Reply to Speeches at the IV Conference of the CC of the RCP(b) with Responsible Workers of National Republics and Regions, June 12, 1923

Since I was attacked (laughter), allow me to reply concerning the "one and indivisible." It was none other than Stalin who, in the resolution on the national question, branded the "one and indivisible" in point 8. Obviously, the issue is not the "indivisible" but the federation, whereas the Ukrainians are foisting upon us a confederation. That is the first question.

The second question, about Rakovsky. I repeat -- I have already said this once -- that in the Constitution adopted at the I Congress of Soviets of the USSR, it states that such-and-such republics "unite into one union state" -- "the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." The Ukrainians sent the CC their counter-draft. There it says: such-and-such republics "form a union of socialist republics." The words "unite into one union state" have been dropped. Four words have been dropped here. Why? Is this an accident? Where is the federation here? I discern the germs of confederalism in Rakovsky's position also in the fact that he has dropped from the relevant point of the Constitution adopted by the I Congress the words about the Presidium as the "bearer of supreme power between sessions," dividing authority between the presidiums of the two chambers, i.e., reducing union power to a fiction. Why did he do this? Because he is against the idea of a union state, against a real union power. That is the second point.

Third -- in the Ukrainian draft, the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade are not merged but are transferred from the category of merged commissariats to the category of directive ones.

Such are the three arguments on the basis of which I discern in Rakovsky's proposals the germs of confederation. Where does this divergence with the text of the Constitution, which was adopted also by the Ukrainian delegation, come from? (Rakovsky: "There was the XII Congress.")

Excuse me. The XII Congress rejected your amendments and adopted "the unification of republics into one union state."

I see that some of the Ukrainian comrades have, in the period from the I Congress of the Union of Republics to the XII Party Congress and the present conference, undergone a certain evolution from federalism to confederalism. Well, I am for federation, i.e., against confederation, i.e., against Rakovsky's and Skrypnik's proposals.

Fourth Conference of the CC of the RCP with Responsible Workers of National Republics and Regions. Stenographic Report. Moscow, 1923.