The USSR. communist party of the soviet union

The Union of Communist Parties - CPSU (SKP-CPSU) is a voluntary international public association of communist parties operating in the states formed on the territory of the USSR. Its main goals are the protection of the rights and social gains of the working people, the preservation and restoration of the lost foundations of socialism, the revival of all-round ties and friendship of the Soviet peoples, and the re-establishment of their state union on a voluntary basis.

After the unconstitutional ban on the activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in August 1991, the communists fought for its restoration throughout the entire territory of the Soviet Union. In June 1992, an initiative group of members of the Central Committee of the CPSU held a Plenum, at which M. Gorbachev was expelled from the party, the activities of the Politburo of the Central Committee were suspended, and a decision was made to convene an All-Union Party Conference. On October 10, 1992, the XX All-Union Conference of the CPSU was held in Moscow, which confirmed the decisions of the emergency Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, considered the drafts of the new Program and the Charter of the CPSU, and decided to prepare the XXIX Congress of the CPSU.

Almost simultaneously with these events, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation considered the petition of 37 people's deputies of the RSFSR to check the constitutionality of the decrees of President B. Yeltsin, who dissolved the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR. The court ruled that the suspension of the activities of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, its primary organizations formed on a territorial basis, was inconsistent with the Russian Constitution, but upheld the dissolution of the leading structures of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR. Orders on the transfer of property of the CPSU to the executive authorities were recognized as legal only in relation to that part of the property managed by the party, which was state property, and unconstitutional in relation to that part of it, which was either the property of the CPSU, or was under its jurisdiction.

On March 26-27, 1993, the 29th Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow. 416 delegates from party organizations of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, Transnistria and South Ossetia took part in its work. Based on the real conditions of the activities of the communist parties in the republics of the former USSR, the congress temporarily, until the restoration of the renewed USSR, reorganized the CPSU into the Union of Communist Parties - the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SKP-CPSU), adopted its Program and Charter, elected a Council headed by Oleg Semenovich Shenin (1937 -2009). The congress proclaimed the SKP - CPSU the legal successor of the CPSU, and the communist parties operating on the territory of the USSR - the legal successors of the republican organizations of the CPSU.

In 1993 - 1995 communist parties were restored in all the former republics of the USSR, except for Turkmenistan. In a number of republics, unfortunately, several communist parties and movements arose on the basis of the membership of the CPSU. Thus, by July 1995, 26 communist parties and organizations were operating in the post-Soviet space. 22 of them, uniting 1 million 300 thousand communists, became part of the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU. Among them are the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Russian Communist Workers' Party, the Communist Party of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Union of Communists of Ukraine, the Movement for Democracy, Social Progress and Justice in Belarus, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, the Communist Party of Workers of Transnistria, the Communist Party of South Ossetia, United Communist Party of Georgia, Communist Party of Abkhazia, Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Union of Workers of Armenia, Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Communist Party of Tajikistan, Communist Party of Uzbekistan, Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, Communist Party of Estonia, Union of Communists of Latvia, Communist Party of Lithuania.

On July 1 - 2, 1995, the XXX Congress of the UCP-CPSU was held in Moscow. It was attended by 462 delegates from all communist parties and organizations that are part of the SKP - CPSU. The Congress heard the Political Report of the Council and the Control and Revision Commission of the UPC-CPSU, adopted a new version of the Program, changes and additions to the Charter of the UPC-CPSU, approved the Regulations on the Control and Revision Commission, elected a new composition of the Council and the CRC of the UPC-CPSU.

The Supreme Forum of Soviet Communists confirmed the status of the SKP - CPSU as a voluntary international association of communist parties operating in states throughout the Soviet Union and adhering to uniform program and statutory principles. He set the task of launching a mass movement among the broad strata of the people for the restoration of the Union Socialist State, providing the necessary assistance to the activities of the Committee of the Peoples of the USSR, and waging an offensive struggle against manifestations of aggressive nationalism and chauvinism.

In the period between the XXIX and XXXI congresses of the UCP-CPSU, the Communist Party of Tatarstan determined its status as a regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Instead of the "Movement for Democracy, Social Progress and Justice in Belarus", the Communist Party of Belarus joined the UPC-CPSU. The Communist Party of Armenia and another Communist Party working under special conditions were accepted into the ranks of the Union. On the eve of the XXXI Congress, the UPC-CPSU included 19 communist parties with a decisive vote, one party (the Russian Party of Communists) and two movements (the Union of Communists of Ukraine and the Union of Workers of Armenia) with an advisory vote.

The XXXI Congress of the UCP-CPSU was held in Moscow on October 31 - November 1, 1998. 482 delegates were sent to it from 20 republican parties and 2 public associations operating in all states on the territory of the USSR. The Union of Communist Parties for the first time held a congress as a public organization officially registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus. The congress considered the following agenda:

1) Political report of the UPC-CPSU Council. 2) Report of the Control and Auditing Commission of the UPC-CPSU. 3) Elections of the Council and the Control and Audit Commission of the UPC-CPSU.

On the issues discussed, the congress adopted a number of resolutions and resolutions. The delegates approved a new version of the Charter of the UPC-CPSU, adopted a Political Statement, resolutions in defense of the memory of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, against the political persecution of communists and activists of the labor movement, against the aggressive plans of NATO.

The first joint Plenum of the Council and the Committee of the UPC-CPSU again elected O.S. Shenin, Vice-Chairmen - Secretaries of the Council of the UPC-CPSU A.M. Bagemsky, P.I. Georgadze, E.I. Kopysheva, E.K. Ligacheva, I.V. Lopatina, K.A. Nikolaev, A.G. Chekhoeva, A.A. Shabanova, Sh.D. Shabdolov.

However, by 2000 the coordinating role of the governing bodies of the UPC-CPSU was seriously weakened, the principle of collective leadership was constantly violated. Moreover, in July 2000, the Chairman of the Council and three of his deputies held the so-called “constituent congress of the Union Communist Party of Russia and Belarus” (CPS) without the decision of the Council of the UPC-CPSU. The Communist Parties of the Russian Federation and Belarus did not send their delegates to this event. In fact, the creation of another Communist Party on the territory of Russia was proclaimed. The sectarian separation from the masses, the passion for ultra-leftist phrases with insignificant results of practical activity, and many other political mistakes did not allow the group of former leaders of the UPC-CPSU to submit to the will of the majority. It became clear that their real goal was a direct attack on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation as a center of attraction for communist forces recognized by all fraternal parties on the territory of the destroyed Soviet Union.

On January 20, 2001, at the request of the majority of the Communist Parties, which unite in their ranks more than 90 percent of the Communists of the Union, meetings of the Executive Committee and the Plenum of the Council of the UPC-CPSU were held in full accordance with the Charter. The Plenum of the Council stated that the creation of the “Union Communist Party” outside the framework of the UCP-CPSU and without the participation of the Communist Parties of Russia and Belarus inevitably leads to a split in the unified communist movement in the post-Soviet space. The former Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, in essence, placed himself outside the Union.

The Plenum unanimously elected the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov as the Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, thus inscribing a bright page in the history of the Union and bringing all its activities to a qualitatively new level. The January (2001) Plenum of the UCP-CPSU Council averted the threat of destruction of the Union of Communist Parties by adopting the Resolution "On strengthening the Union of Communist Parties - CPSU and increasing the effectiveness of its leadership."

The next, XXXII Congress of the UCP-CPSU was held on October 27, 2001 in Moscow. 243 delegates from the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, the Communist Party of Armenia, the Communist Party of Belarus, the United Communist Party of Georgia, the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party of the Republic of South Ossetia and four communist parties working in special conditions.

The Congress listened to the political report of the Council and the report of the Control and Revision Commission of the UPC-CPSU, information on changes in the Charter of the organization, adopted a Resolution on the political report, an Appeal to the fraternal peoples, resolutions “On the current stage of globalization” and “On the threat of world war”. The governing bodies of the UPC-CPSU were elected. The organizational Plenum of the Council of the UPC-CPSU confirmed the authority of G.A. Zyuganov as Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU and G.G. Ponomarenko (KPU) - as Chairman of the CRC.

The long overdue changes in the governing core of the UPC-CPSU Council had a positive impact on the style and methods of its work. In the period between the XXXII and XXXIII Congresses, meetings of the Secretariat, the Executive Committee and the Plenums of the Council became regular, a number of major international events were held - the I and II Congresses of the peoples of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, the congresses of the peoples of the Caucasus and the Central Asian region, the round table "Struggle of fraternal peoples for the restoration of the Union State - the path to the revival of the country, repelling external threats, and improving the well-being of people."

Due attention was paid to the education of the Komsomol shift. After the catastrophe of 1991, the VLKSM was disbanded by quick-witted chameleon functionaries, who quickly repainted themselves in the colors of their new owners. But already from the beginning of 1992, the process of reunification of Komsomol organizations began to gain momentum, culminating in the XXIII (restoration) Congress of the All-Union Leninist Komsomol. However, the organization, for a number of reasons, was unable to adapt to the new conditions, to rally the communist youth of the former Soviet republics. The formation of a new form of association took several years, which led to the holding in April 2001 of the XXV Congress of the Komsomol in Kyiv. The congress transformed the VLKSM into the International Union of Komsomol Organizations - the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union. The IUCN-VLKSM includes the Komsomol of the Russian Federation, the Komsomol of Ukraine, the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, the Komsomol of Moldova, the Komsomol of Georgia, the Communist Youth Organization of Armenia, the Komsomol of Azerbaijan, the Komsomol of Kyrgyzstan, the Union of Communist Youth of South Ossetia, the Komsomol of Transnistria.

The UPC-CPSU approached its XXXIII Congress as an authoritative international organization that has preserved the spirit of creative Marxism-Leninism, proletarian internationalism and party camaraderie. 140 delegates from 16 fraternal communist parties were elected to the congress convened in Moscow on April 16, 2005. By unanimous decision, mandate No. 1 was issued in the name of the founder of the Communist Party, V.I. Lenin, mandate No. 2 - to his faithful comrade-in-arms, Supreme Commander of the Great Victory of the Soviet people over fascism I.V. Stalin.

