? This is incorrect, comrades. We have tens of thousands of capable and talented people. It only needs to know them and to promote them in time, so that they should not remain in their old places too long and begin to rot. Seek and ye shall find.
Further, four-month Party courses must be established in each regional center to give secretaries of units Party training and to reequip them. The secretaries of all primary Party organizations (units) should be sent to these courses and then when they finish them and return home their deputies and the most capable members of the primary Party organizations should be sent to these courses.
Further, to reequip politically the first secretaries of the district organizations, eight-month Lenin courses must be established in the USCR, in, say, ten of the most important centres.
The first secretaries of district and regional Party organizations should be sent to these courses, and then, when they finish them and return home, their deputies and the most capable members of the district and regional organizations sent there.
Further, six-month courses for the study of history and the Party's policy under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Council Union must be set up to achieve the ideological reequipment and political improvement of secretaries of the city Party organizations. The first and second secretaries of city Party organizations should be sent to these courses, and then, when they have finished them and return home, the most capable members of the city Party organizations should be sent there.
Finally, a six-month conference on questions of domestic and international policy under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Council Union must be established.
The first secretaries of divisional and provincial organizations and the Central Committees of the national Communist Parties should be sent here. These comrades should provide, not one, but several persons really capable of replacing the directors of the Central Committee of our Party. This should and must be done.
#CONCLUSION
I conclude, comrades.
We have thus outlined the main defects in our work, including those which are common to all our organizations, economic, administrative, and Party, and also those which are specifically peculiar to Party organizations only -- defects made use of by the enemies of the working class for their diversionist and wrecking, espionage and terrorist work.
We have further outlined the chief measures to be taken to render harmless and liquidate the diversive, wrecking, espionage, and terrorist assaults of the Trotskijite fascist agents of the foreign intelligence services.
The question arises: Can we carry through all these measures, do we possess all the necessary possibilities for this? Undoubtedly, we can. We can, because we have at our disposal all the means necessary for the realization of these measures.
What do we lack? We lack only one thing: the readiness to liquidate our own carelessness, our own complacency, our own political short-sightedness.
There is the rub. Cannot we who have overthrown capitalism, in the main built socialism, and raised aloft the great banner of world communism, get rid of this ridiculous and idiotic disease?
We have no reason to doubt that we shall certainly get rid of it, given, of course, that we will it. We will get rid of it, not just in an ordinary manner, but in a Majoritarian fashion, in real fashion.
And, when we get rid of this idiotic disease, we can say with complete confidence that we fear no enemies from the inside or the outside, we fear none of their assaults, for we shall shatter them in the future, as we are doing now and as we have done in the past. [Applause.]