The congress heard the political report of the Council, which was made by G.A. Zyuganov, and the report of the Deputy Chairman of the UPC-CPSU Committee of Committees G.M. Benova. As a result of the discussion of the reports, the Congress adopted a Resolution and a Statement addressed to the ruling regimes of Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Transnistria, Russia and Turkmenistan demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to the persecution of citizens for political reasons. The XXXIII Congress of the UCP-CPSU elected a new Council of 65 representatives of all fraternal Communist Parties, a Control and Audit Commission of 16 people. At the congress, a new principle of membership in the Union and the formation of its governing bodies was established: "One state - one communist party."

In 2005 - 2008 at the meetings of the Executive Committee of the Council of the UPC-CPSU and the Plenums of the Council, issues related to the aggravation of the socio-political situation in Georgia and Ukraine, the implementation of measures in support of the Belarusian people and solidarity with the activities of the President of Belarus A.G. Lukashenka, organizing a rebuff to anti-communist attacks in PACE, celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Great October Revolution, providing assistance to fraternal parties during election campaigns.

On March 27, 2008, the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU celebrated its 15th anniversary. At a round table in the editorial office of the Pravda newspaper, it was stated that the ideological commonality and unity of goals allow the communist parties in the CIS republics to interact effectively, despite the huge differences in their working conditions. The Moldavian comrades came to power in a peaceful, democratic way. In Belarus, the Communist Party supports the patriotic and socially oriented course of the President. At the same time, in the states of the Baltics and Central Asia, the communists are actually fighting underground against the ruling fascist and semi-feudal regimes. The leaders of the Lithuanian Communist Party M.M. Burokyavichyus (12 years old), Yu.Yu. Ermalavičius (8 years old), Yu.Yu. Kuolialis (6 years old). For almost a decade, the leader of the Communists of Turkmenistan, S.S., has been in prison. Rakhimov. But nowhere and no one will be able to kill the communist idea. In 9 out of 19 state formations on the territory of the destroyed USSR, the communist parties have their own factions in parliaments. The ranks of fighters against capitalist genocide, for social justice and democracy are constantly growing.

On October 24, 2009, Moscow again hosted a multinational family of communist fraternal parties - the XXXIV Congress of the UCP-CPSU opened. It was attended by 142 delegates, 114 guests and invitees. Among them are veterans of the party, deputies of the parliaments of the CIS countries and far abroad, representatives of the presidential administration and the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, youth activists, and the patriotic community. More than 20 federal and foreign mass media were accredited.

The Congress heard and discussed the reports of the Council and the CRC of the UPC-CPSU, as well as the report "On Clarifications and Additions to the Program of the UPC-CPSU". The work of the governing bodies was found to be satisfactory, changes in the Program of the Union were approved. In addition to the final Resolution, the XXXIV Congress of the UCP-CPSU adopted the Statement "Stop political terror, release political prisoners!". The Council and the Control and Audit Commission of the Union were elected. At the first organizational Plenum - new members of the Executive Committee and the Secretariat of the Council of the UPC-CPSU. Currently, the Chairman of the Council is G.A. Zyuganov, his First Deputy - K.K. Taysaev, the Secretariat of the UPC-CPSU Council includes comrades Yu.Yu. Ermalavichyus, E.K. Ligachev, A.E. Elbow, I.N. Makarov, I.I. Nikitchuk, D.G. Novikov. A.V. Svirid (Communist Party of Belarus).

In 2009 - 2012 the activities of the governing bodies of the UPC-CPSU were focused on the problems of countering the falsification of historical truth, organizing international events in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War and the 140th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, preparing for the XVII World Festival of Youth and Students, promoting the recognition of the statehood of the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The International Forum “Unity is the way to save fraternal peoples!”, timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the August counter-revolutionary coup and the criminal collapse of the USSR, became a large-scale, bright and emotionally rich action. The organizers of the forum, which took place on August 19, 2011 in Donetsk, were the Council of the UPC-CPSU and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. One of the central squares of the mining capital of Ukraine, on which a monument to V.I. Lenin, became red both literally and figuratively. Not only residents of the city, Ukrainian communists and Komsomol members, but also representatives of almost all the republics of the USSR gathered here. Delegations from the Rostov region, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories also managed to break through to the forum, which, on far-fetched pretexts, the Ukrainian border service tried not to let through. “It is symbolic,” said the political secretary of the Central Committee of the United Communist Party of Georgia T.I. Pipia, - that today we have all gathered on the Slavic land. It was the Slavic land that took the first blow in 1941, and it was from here that the liberation of our Motherland from the fascist invaders began!

The result of the action was the adoption of the Appeal, which, in particular, stated: “We, the participants of the International Forum in Donetsk, call on all working people who cherish Soviet socialist values ​​to rally around the communists - the true spokesmen for the interests of our peoples - and launch a mass movement for the revival of the a new basis for a common Soviet, socialist Fatherland.

We take into account that in the current conditions this historical task can be solved only with the restoration of the power of the working people and the revival of the socialist social system, the implementation of socialist transformations based on the observance of the Leninist principles of federalism.

February 29, 2012 in Moscow, under the chairmanship of the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, State Duma deputy K.K. Taysaev, a solemn meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council of the Union of communist parties - the CPSU. The work of the Executive Committee was attended by delegations of all 17 fraternal parties that are part of the UPC-CPSU, and the leaders of Komsomol organizations - members of the MSKOS-VLKSM. The Executive Committee of the UPC-CPSU Council considered the following items on the agenda:

1. On the results of work in 2011 and the tasks of the Council of the UPC-CPSU in connection with the campaign of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for the election of the President of the Russian Federation.

2. On the program of the candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov.

3. On the draft Declaration of the Communist Parties "For a new Union of fraternal peoples!".

First withSecretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine P.N. Simonenko stressed that only as part of the UPC-CPSU do we see the future of our party and of the communist movement as a whole in the post-Soviet space. The situation requires us communists to make serious decisions. For example, all the hopes that Ukrainians had for improving relations with Russia, relying on the political forces of big business, have melted away. We are well aware that without our common victory in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other former Soviet republics, it is impossible to resolve the issue of the unity of our peoples, of their worthy future.

To the stormy applause of the hall, each of the representatives of the fraternal communist parties put his signature under the text of the historic Declaration "For a new Union of fraternal peoples!". In conclusion, the Executive Committee unanimously adopted two short statements: "Hands off Belarus!" and "NO - the power of usurpers!" - in support of the struggle of the Moldovan people under the leadership of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova for the restoration of the constitutional order in the country. In the evening, delegations from fraternal communist parties and youth unions took part in a rally-concert "Our address is the Soviet Union", held at the Luzhniki sports complex.

Further integration of the divided Soviet peoples is not only the main slogan of the SKP-CPSU. This is an objective trend, an integral part of the development of modern mankind. Currently, most regions of the world are involved in integration processes to one degree or another. Over the past 19 years, the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU has become a real political force that plays a certain role in the system of interstate relations in the post-Soviet space.

On March 17, 1991, at the national referendum, more than three-quarters of the citizens of the USSR firmly and unequivocally said: we are for the preservation of the Soviet Union as a renewed Federation of equal, sovereign republics, in which the rights and freedoms of a person of any nationality will be fully guaranteed.

The cynical violation of the direct will of the Soviet people led to the collapse of a thousand-year-old world power and plunged its peoples into the most difficult trials. The basic sectors of the economy have been destroyed. Millions of compatriots found themselves in the humiliating position of refugees. Hundreds of thousands of dead and injured in bloody ethnic conflicts. The mass death of people from rampant violence, social insecurity, and man-made disasters continues.

Today, history once again confronts the peoples of our common Motherland with the same choice as in 1917 and 1941: either a powerful united country and socialism, or enslavement and death. The lessons of the historical past and current global trends indicate that the unification of our states and peoples is the most urgent need.

All the objective prerequisites for integration are present. The criminal Belovezhskaya collusion was already denounced in 1996 by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the initiative of the communist faction. For many years, the hand of unbreakable friendship has been extended to Russia by the Belarusian people and its leader A.G. Lukashenko. Integration needs ensured the creation of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, the Eurasian Economic Community and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Global imperialism and its puppets - national capitalist and semi-feudal cliques ruling in most of the republics of the destroyed USSR stand in the way of further rallying the fraternal peoples. A good example of this are the shameful "gas" wars unleashed by the thieves' Russian oligarchy against Belarus, regular information attacks on the Belarusian president.

Having played a certain positive role at the initial stage of the reunification of the fraternal Soviet peoples, the Commonwealth of Independent States is gradually being destroyed. A number of leaders of the CIS member states do not hide the fact that it was created not for unification, but for a "civilized divorce." The fate of the Commonwealth, created on the ashes of the Soviet state, can be sealed by the founders, who will let it die "of its own death."

This prospect does not suit us. The work of building the Union State must be taken over by the working people, the fraternal communist parties, and all patriots of the Soviet Motherland. Following the precepts of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, we reaffirm our loyalty to the principles laid down in the Declaration on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, adopted on December 30, 1922 by the First All-Union Congress of Soviets.

We are already acting for the gradual revival of the renewed Union of Peoples. We are optimists and we are convinced that our peoples will show their age-old wisdom and give a rebuff to the pogromists and destroyers. Together we will enter the broad road of historical progress. They walk along it hand in hand.

We are united by a common historical destiny, the kinship of our characters and cultures. All this is immeasurably higher and stronger than any strife. We, the descendants of the great victors of fascism, are bound by the desire for a decent and peaceful life, faith in a happy future for children and grandchildren. We boldly and decisively move forward.

Our cause is right!

Victory will be ours!

From the Communist Party of Abkhazia

E.Yu. Shamba

From the Communist Party of Azerbaijan

A.M. Veyisov

From the Communist Party of Armenia

R.G. Tovmasyan

From the Communist Party of Belarus

G.P. Atamanov

From the United Communist Party of Georgia

T.I. Pipia

From the Communist Party of Kazakhstan

G.K. Aldamzharov

From the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan

Sh.E. Egenberdiev

From the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova

V.S. Vityuk

From the Transnistrian Communist Party

O.O. Khorzhan

From the Communist Party of the Russian Federation

G.A. Zyuganov

From the Communist Party of Uzbekistan

K.A. Mahmudov

From the Communist Party of Ukraine

P.N. Simonenko

From the Communist Party of the Republic of South Ossetia

I.K. Bekoev

The Declaration was also signed by representatives of the Communist Party of Latvia, the Communist Party of Lithuania, the Communist Party of Turkmenistan, the Communist Party of Estonia, acting under special conditions.

Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU
Zyuganov Gennady Andreevich
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, head of the Communist Party faction in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Philosophy

First Deputy Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU
Taysaev Kazbek Kutsukovich
Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship

Secretariat of the UPC-CPSU Council
Ermalavičius Juozas Juozovich
Ligachev Egor Kuzmich
Lokot Anatoly Evgenievich
Makarov Igor Nikolaevich
Novikov Dmitry Georgievich
Nikitchuk Ivan Ignatievich

Chairman of the Control and Auditing Commission of the UPC-CPSU
Svirid Alexander Vladimirovich
Chairman of the Central Control Commission of the Communist Party of Belarus

Leaders of fraternal communist parties

Avaliani Nugzar Shalvovich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the United Communist Party of Georgia

Aldamzharov Gaziz Kamashevich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan

Voronin Vladimir Nikolaevich
Chairman of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova

Karpenko Alexander Vladimirovich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus

Kochiev Stanislav Yakovlevich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic of South Ossetia

Kurbanov Rauf Muslimovich
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan

Masaliev Iskhak Absamatovich
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan

Simonenko Petr Nikolaevich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine

Tovmasyan Ruben Grigorievich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia

Khorzhan Oleg Olegovich
Chairman of the Transnistrian Communist Party

Shamba Lev Nurbievich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Abkhazia

The leading role of the CPSU is due to the leading role of the working class as the builder of a new social system, the nature and essence of socialism, the character of the party itself as the vanguard of the advanced class, and the laws of communist construction. The goals of the CPSU, reflecting the needs of the development of society along the path to communism, are formulated in the Party Program and in the decisions of the CPSU congresses. The conditions for admission to the CPSU and internal Party relations are regulated by the Charter, which is the fundamental law of Party life.

The CPSU entered the political arena at the beginning of the 20th century. as a militant party of the working class, interested in the conquest of power, in the socialist reorganization of society. It was created by Lenin as a Marxist party of a new type, guided in its activities by the most advanced ideological, political and organizational principles. The CPSU (Bolshevik Party), having united scientific socialism with the mass working-class movement, gave the proletariat a scientific program for democratic and socialist revolution, organized it politically and raised it to fight against the autocracy and the capitalist system. The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, achieved under the ideological and political leadership of the Bolshevik Party, marked the country's entry onto the socialist path.

Since October 1917, the Communist Party in our country has acted as the ruling party, it has led the creative work of the Soviet people, their selfless struggle for the victory of the new system. Under her leadership, the exploiting classes were eliminated, the socio-political and ideological unity of the people was formed and strengthened, and a developed socialist society was built. Today the CPSU is organizing the Soviet people to solve the historic tasks of building communism.

The Communist Party relies in its activities on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which is developed and enriched in accordance with revolutionary practice and the experience of communist construction. The organic combination of politics and science is the most important principle of party leadership. The Constitution of the USSR proclaims that "the CPSU exists for the people and serves the people." As the vanguard of the people, the CPSU occupies a central place in the political system of society and is its core (see Political System of Socialism). The CPSU directs the Soviets, the trade unions, the cooperatives, the Komsomol, unites and directs the efforts of all state bodies and public organizations, all working people towards a single goal. The leading activities of the CPSU are carried out within the framework of the Constitution of the USSR. The Fundamental Law of the USSR assigned to its functions the determination of the general prospects for the development of society, the line of the domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet state, the leadership of the great creative activity of the Soviet people, and the ensuring of the planned, scientifically substantiated nature of their struggle for communism.

The forms and methods of party leadership, among which the development of the course of domestic and foreign policy, political and ideological influence, are developing and improving along with the change in the role and tasks of the party. Among the most important forms of leading activity of the Communist Party are: the selection and promotion of cadres capable of ensuring the implementation of the developed policy; versatile ideological and mass-political work to educate the working people in the spirit of the communist worldview and morality; persuasion and organization of the masses for the solution of specific tasks of building communism; carrying out, with the participation of the masses, verification and control of how the course of social transformations is being practically carried out, to what extent it corresponds to the intended goals.

The CPSU does not command state and public organizations, does not replace them, and does not assume their functions. It sees its role in outlining the main tasks of these bodies, proceeding from its general line, and using the methods inherent in the party, through party groups in them, through communists, party organizations, to ensure the implementation of the planned line at all levels and in all links of the state and social system. . Party committees act through politically and scientifically substantiated recommendations and proposals to the relevant state and public organizations, by persuading their plenipotentiary representatives and other working people by the communists working in these organizations, as well as by selecting appropriate cadres of leaders and monitoring their work. Relying on their political authority and the confidence of the people, the party organs seek to increase the independence and responsibility of the organs of people's power and administration, as well as public organizations.

The improvement of all forms of state and social organization of the working people, with the leading role of the Party, ensures the all-round development of socialist democracy, the involvement of the working people in the management of society and the state, and genuine socialist democracy.

Relations between the leading organs of the Party, its organizations and individual Communists in the CPSU are built on foundations that correspond to its nature and goals. The guiding principle of the organizational structure of the CPSU is democratic centralism.

The party is built on a territorial-production basis: primary organizations are created at the place of work of the communists and unite into district, city, regional, republican organizations throughout the territory. As of January 1, 1983, in accordance with the existing administrative-territorial division of the country, the CPSU united 14 communist parties of the union republics, 6 regional party organizations, 151 regional, 10 district, 873 city, 631 district organizations in cities, 2886 rural district organizations, 425 897 primary party organizations. The Party organization located in a given territory is the highest in relation to all Party organizations operating in its parts. All party organizations are autonomous in resolving local issues, if these decisions do not contradict the policy of the party, its Program and Rules.

The Party Congress is the supreme body of the CPSU. Regular congresses are convened by the Central Committee at least once every five years. The Charter of the CPSU also provides for the convening of party conferences on necessary occasions. In the intervals between congresses, the activities of the Party and local Party organs are directed by the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Questions of party activity are discussed and decided in the CPSU on a broad democratic basis, while communists observe party discipline. The combination of democracy and centralism in the life and structure of the party, on the one hand, increases the social and political activity of the communists, and on the other hand, makes it possible to carry out a unified policy and adopted decisions everywhere.

An important condition for the success of the party leadership lies in the Leninist style of work - a creative style, alien to subjectivism, imbued with a scientific approach to social processes. The Leninist style implies high demands on oneself and others, excludes complacency, and opposes any manifestations of bureaucracy and formalism. The Party strives to create favorable conditions for the development of criticism and self-criticism everywhere and everywhere, so that healthy criticism finds the necessary support everywhere, reasonable and well-founded proposals and remarks of Communists and non-Party people are put into practice. The Party sees its important task in developing the activity of the Communists, increasing efficiency in work, raising the responsibility of all Party organizations, their leadership and each Communist individually for the implementation of the decisions taken.

By implementing and developing the Leninist norms of party life: accountability and election of leading party bodies, freedom of discussion and criticism, openness of party life, collective leadership, ideological and organizational unity of party ranks, equality of communists, the CPSU acts as a socio-political organization that has the most democratic relations.

There are over 18 million Communists in the CPSU. Every ninth working and every eleventh citizen of the USSR aged 18 and over is a communist. The social composition of the party reflects the class structure of Soviet society, the vanguard position of the working class. As of January 1, 1983, workers in the party accounted for 44.1%, peasants (collective farmers) - 12.4%, employees and the rest - 43.5%. At the same time, the party is guided by the fact that the workers occupy a leading place in its composition. Characteristic of the CPSU is the constant growth of political training, general and special education of its members. The Party is not pursuing a numerical increase in its membership, but is pursuing a policy of improving its quality, of selecting the most advanced and politically active representatives of the working people into its ranks. The requirements for those joining the Party have been raised in accordance with the decisions of the latest congresses of the CPSU.

The growth in the numerical and qualitative composition of the CPSU, the increased activity and responsibility of the Communists reflect the growing role of the Party as the leading force in socialist society. This process is associated with profound changes in social development: with the growth in the scale and complexity of the tasks of communist construction, the increase in social activity and consciousness of the masses, the further development of socialist democracy, the growing importance of the theory of scientific communism, its creative development and propaganda, the need to strengthen the communist education of the masses. “The dynamism of the development of Soviet society, the growing scale of communist construction, our activities in the international arena,” noted the 25th Congress of the CPSU, “urgently demand a continuous increase in the level of party leadership in the development of the economy and culture, the education of people, and the improvement of organizational and political work among the masses.” The 26th Party Congress confirmed the correctness and validity of this orientation.

The CPSU is an integral part of the international communist movement, one of its combat detachments. The Party's foreign policy activities are imbued with the principles of proletarian internationalism, concern for strengthening the world socialist community, the unity and cohesion of the Communists of all countries, and striving to strengthen peace and the security of peoples. The CPSU discusses emerging problems with the fraternal communist parties in the spirit of true camaraderie, within the framework of the immutable norms of equality and respect for the independence of each party. With all this, the Leninist Party invariably upholds principled internationalist positions and implacably opposes any views and actions that contradict communist ideology.

communist party bolshevik

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), founded by V.I. Lenin at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. revolutionary party of the Russian proletariat; remaining the party of the working class, the CPSU, as a result of the victory of socialism in the USSR and the strengthening of the social and ideological and political unity of the Soviet people, became the party of the entire Soviet people. "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the battle-tested vanguard of the Soviet people, uniting on a voluntary basis the advanced, most conscious part of the working class, the collective farm peasantry and the intelligentsia of the USSR ... The Party exists for the people and serves the people. It is the highest form of socio-political organization that leads and the guiding force of Soviet society... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is an integral, integral part of the international communist and workers' movement" (Ustav CPSU, 1972, pp. 3, 4, 6). From 1898 (1st congress) it was called the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party - RSDLP, from 1917 - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) - RSDLP (b). In March 1918, at the 7th congress, it was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - RCP (b); motivating the renaming of the party to the Communist, V.I. Lenin in his report at the congress pointed out: "... Starting socialist transformations, we must clearly set ourselves the goal towards which these transformations are ultimately aimed, namely the goal of creating a communist society ..." (Poln. sobr. op. , 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 44). In connection with the formation of the USSR, the 14th Party Congress (1925) renamed the RCP (b) into the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - VKP (b). The 19th Party Congress (1952) renamed the CPSU (b) into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

The CPSU absorbed the revolutionary traditions of the entire previous democratic liberation movement in Russia, managed to combine the defense of the class interests of the proletariat with the aspirations of all working and exploited people, combined the struggle of the workers and peasants against the social oppression of the capitalists and landowners with the struggle of the enslaved peoples and nationalities against the national yoke, transformed the Russian working class in the vanguard of the international labor movement. Led by the Bolshevik Party, the working class, rallying all the working people around itself, carried out the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. The CPSU is the first Marxist party in the world to lead the proletariat to political dominance and to realize the idea of ​​creating a socialist state. The CPSU is the heroic party for the defense of the Socialist Fatherland, which organized the victory of the Soviet people over their worst enemies - foreign interventionists and internal counter-revolution in the Civil War of 1918-1920, over Hitler's fascism, Japanese militarism and their allies in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. The result of the selfless struggle of the Soviet people under the leadership of the CPSU is the building of a developed socialist society, the transformation of the Soviet Union into a powerful industrial and collective farm power, a country of advanced science and culture. The Leninist policy and practice of the CPSU ensured the solid solidarity of the Soviet people around the Party. During the years of socialist construction in the USSR, a new historical community of people arose—the Soviet people, strong in unity of purpose and unity of action in the struggle for the triumph of communism.

The CPSU is the party of scientific communism. The theoretical foundation of the CPSU is Marxism-Leninism, the scientific foundation for the revolutionary transformation of society. Guided by the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, creatively developing and enriching it, the CPSU at each historical stage in its Programs (see Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) determined immediate and long-term tasks, but the ultimate goal of the party remained constant and unchanged: the building of communism. The first Program of the Party—a program for the conquest of political power by the working class and the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat—was adopted in 1903 at the Second Congress of the RSDLP, which created the Bolshevik Party. This program was carried out with the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the creation of the Republic of Soviets. The Eighth Congress of the RCP(b) in 1919 adopted the second Program of the Party—the program for building socialism. Its implementation was crowned with the triumph of the socialist system in the USSR. The 22nd Party Congress in 1961 adopted the third Program, the program for building a communist society in the USSR. This program formulated, as a triune task, the creation of the material and technical base of communism, the formation of communist social relations and the education of the new man. The creation of the material and technical base of communism means: the complete electrification of the country and the improvement on this basis of technique, technology and the organization of social production in all branches of the national economy; comprehensive mechanization of production processes, their ever more complete automation; widespread use of chemistry in the national economy; all-round development of new, economically efficient branches of production, new types of energy and materials; comprehensive and rational use of natural, material and labor resources; the organic combination of science with production and the rapid pace of scientific and technological progress; high cultural and technical level of the working people; significant superiority over the most developed capitalist countries in terms of labor productivity, which is the most important condition for the victory of the communist system. “As a result,” the Program of the CPSU points out, “the USSR will have productive forces unprecedented in its power, will exceed the technical level of the most developed countries and will take first place in the world in output per capita. This will serve as the basis for the gradual transformation of socialist social relations into communist, such a development of production that will satisfy in abundance the needs of society and all its citizens" (1972, p. 66--67). "The CPSU sets a task of world-historic significance—to ensure in the Soviet Union the highest standard of living in comparison with any country of capitalism" (ibid., pp. 90--91). The program of the CPSU proceeds from the fact that during the period of transition to communism, the possibilities for educating a new person who harmoniously combines spiritual wealth, moral purity and physical perfection increase.

VI Lenin developed the main directions of the political, ideological and organizational activities of the party, its strategy and tactics at various stages of the class struggle, revolutionary battles. In the party, Lenin saw the decisive condition for building socialism and communism. Based on the ideas of K. Marx and F. Engels about the proletarian party, critically generalizing the experience of the Russian and international revolutionary movement, Lenin created a coherent doctrine of the party as the highest form of the revolutionary organization of the working class. In 1904, Lenin wrote: “The proletariat has no other weapon in its struggle for power than organization… The proletariat can become and will inevitably become an invincible force only because its ideological unification by the principles of Marxism is reinforced by the material unity of an organization that rallies millions of working people into the army of the working class. Neither the decrepit power of the Russian autocracy, nor the decrepit power of international capital will resist this army" (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 8, pp. 403--04). Lenin created a proletarian party of a new type, which for the first time combined scientific socialism with a mass labor movement. In contrast to the social democratic parties of the West - the parties of social reforms and parliamentary methods, the parties of the 2nd International with their organizational impotence, Lenin created a militant centralized political party of revolutionary action, irreconcilable to the bourgeoisie, closely connected with the masses, ideologically and organizationally united, capable of to prepare the proletariat for the conquest of power, a party armed with revolutionary theory. "... The role of the advanced fighter," Lenin pointed out, "can be fulfilled only by a party guided by an advanced theory" (ibid., vol. 6, p. 25). In terms of its ideology, type of structure, and nature of its activity, the CPSU is a consistently internationalist party.

Lenin led the party through severe trials and cruel persecution. “We are walking in a tight group along a steep and difficult path, firmly holding hands,” wrote Lenin. “We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we almost always have to go under their fire. in order to fight enemies..." (ibid., p. 9). In this struggle the Party grew stronger and became an irresistible force.

After the victory of the October Revolution, the Communist Party became the only political party in the country. The petty-bourgeois parties (Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and others) exposed themselves as anti-proletarian, anti-people. The policy of conciliation led them to betray the interests of the working class and all working people; in the end they slipped into the camp of the counter-revolution. The CPSU became the ruling party. Lenin pointed out in 1918: "We, the Bolshevik Party, convinced Russia. We won Russia back - from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the working people. We must now govern Russia" (ibid., vol. 36, p. 172). Lenin taught: "In order to govern, one must have an army of hardened communist revolutionaries, it exists, it is called a party" (ibid., vol. 42, p. 254).

The CPSU directs all the creative activity of the Soviet people, develops a scientifically substantiated domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet state, unites and directs the work of state bodies and public organizations: Soviets of working people's deputies, trade unions, Komsomol, cooperative associations, creative unions, cultural and scientific and technical societies, sports and defense organizations, etc. "Not a single important political or organizational question," Lenin pointed out, "is decided by any state institution in our republic without the guiding instructions of the Central Committee of the Party" (ibid., vol. 41, pp. 30-31). The Constitution of the USSR (1936) legislated the leading role of the CPSU in the Soviet state. Article 126 of the Constitution reads: "... The most active and conscious citizens from the ranks of the working class, working peasants and working intelligentsia voluntarily unite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to build a communist society and represents the leading core of all organizations of working people, as public and state" [Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR, 1971, p. 28]. The CPSU, guided by the decisions of party congresses, determines the course of the country's economic development, the direction of current and long-term national economic plans approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the policy in the field of capital investment, labor and wages, achieves high rates of development of industrial, agricultural and construction production, transport, the development of science, cultural construction, health care, the expansion of trade, the entire service sector. The Party is consistently pursuing a policy of ensuring a significant rise in the material and cultural standard of living of the people. To achieve these goals, the Party calls for an increase in the efficiency of socialist production, for the organic combination of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist economic system. The Party is doing a lot of work to strengthen state bodies and public organizations with politically trained personnel. The leadership of the Soviets, economic bodies, trade unions, Komsomol and other public organizations is carried out by the party through the communists working in these organizations, not allowing their substitution, depersonalization, confusion of the functions of party and other bodies. The Party not only issues guiding directives and directives, but also checks their implementation.

The CPSU is a militant alliance of like-minded communists. Creatively developing Marxist-Leninist teaching, enriching it with conclusions from the experience of socialist and communist construction in the USSR and foreign socialist countries, the world communist and working-class movement, the CPSU is irreconcilable to any manifestations of revisionism and dogmatism, deeply alien to revolutionary theory. The CPSU developed, grew and gained strength in a principled struggle against the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists, bourgeois nationalists, various anti-Leninist trends and deviations within the Party - Trotskyists, Right opportunists, national deviationists. The CPSU holds high the Marxist-Leninist banner in the struggle against revisionism and petty-bourgeois revolutionism in the world communist movement. Consistently upholding the policy of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, the CPSU is irreconcilable in its struggle against bourgeois ideology. It resolutely comes out with the exposure of anti-communism, the main ideological and political weapon of imperialism.

The CPSU is the ideological educator of the people. Guided by the theory of Marxism-Leninism, the party educates the masses of working people in the spirit of communist consciousness, conducts daily propaganda and agitation activities, and directs the mass media (press, television, radio, etc.). The Party is striving to ensure that every communist throughout his life observes and inculcates in the working people the communist moral principles set forth in the Program and Rules of the CPSU.

The CPSU was created as a single party of the proletariat of all multinational Russia. Pariah unites in its ranks representatives of all nations and nationalities of the USSR. The leader of the CPSU, Lenin, was the founder of the Communist International. Internationalism forms the basis of the Leninist national program of the party, which was realized in the rapid economic upsurge and flourishing of the culture of all Soviet republics, in the creation and growth of a single multinational socialist state - the USSR, which became a bulwark of friendship and brotherhood of the Soviet peoples. Internationalism is one of the fundamental principles of the Leninist foreign policy of the CPSU and the Soviet state, a policy of actively defending peace and strengthening international security, ensuring favorable external conditions for the building of communism in the USSR, for the defense of socialism and the freedom of peoples. The CPSU is consistently pursuing a policy of unity and development of the world socialist system, strengthening friendship with the fraternal countries of socialism, unity and international solidarity with the workers' movement in capital countries, supporting peoples fighting for national and social liberation, for genuine political and economic independence, against imperialism and neo-colonialism .

The organizational foundations of the CPSU are embodied in the Charter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It determines the norms of party life, the methods and forms of party building, the methods of party leadership in all spheres of state, economic, ideological and social activity. According to the Charter, the guiding principle of the organizational structure of the party is democratic centralism, which means: the election of all the leading bodies of the party from top to bottom; periodic reporting of party bodies to their party organizations and to higher bodies; strict party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; unconditional binding of decisions of higher bodies for lower ones. Criticism and self-criticism develop on the basis of inner-Party democracy, and Party discipline is strengthened. Any manifestation of factionalism is incompatible with Marxist-Leninist partisanship. The highest principle of Party leadership is the collectivity of leadership -- an indispensable condition for the normal activity of Party organizations, the correct education of cadres, and the development of the activity and initiative of Communists.

Any citizen of the Soviet Union who recognizes the Program and Rules of the Party, actively participates in building communism, works in one of the Party organizations, carries out the decisions of the Party and pays membership dues, can be a member of the CPSU. A member of the CPSU is obliged to serve as an example of a communist attitude to work and the fulfillment of public duty, to firmly and unswervingly implement the decisions of the Party, to explain the policy of the Party to the masses, to actively participate in the political life of the country, in the management of state affairs, in economic and cultural construction, to master the Marxist-Leninist theory, to wage a resolute struggle against any manifestations of bourgeois ideology, against the remnants of private property psychology, religious prejudices and other remnants of the past, to observe the principles of communist morality, to show sensitivity and attention to people, to be an active conductor of the ideas of socialist internationalism and Soviet patriotism among the masses of working people, to strengthen in every possible way unity of the Party, to be truthful and honest before the Party and the people, to develop criticism and self-criticism, to observe Party and state discipline, equally obligatory for all members of the Party, to exercise vigilance, to assist in every possible way strengthening the defense power of the USSR.

A party member has the right to elect and be elected to party bodies, to freely discuss at party meetings, conferences, congresses, at meetings of party committees and in the party press issues of the policy and practical activities of the party, to make proposals, to openly express and defend his opinion until the organization makes a decision. ; to criticize at party meetings, conferences, congresses, plenums of the committee of any communist, regardless of his post.

Admission to the CPSU is carried out exclusively on an individual basis. Conscious, active and devoted to the cause of communism workers, peasants and representatives of the intelligentsia are accepted as members of the Party. Those who join the party undergo candidate probation (for a period of 1 year). The party accepts persons who have reached the age of 18. Young people up to 23 years old inclusive join the party only through the Komsomol.

For non-fulfillment of statutory duties and other misconduct, a party member or candidate member is held liable and penalties may be imposed on him. The highest measure of party punishment is expulsion from the party.

The CPSU is built according to the territorial production principle: the primary organizations of the party are created at the place of work of the communists and are united into district, city, etc. organizations across the territory. The highest governing bodies of party organizations are the general meeting (for primary organizations), the conference (for district, city, district, regional, territorial organizations), the congress (for the communist parties of the Union republics, for the CPSU). The general meeting, conference or congress elects a bureau or committee, which is the executive body and directs all the current work of the party organization. Elections of party bodies are held by closed (secret) voting.

The Party Congress is the supreme body of the CPSU. The Congress elects the Central Committee and the Central Audit Commission. Regular congresses are convened at least once every 5 years. Between congresses, the Central Committee of the CPSU directs all the activities of the Party.

The Central Committee of the CPSU elects: to guide the work of the party between the Plenums of the Central Committee - the Politburo; to manage the current work, mainly on the selection of personnel and the organization of verification of performance, - the Secretariat. The Central Committee elects the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Central Committee of the CPSU organizes a Party Control Committee under the Central Committee.

Local party organizations are constituent parts of the single CPSU, covering the entire territory of the USSR. Within their territorial boundaries, they carry out the policy of the party, organize and carry out the implementation of the directives of its highest bodies.

The basis of the party is the primary organizations. They are created at the place of work of Party members - at plants, factories, state farms and other enterprises, collective farms, units of the Soviet Army, institutions, educational institutions, etc. with at least three party members. Territorial primary party organizations are also being created at the place of residence of the communists: in rural areas and at house administrations. The primary party organization accepts new members in the CPSU, educates communists in the spirit of devotion to the cause of the party, ideological conviction, communist morality, organizes the study of Marxist-Leninist theory by communists, conducts mass agitation and propaganda work. The primary Party organization seeks to enhance the vanguard role of communists in labor, socio-political and economic life, acts as an organizer of the working people in solving the immediate tasks of communist construction, leads socialist emulation, strives to strengthen labor discipline, steadily increase labor productivity, improve product quality, on the basis of a broad deployment of criticism and self-criticism is fighting against manifestations of bureaucracy, parochialism, violations of state discipline and other shortcomings. Primary party organizations of enterprises in industry, transport, communications, construction, logistics, trade, public catering, public utilities, collective farms, state farms and other agricultural enterprises, design organizations, design bureaus, research institutes, educational institutions, cultural and educational and medical institutions enjoy the right to control the activities of the administration. Party organizations of ministries, state committees and other central and local Soviet, economic institutions and departments exercise control over the work of the apparatus in fulfilling the directives of the party and government, and observing Soviet laws. They are called upon to actively influence the improvement of the work of the apparatus, educate employees in the spirit of high responsibility for the assigned work, take measures to strengthen state discipline, improve public services, wage a resolute fight against bureaucracy and red tape, promptly report shortcomings in the work of institutions to the relevant Party bodies, as well as individual employees, regardless of their positions. Party work in the Armed Forces is directed by the Central Committee of the CPSU through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, which operates as a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Under the leadership of the CPSU, the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM) is working - an active assistant and reserve of the party.

As of January 1, 1973, there were 14,821,031 communists in the CPSU (14,330,525 members of the CPSU and 490,506 candidate members of the CPSU). They united in 14 communist parties of the union republics, 6 regional, 142 regional, 10 district, 774 city, 480 district in cities, 2832 rural district, 378 740 primary party organizations. The CPSU consisted of 6,037,771 workers - 40.7% and 2,169,764 peasants (collective farmers) - 14.7% of the total composition of the party. Among the communists there were 6,561,000 specialists with higher and secondary specialized education, i.e. 44.3% of the total number, including 16,592 doctors and 132,708 candidates of sciences. There were 3,412,000 women in the CPSU.

About 17 million people studied in the party education system in the 1972-73 academic year. Leading Party and Soviet cadres study at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Correspondence Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU; in 1973 there were also 13 republican and interregional higher party schools and 20 Soviet party schools.

The research center is the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU, which has its branches in the Union republics.

The CPSU conducts extensive publishing activities (see Bolshevik Press, Party and Soviet Press). Organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU - the newspaper "Pravda". Newspapers of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Soviet Russia", "Socialist Industry", "Rural Life", "Soviet Culture". Weekly of the Central Committee of the CPSU - "Economic newspaper". Theoretical and political journal of the Central Committee of the CPSU - "Communist". Journals of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Agitator", "Party Life", "Political self-education". Under the authority of the Central Committee of the CPSU are: Publishing House "Pravda", "Publishing House of Political Literature" (Political Publishing House). The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Union Republics also has its own publishing houses.

In 1898-1991, ruling party in 1917-1991; in the pre-revolutionary period, the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDPR), since 1917, the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) - RSDLP (b). In March 1918, at the Seventh Congress, it was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - RCP (b). The Fourteenth Party Congress (1925) renamed the RCP (b) into the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - VKP (b). The Nineteenth Party Congress (1952) renamed the CPSU (b) into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The founding First Congress of the RSDLP was held in 1898 in Minsk. However, systematic work on the creation of a grassroots party network began in 1900 after the publication of V.I. Lenin of the Iskra newspaper. The Second Congress of the RSDLP (1903) contributed to the unification of the disparate Marxist organizations of Russia into a mass political party and at the same time revealed two trends in Russian social democracy: the Bolshevik and the Menshevik. V.I. became the leader of the Bolsheviks. Lenin. As a result of the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik Party came to power. Since the 1920s, the CPSU (b) was the only party in the country and became the basis of the state totalitarian regime headed by I.V. Stalin. If in 1917 there were 40,000 party members in Russia, by the mid-1980s this number had grown to 19 million.
At the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU (1956), part of the party leadership headed by N.S. Khrushchev exposed Stalin's personality cult, marking the so-called thaw period. By the mid-1960s, the thaw period was over, conservative forces interrupted the process of updating the party and state apparatus, the search for ways to effectively develop the economy. In 1977, the leading role of the CPSU in Soviet society was enshrined in a special article of the USSR Constitution. Since 1985 M.S. Gorbachev initiated attempts to restructure Soviet society and the party. The desire for reform was supported by the Soviet people, but the strategy and tactics of the leadership of the USSR led to a deep socio-economic crisis and, ultimately, to the collapse of the USSR. In 1991, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin, the activities of the CPSU in Russia were terminated and its organizational structures were dissolved.

Organizational principles

The CPSU became the first Marxist party in the world to establish political dominance in its country and to realize the idea of ​​creating a socialist state. Being the party of scientific communism, the CPSU was based on Marxism-Leninism - the scientific foundation for the revolutionary transformation of society. At each historical stage, the CPSU was guided in its activities by a special document - the Program. The first Party Program was adopted in 1903 at the Second Congress of the RSDLP. It set the task of winning political power by the working class and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. This program was carried out during the Great October Socialist Revolution and the establishment of Soviet power. The Eighth Congress of the RCP (b) in 1919 adopted the second Party Program - the program for building socialism. The 22nd Congress of the CPSU in 1961 adopted the third Program - the program for building a communist society in the USSR. This program formulated, as a triune task, the creation of the material and technical base of communism, the formation of communist social relations and the education of the new man. The creation of the material and technical base of communism meant not only the improvement of technology, technology and the organization of social production in all sectors of the national economy, the development of economically efficient branches of production, the rapid pace of scientific and technological progress, the high cultural and technical level of the working people, but also superiority over the developed capitalist countries. in terms of labor productivity, which was a necessary condition for the victory of the communist system.
The CPSU was created as a single party of the proletariat of multinational Russia, internationalism became the principle of the party's national program. After the formation of the USSR in all the union republics, except for the RSFSR, republican communist parties were created, which became an integral part of a single CPSU. The organizational foundations of the CPSU were embodied in the Rules of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He determined the norms of party life, the methods and forms of party building, the methods of party leadership in all spheres of state, economic, ideological, and social activity in the USSR. According to the Charter, the guiding principle of the organizational structure of the party was democratic centralism, which means: the election of all the leading bodies of the party from top to bottom; periodic reporting of party bodies to their party organizations and to higher bodies; party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; binding decisions of higher bodies for lower ones. Collectivity was declared the highest principle of the party leadership.

Program and charter

A member of the CPSU could be any citizen of the Soviet Union who recognizes the Program and the Charter of the party, participates in the construction of communism, works in one of the party organizations, fulfills the decisions of the party and pays membership dues. A party member had the right to elect and be elected to party bodies, to discuss at party meetings, conferences, congresses, at meetings of party committees and in the party press issues of policy and practical activities of the party, to make proposals, to openly express and defend his opinion before the organization makes a decision; to criticize at party meetings, conferences, congresses, plenums of the committee of any communist, regardless of his post.
Admission to the CPSU was carried out exclusively on an individual basis. Those joining the party underwent a candidate's probation for a period of one year. Persons who had reached the age of eighteen were accepted into the party; young people up to 23 years old inclusive joined the party only through the VLKSM. For non-fulfillment of statutory duties and misconduct, a member or candidate member of the party was held accountable and penalties could be imposed on him. The highest measure of party punishment was expulsion from the party.
The CPSU was built according to the territorial-production principle: the primary organizations of the party were created at the place of work of the communists and united into district, city, and district organizations according to the territory. The highest governing bodies of the party organizations were the general assembly for the primary organizations; conference for district, city, district, regional, regional organizations; congress for the communist parties of the union republics and for the CPSU. The general meeting, conference, congress elected a bureau or committee, which was the executive body and directed the current work of the party organization. Elections of party bodies were held by closed (secret) voting.
The supreme body of the CPSU was the Party Congress, which elected the Central Committee and the Central Auditing Commission. Regular party congresses were convened at least once every five years. Between congresses, the activities of the party were directed by the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Central Committee of the CPSU elected the Politburo to direct the work of the party between the Plenums of the Central Committee; to manage the current work, mainly on the selection of personnel and the organization of verification of performance, - the Secretariat. The Central Committee elected the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Under the Central Committee of the CPSU, there was a Party Control Committee.

Primary organizations

The basis of the party was its primary organizations, which were created at the place of work of party members - at factories, factories, state farms, collective farms, units of the Soviet army, institutions, educational institutions with at least three party members. Territorial primary party organizations were also organized at the place of residence of the communists: in rural areas and at house administrations. The primary party organization admitted new members to the CPSU, fought against manifestations of bureaucracy, parochialism, and violations of state discipline. The primary party organizations of state administration bodies, economic enterprises, scientific and educational institutions, cultural, educational and medical institutions enjoyed the right to control the activities of the administration. The leadership of party work in the armed forces was carried out by the CPSU Central Committee through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, which worked as a department of the CPSU Central Committee. Under the leadership of the CPSU, the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM) operated.
The CPSU has always paid attention to ensuring that there is a significant stratum of representatives of the proletariat in its ranks. In the 1970s, about 40% of party members were workers, 15% were collective farmers. It was much more difficult for intellectuals and employees to join the CPSU, but promotion through the ranks in the state apparatus was directly related to the presence of a party card. About a third of party members were women.
The CPSU had its own system of party education, in which both party members and non-party activists were trained. Leading party and Soviet cadres studied at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Correspondence Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU. In addition, a network of republican and interregional higher party schools and universities of Marxism-Leninism was created in the country. The research center of the CPSU was the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU with a network of branches in the Union republics.
The CPSU conducted publishing activities, the central organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU was the newspaper Pravda. The Central Committee of the CPSU also published the newspapers Sovetskaya Rossiya, Socialist Industry, Rural Life, Soviet Culture, the weekly Economic Newspaper, the theoretical and political magazine Kommunist, the magazines Agitator, Party Life, Political self-education. The Central Committee of the CPSU was in charge of the publishing house "Pravda", "Publishing House of Political Literature" (Political Publishing House). The Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics had their own publishing houses.

(CPSU)

founded by V.I. Lenin at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. revolutionary party of the Russian proletariat; remaining the party of the working class, the CPSU, as a result of the victory of socialism in the USSR and the strengthening of the social and ideological and political unity of the Soviet people, became the party of the entire Soviet people. “The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the battle-tested vanguard of the Soviet people, uniting on a voluntary basis the advanced, most conscious part of the working class, the collective farm peasantry and the intelligentsia of the USSR... The Party exists for the people and serves the people. It is the highest form of socio-political organization, the leading and guiding force of Soviet society ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is an integral, integral part of the international communist and workers' movement ”(Charter of the CPSU, 1972, pp. 3, 4, 6). From 1898 (1st congress) it was called the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party - RSDLP, from 1917 - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) - RSDLP (b). In March 1918, at the 7th congress, it was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - RCP (b); motivating the renaming of the party to the Communist Party, V. I. Lenin in his report at the congress pointed out: “... Starting socialist transformations, we must clearly set ourselves the goal towards which these transformations are ultimately aimed, namely the goal of creating a communist society. ..” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 44). In connection with the formation of the USSR, the 14th Party Congress (1925) renamed the RCP (b) into the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - VKP (b). The 19th Party Congress (1952) renamed the CPSU (b) into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

The CPSU absorbed the revolutionary traditions of the entire previous democratic liberation movement in Russia, managed to combine the defense of the class interests of the proletariat with the aspirations of all working and exploited people, combined the struggle of the workers and peasants against the social oppression of the capitalists and landowners with the struggle of the enslaved peoples and nationalities against the national yoke, transformed the Russian working class in the vanguard of the international labor movement. Led by the Bolshevik Party, the working class rallied all the working people around itself and carried out the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. The CPSU was the first Marxist party in the world to lead the proletariat to political dominance and to realize the idea of ​​creating a socialist state. The CPSU is the heroic party for the defense of the Socialist Fatherland, which organized the victory of the Soviet people over their worst enemies - foreign interventionists and internal counter-revolution in the Civil War of 1918-1920, over Hitler's fascism, Japanese militarism and their allies in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. The result of the selfless struggle of the Soviet people under the leadership of the CPSU is the building of a developed socialist society, the transformation of the Soviet Union into a powerful industrial and collective farm power, a country of advanced science and culture. The Leninist policy and practice of the CPSU ensured the solid solidarity of the Soviet people around the Party. During the years of socialist construction in the USSR, a new historical community of people arose - the Soviet people, strong in unity of purpose and unity of action in the struggle for the triumph of communism.

The CPSU is the party of scientific communism. The theoretical basis of the CPSU is Marxism-Leninism - scientific foundation for the revolutionary transformation of society. Guided by the Marxist-Leninist teaching, creatively developing and enriching it, the CPSU at every historical stage in its Programs (see . The program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) determined the immediate and long-term tasks, but the ultimate goal of the party remained constant and unchanged: the building of communism. The First Party Program is a program for the conquest of political power by the working class, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat (See Dictatorship of the proletariat) - was adopted in 1903 at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, which created the Bolshevik Party. This program was carried out with the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the creation of the Republic of Soviets. The Eighth Congress of the RCP(b) in 1919 adopted the second Party Program - the program for building socialism. Its implementation was crowned with the triumph of the socialist system in the USSR. The 22nd Party Congress in 1961 adopted the third Program - a program for building a communist society in the USSR. This program formulated, as a triune task, the creation of the material and technical base of communism, the formation of communist social relations and the education of the new man. The creation of the material and technical base of communism means: the complete electrification of the country and the improvement on this basis of technique, technology and the organization of social production in all branches of the national economy; comprehensive mechanization of production processes, their ever more complete automation; widespread use of chemistry in the national economy; all-round development of new, economically efficient branches of production, new types of energy and materials; comprehensive and rational use of natural, material and labor resources; the organic combination of science with production and the rapid pace of scientific and technological progress; high cultural and technical level of the working people; significant superiority over the most developed capitalist countries in terms of labor productivity, which is the most important condition for the victory of the communist system. “As a result,” the Program of the CPSU points out, “the USSR will have productive forces unprecedented in its power, it will exceed the technical level of the most developed countries and take first place in the world in per capita output. This will serve as the basis for the gradual transformation of socialist social relations into communist ones, such a development of production that will make it possible to satisfy in abundance the needs of society and all its citizens” (1972, pp. 66-67). "The CPSU sets a task of world-historical significance - to ensure in the Soviet Union the highest standard of living in comparison with any country of capitalism" (ibid., pp. 90-91). The program of the CPSU proceeds from the fact that during the period of transition to communism, the possibilities for educating a new person who harmoniously combines spiritual wealth, moral purity and physical perfection increase.

V. And Lenin developed the main directions of the political, ideological and organizational activity of the party, its strategy and tactics at various stages of the class struggle, revolutionary battles. In the party, Lenin saw the decisive condition for building socialism and communism. Based on the ideas of K. Marx and F. Engels about the proletarian party, critically generalizing the experience of the Russian and international revolutionary movement, Lenin created a coherent doctrine of the party as the highest form of the revolutionary organization of the working class. In 1904, Lenin wrote: “The proletariat has no other weapon in its struggle for power than organization... The proletariat can become and will inevitably become an invincible force only because its ideological unification by the principles of Marxism is reinforced by the material unity of an organization that rallies millions of working people into the army of the working class. Neither the decrepit power of the Russian autocracy, nor the decrepit power of international capital will resist this army” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 8, pp. 403-04). Lenin created a proletarian party of a new type, which for the first time combined scientific socialism with a mass labor movement. In contrast to the social democratic parties of the West - the parties of social reforms and parliamentary methods, the parties of the 2nd International with their organizational impotence, Lenin created a militant centralized political party of revolutionary action, irreconcilable to the bourgeoisie, closely connected with the masses, ideologically and organizationally united, capable of preparing the proletariat to the conquest of power, a party armed with revolutionary theory. “... The role of an advanced fighter,” Lenin pointed out, “can be performed only by a party led by an advanced theory” (ibid., vol. 6, p. 25). In terms of its ideology, type of structure, and nature of its activity, the CPSU is a consistently internationalist party.

Lenin led the party through severe trials and cruel persecution. “We are walking in a tight group along a steep and difficult path, firmly holding hands,” wrote Lenin. - We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we almost always have to go under their fire. We united, according to a freely adopted decision, precisely in order to fight enemies ... ”(ibid., p. 9). In this struggle the Party grew stronger and became an irresistible force.

After the victory of the October Revolution, the Communist Party became the only political party in the country. The petty-bourgeois parties (Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and others) exposed themselves as anti-proletarian, anti-people. The policy of conciliation led them to betray the interests of the working class and all working people; in the end they slipped into the camp of the counter-revolution. The CPSU became the ruling party. Lenin in 1918 pointed out: “We, the Bolshevik Party, convinced Russia. We won back Russia - from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the working people. We must now govern Russia” (ibid., vol. 36, p. 172). Lenin taught: “In order to govern, one must have an army of seasoned communist revolutionaries, it exists, it is called a party” (ibid., vol. 42, p. 254).

The CPSU directs all the creative activity of the Soviet people, develops a scientifically substantiated domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet state, unites and directs the work of state bodies and public organizations: Soviets of working people's deputies, trade unions, Komsomol, cooperative associations, creative unions, cultural and scientific and technical societies, sports and defense organizations, etc. “Not a single important political or organizational issue,” Lenin pointed out, “is decided by any state institution in our republic without the guiding instructions of the Central Committee of the Party” (ibid., vol. 41, pp. 30-31). The Constitution of the USSR (1936) legislated the leading role of the CPSU in the Soviet state. Article 126 of the Constitution reads: “... The most active and conscious citizens from the ranks of the working class, working peasants and working intelligentsia voluntarily unite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to build a communist society and represents the leading core of all organizations of working people, as public and state" [Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR, 1971, p. 28]. The CPSU, guided by the decisions of party congresses, determines the course of the country's economic development, the direction of current and long-term national economic plans approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the policy in the field of capital investment, labor and wages, achieves high rates of development of industrial, agricultural and construction production, transport, the development of science, cultural construction, health care, the expansion of trade, the entire service sector. The Party is consistently pursuing a policy of ensuring a significant rise in the material and cultural standard of living of the people. To achieve these goals, the Party calls for an increase in the efficiency of socialist production, for the organic combination of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist economic system. The Party is doing a lot of work to strengthen state bodies and public organizations with politically trained personnel. The leadership of the Soviets, economic bodies, trade unions, Komsomol and other public organizations is carried out by the party through the communists working in these organizations, not allowing their substitution, depersonalization, confusion of the functions of party and other bodies. The Party not only issues guiding directives and directives, but also checks their implementation.

The CPSU is a militant union of like-minded communists. Creatively developing Marxist-Leninist teaching, enriching it with conclusions from the experience of socialist and communist construction in the USSR and foreign socialist countries, the world communist and working-class movement, the CPSU is irreconcilable to any manifestations of revisionism and dogmatism, deeply alien to revolutionary theory. The CPSU developed, grew and gained strength in a principled struggle against the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists, bourgeois nationalists, various anti-Leninist trends and deviations within the party - Trotskyists, right-wing opportunists, national deviationists. The CPSU holds high the Marxist-Leninist banner in the struggle against revisionism and petty-bourgeois revolutionism in the world communist movement. Consistently upholding the policy of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, the CPSU is irreconcilable in its struggle against bourgeois ideology. It resolutely comes out with the exposure of anti-communism - the main ideological and political weapon of imperialism.

The CPSU is the ideological educator of the people. Guided by the theory of Marxism-Leninism, the party educates the masses of working people in the spirit of communist consciousness, conducts daily propaganda and agitation activities, and directs the mass media (press, television, radio, etc.). The Party is striving to ensure that every communist throughout his life observes and inculcates in the working people the communist moral principles set forth in the Program and Rules of the CPSU.

The CPSU was created as a single party of the proletariat of all multinational Russia. Pariah unites in its ranks representatives of all nations and nationalities of the USSR. The leader of the CPSU, Lenin, was the founder of the Communist International. Internationalism forms the basis of the Leninist national program of the party, which was realized in the rapid economic upswing and flourishing of the culture of all Soviet republics, in the creation and growth of a single multinational socialist state - the USSR, which became a bulwark of friendship and brotherhood of the Soviet peoples. Internationalism is one of the fundamental principles of the Leninist foreign policy of the CPSU and the Soviet state - a policy of actively defending peace and strengthening international security, ensuring favorable external conditions for building communism in the USSR, for protecting socialism and the freedom of peoples. The CPSU is consistently pursuing a policy of unity and development of the world socialist system, strengthening friendship with the fraternal countries of socialism, unity and international solidarity with the workers' movement in capital countries, supporting peoples fighting for national and social liberation, for genuine political and economic independence, against imperialism and neo-colonialism .

The organizational foundations of the CPSU are embodied in the Rules of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (See Rules of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). It determines the norms of party life, the methods and forms of party building, the methods of party leadership in all spheres of state, economic, ideological and social activity. According to the Charter, the guiding principle of the organizational structure of the party is Democratic centralism, which means: the election of all the leading bodies of the party from top to bottom; periodic reporting of party bodies to their party organizations and to higher bodies; strict party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; unconditional binding of decisions of higher bodies for lower ones. Criticism and self-criticism develop on the basis of inner-Party democracy, and Party discipline is strengthened. Any manifestation of factionalism is incompatible with Marxist-Leninist partisanship. The highest principle of Party leadership is the collectivity of leadership - an indispensable condition for the normal activity of Party organizations, the correct education of cadres, the development of activeness and amateur activity of communists.

Any citizen of the Soviet Union who recognizes the Program and Rules of the Party, actively participates in building communism, works in one of the Party organizations, carries out the decisions of the Party and pays membership dues, can be a member of the CPSU. A member of the CPSU is obliged to serve as an example of a communist attitude to work and the fulfillment of public duty, to firmly and unswervingly implement the decisions of the Party, to explain the policy of the Party to the masses, to actively participate in the political life of the country, in the management of state affairs, in economic and cultural construction, to master the Marxist-Leninist theory, to wage a resolute struggle against any manifestations of bourgeois ideology, against the remnants of private property psychology, religious prejudices and other remnants of the past, to observe the principles of communist morality, to show sensitivity and attention to people, to be an active conductor of the ideas of socialist internationalism and Soviet patriotism among the masses of working people, to strengthen in every possible way unity of the Party, to be truthful and honest before the Party and the people, to develop criticism and self-criticism, to observe Party and state discipline, equally obligatory for all members of the Party, to exercise vigilance, to assist in every possible way strengthening the defense power of the USSR.

A party member has the right to elect and be elected to party bodies, to freely discuss at party meetings, conferences, congresses, at meetings of party committees and in the party press issues of the policy and practical activities of the party, to make proposals, to openly express and defend his opinion until the organization makes a decision. ; to criticize at party meetings, conferences, congresses, plenums of the committee of any communist, regardless of his post.

Admission to the CPSU is carried out exclusively on an individual basis. Conscious, active and devoted to the cause of communism workers, peasants and representatives of the intelligentsia are accepted as members of the Party. Those who join the party undergo candidate probation (for a period of 1 year). The party accepts persons who have reached the age of 18. Young people up to 23 years old inclusive join the party only through the Komsomol.

For non-fulfillment of statutory duties and other misconduct, a party member or candidate member is held liable and penalties may be imposed on him. The highest measure of party punishment is expulsion from the party.

The CPSU is built according to the territorial production principle: the primary organizations of the party are created at the place of work of the communists and are united into district, city, etc. organizations across the territory. The highest governing bodies of party organizations are the general meeting (for primary organizations), the conference (for district, city, district, regional, territorial organizations), the congress (for the communist parties of the union republics, for the CPSU). The general meeting, conference or congress elects a bureau or committee, which is the executive body and directs all the current work of the party organization. Elections of party bodies are held by closed (secret) voting.

The Party Congress is the supreme body of the CPSU. The Congress elects the Central Committee and the Central Audit Commission. Regular congresses are convened at least once every 5 years. Between congresses, the Central Committee of the CPSU directs all the activities of the Party.

The Central Committee of the CPSU elects: to guide the work of the party between the Plenums of the Central Committee - the Politburo; to manage the current work, mainly on the selection of personnel and the organization of verification of performance, - the Secretariat. The Central Committee elects the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Central Committee of the CPSU organizes a Party Control Committee under the Central Committee.

Local party organizations are constituent parts of a single CPSU, covering the entire territory of the USSR. Within their territorial boundaries, they carry out the policy of the party, organize and carry out the implementation of the directives of its highest bodies.

The basis of the party is the primary organizations. They are created at the place of work of party members - at factories, factories, state farms and other enterprises, collective farms, parts of the Soviet Army, institutions, educational institutions, etc. with at least three party members. Territorial primary party organizations are also being created at the place of residence of the communists: in rural areas and at house administrations. The primary party organization accepts new members in the CPSU, educates communists in the spirit of devotion to the cause of the party, ideological conviction, communist morality, organizes the study of Marxist-Leninist theory by communists, conducts mass agitation and propaganda work. The primary Party organization seeks to enhance the vanguard role of communists in labor, socio-political and economic life, acts as an organizer of the working people in solving the immediate tasks of communist construction, leads socialist emulation, strives to strengthen labor discipline, steadily increase labor productivity, improve product quality, on the basis of a broad deployment of criticism and self-criticism is fighting against manifestations of bureaucracy, parochialism, violations of state discipline and other shortcomings. Primary party organizations of enterprises in industry, transport, communications, construction, logistics, trade, public catering, public utilities, collective farms, state farms and other agricultural enterprises, design organizations, design bureaus, research institutes, educational institutions, cultural and educational and medical institutions enjoy the right to control the activities of the administration. Party organizations of ministries, state committees and other central and local Soviet, economic institutions and departments exercise control over the work of the apparatus in fulfilling the directives of the party and government, and observing Soviet laws. They are called upon to actively influence the improvement of the work of the apparatus, educate employees in the spirit of high responsibility for the assigned work, take measures to strengthen state discipline, improve public services, wage a resolute fight against bureaucracy and red tape, promptly report shortcomings in the work of institutions to the relevant Party bodies, as well as individual employees, regardless of their positions. Party work in the Armed Forces is directed by the Central Committee of the CPSU through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, which operates as a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Under the leadership of the CPSU, the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM) is working - an active assistant and reserve of the party.

As of January 1, 1973, there were 14,821,031 communists in the CPSU (14,330,525 members of the CPSU and 490,506 candidate members of the CPSU). They united in 14 communist parties of the union republics, 6 regional, 142 regional, 10 district, 774 city, 480 district in cities, 2832 rural district, 378 740 primary party organizations. The CPSU consisted of 6,037,771 workers - 40.7% and 2,169,764 peasants (collective farmers) - 14.7% of the total composition of the party. Among the communists there were 6,561,000 specialists with higher and secondary specialized education, i.e. 44.3% of the total number, including 16,592 doctors and 132,708 candidates of sciences. There were 3,412,000 women in the CPSU.

About 17 million people studied in the party education system in the 1972-73 academic year. Leading Party and Soviet cadres study at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Correspondence Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU; in 1973 there were also 13 republican and interregional higher party schools and 20 Soviet party schools.

The research center is the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU, which has its branches in the Union republics.

The CPSU conducts extensive publishing activities (see Bolshevik Press, Party and Soviet Press). Organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU - the newspaper "Pravda". Newspapers of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Soviet Russia", "Socialist Industry", "Rural Life", "Soviet Culture". Weekly of the Central Committee of the CPSU - "Economic newspaper". Theoretical and political journal of the Central Committee of the CPSU - "Communist". Magazines of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Agitator", "Party Life", "Political Self-Education". Under the jurisdiction of the Central Committee of the CPSU are: Publishing house "Pravda", "Publishing house of political literature" (Politizdat). The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Union Republics also has its own publishing houses.

The main stages in the history of the CPSU

Creation of the Bolshevik Party. The Marxist Party in Russia was the successor to the richest revolutionary traditions. V.I. Lenin called the revolutionary democrats, Russian utopian socialists, V.G. Belinsky, A.I. Herzen, N.G. Chernyshevsky, N.A. who advocated the overthrow of the autocracy through a peasant revolution and believed that Russia could go over to socialism, bypassing capitalism (see Populism).

With the development of capitalism in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, the accelerated formation of new social classes—the proletariat and the bourgeoisie—and the intensification of contradictions between them, the class struggle intensified. Since the mid 70s. the leading representatives of the nascent labor movement began to look for their own path, different from the populist one. The advanced workers studied the struggle of the Western European proletariat, the activities of the First International, the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871, and became acquainted with the teachings of Marx and Engels.

In the 70s. workers-leaders advanced - S.N. Khalturin , V. P. Obnorsky , P. A. Alekseev , P. A. Moiseenko and others. In the 70s. the first workers' socialist unions arose, operating illegally. In 1875, the South Russian Union of Workers was created in Odessa (headed by E. O. Zaslavsky) , in 1878 in St. Petersburg - the "Northern Union of Russian Workers" (heads Khalturin, Obnorsky). Both alliances pointed to their solidarity with the First International, emphasized that the emancipation of the workers was the work of the workers themselves, and put forward the task of forcibly overthrowing the existing system and winning political freedom. But their programs still had the imprint of populist influence.

The development of the labor movement intensified in the 80s. (up to 325 thousand strikers, the largest was the Morozov strike of 1885 in Orekhovo-Zuevo). “It was precisely in this era,” Lenin pointed out, “that Russian revolutionary thought worked most intensively, creating the foundations of the social democratic worldview” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 12, p. 331). G. V. Plekhanov became the organizer of the first Russian Marxist group; struggle. In Socialism and the Political Struggle (1883) and Our Differences (1885), Plekhanov dealt an ideological blow to populism, proving that Russia had embarked on the path of development of capitalism, and emphasized that revolutionaries in the struggle against autocracy and capitalism must rely on the proletariat. as the most advanced social force. Plekhanov raised the question of the need to create a party of the Russian working class. The Emancipation of Labor group drew up two drafts of the program of such a party, which, despite certain shortcomings of the populist persuasion, basically determined the direction of the struggle and tasks of the Russian Marxists correctly for their time. “The Emancipation of Labor group only theoretically founded social democracy and took the first step towards the working-class movement” (ibid., vol. 25, p. 132). Along with this group, and then under its influence, social democratic organizations began to emerge: in December 1883 in St. Petersburg - the "Party of Russian Social Democrats" (see Blagoev group) , in 1885 - "Association of St. Petersburg artisans" (headed by P. V. Tochissky). In 1888-89 in the Volga region, the organizer of Marxist circles was N. E. Fedoseev; such circles and social-democratic groups appeared in the Ukraine, Belorussia, Poland, and Lithuania. In 1889 M. I. Brusnev created in St. Petersburg a social-democratic organization that united students and workers. In the 90s. illegal social democratic groups and circles were formed in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Riga, Samara and other cities. The decade 1883-94 was the period of the birth of the social democratic movement in Russia, the emergence and consolidation of the theory and program of social democracy. The Emancipation of Labor group in the early 1990s. continued to spread Marxism. In 1895, Plekhanov legally published in St. Petersburg the book On the Development of the Monistic View of History, in which he gave a systematic exposition of the most important provisions of the teachings of Marx and Engels on the laws of social development, on the driving forces of history. On this book, Lenin said, a whole generation of Russian Marxists was brought up.

Russian Social Democracy existed for a long time in the form of circles and unions that were not connected with each other. This was an inevitable stage in the conditions of the autocratic system. In the 80s and early 90s. “Social Democracy existed when the working-class movement was poorly developed, going through, as a political party, the process of uterine development” (ibid., vol. 6, p. 180). This period was an important stage in the formation of Russian social democracy, the mastery of the Marxist worldview.

The establishment of the Marxist trend and the development of Marxist teaching in Russia is associated with the name of V. I. Lenin, who began his revolutionary activity in the late 1980s. Lenin's works of the 1990s played a major role in this. populists and "legal Marxists", especially "What are the "friends of the people" and how do they fight against the social democrats?" and "The Development of Capitalism in Russia". Lenin in his works began to develop revolutionary theory, taking into account the new historical experience, the new needs of the revolutionary movement. “Marxism, as the only correct revolutionary theory,” Lenin later wrote, “Russia truly suffered through half a century of unheard-of torment and sacrifice, unprecedented revolutionary heroism, incredible energy and selfless search, learning, testing in practice, disappointment, testing, comparing the experience of Europe” ( ibid., vol. 41, p. 8).

In the 90s. as a result of a rapid industrial upsurge, Russia became a country with an average level of development of capitalism. The size of the proletariat has doubled in a decade. More than 1.5 million workers were employed in industry and transport; in all, there were about 10 million hired workers.

Since the mid 90s. the proletarian stage began in the Russian liberation movement. The working class began to form its own party. In 1895 V. I. Lenin with a group of Marxists (G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, V. V. Starkov, N. K. Krupskaya, L. Martov, workers I. V. Babushkin, M. I. Kalinin, V. A. Shelgunov and others) organized the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class (See St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class) , who began to combine scientific socialism with the labor movement. It was the germ of a revolutionary proletarian party based on the mass working-class movement. "Unions of Struggle" were also created in Yekaterinoslav and Kyiv, "Workers' Unions" in Moscow and Ivanovo-Voznesensk; social democratic organizations sprang up all over the country. By 1898 there were illegal Marxist organizations and groups in more than 50 cities.

On the initiative of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle" on March 1-3 (13-15), 1898, the First Congress of the RSDLP was convened in Minsk. , Lenin was not present at the congress, as he was arrested and sent to Siberian exile in 1897. The Congress proclaimed the creation of a Marxist Labor Party and decided to call it the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), that is, the party of the proletariat of all nationalities in Russia. After the congress, the social democratic organizations and unions adopted the names of the committees of the RSDLP. However, there was no unity in the committees and, in fact, the party, as a single centralized organization, did not yet exist; Social Democratic organizations were still left without a leading center, since the Party Central Committee elected at the congress was soon arrested. Some social democrats and social democratic groups justified this organizational fragmentation and ideological confusion. An opportunist movement, Economism, appeared in the RSDLP. The "Economists" opposed the organization of an independent political party of the working class, opposed the political struggle, called for a struggle only for economic demands.

While in exile, Lenin developed a plan to create a single, centralized Marxist party with the help of an all-Russian political newspaper. Returning from exile (1900), he began active work on organizing such a party; The decisive role in this was played by the all-Russian illegal political newspaper Iskra, created abroad by Lenin, together with Plekhanov and his group.

The objective prerequisites for the emergence of the Russian Marxist Party were due to the development of capitalism in the country, the growth of the labor movement. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Russia, among other states, has entered the highest stage in the development of capitalism - Imperialism. At the beginning of the 20th century it was the focal point of the contradictions of world imperialism. The country was characterized by all the socio-economic contradictions of capitalist society, which were given particular sharpness by the system of political, spiritual and national

• - the title and the highest degree of distinction in the USSR, assigned by the Presidium of the Top. Council of the USSR for services to the state connected with the accomplishment of a heroic deed; post entered. CEC of the USSR of April 16. 1934...
• - the highest degree of distinction in the USSR; is awarded for personal or collective services to the Soviet state and society associated with the accomplishment of a heroic feat ...

  Dictionary of military terms

• - in 1934-1991. honorary title, the highest degree of distinction for services to the Soviet state and society associated with the accomplishment of a feat ...

  Glossary of legal terms

• - in 1934-91, an honorary title, the highest degree of distinction for services to the Soviet state and society associated with the accomplishment of a heroic feat ...

  Political science. Vocabulary.

• - a collection, began to be published by decree of the Central Committee of the RCP in 1921. 7th ed. 1-3rd ed. issued in 1922-27 by Eastpart...

  Soviet historical encyclopedia

• - combat-tested vanguard of owls. people, uniting on a voluntary basis the advanced, most conscious part of the working class, the kolkh. peasantry and intelligentsia of the USSR. Communist...

  Soviet historical encyclopedia

• - in 1934-91, an honorary title, the highest degree of distinction for services to the USSR associated with the accomplishment of a heroic feat ...

  Russian encyclopedia

• - political party in 1898-1991. She led the story from the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, based on the 1st Congress. It finally took shape at the 2nd congress, which adopted the party program ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary From the book Naval Commander [Materials on the life and work of the People's Commissar of the Navy, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov] author Vasilievna Kuznetsova Raisa

  State awards of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N.G. Kuznetsova Awards and insignia of the USSR1.1932. A pistol of the Korovin system from NAMORSIRKKA with an engraving on the handle: “To shock commander Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov for the successful

An open letter from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to party organizations, to all communists of the Soviet Union

An open letter from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to party organizations, to all communists of the Soviet Union Dear comrades, The Central Committee of the CPSU considers it necessary to address you with an open letter to state its position

Myth No. 43. Marshal of the Soviet Union, Four times Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was the most victorious marshal during the war years