Organizational Report of the Central Committee to the XIII Congress of the RCP(b), May 24, 1924

Comrades! The general situation that has taken shape over the past year in the country and around the party can be characterized as a favorable one. The basic facts: an upturn in the country's economy, a growth of activity in general, a growth of the activity of the working class in particular, and an invigoration of party life.

The question comes down to the extent to which the party succeeded over the past year in utilizing this situation to strengthen its influence in the mass organizations surrounding the party, the extent to which it managed to improve its composition, improve its work in general, improve the registration of responsible workers, their distribution, their promotion, and, finally, the extent to which the party succeeded in improving the internal life of its organizations.

Hence eight questions that I shall discuss:

(a) the condition of the mass organizations surrounding the party and linking it with the class, and the growth of communist influence in these organizations;

(b) the condition of the state apparatus, both ministerial and those operating on a cost-accounting basis, as well as the lower-level Soviet apparatus, and the growth of communist influence in this area;

(c) the composition of the party and the Lenin enrollment;

(d) the composition of the party's leading organs, the party cadres, and the party's younger members;

(e) the party's work in the area of agitation and propaganda, work in the countryside;

(f) the party's work in the area of registration, distribution, and promotion of responsible workers, both party and non-party;

(g) the party's internal life;

(h) conclusions.

In what follows I shall have to cite a number of figures, for without them the report will be incomplete and unsatisfactory. I must stipulate in this connection that I do not believe in the absolute accuracy of these figures, for our statistics are lame, since an elementary sense of professional honor is, unfortunately, not possessed by all Soviet statisticians.

Having made this necessary stipulation, I turn to the figures.

1. Mass Organizations Linking the Party with the Class

(a) Trade unions. Last year there were, according to the statistics, 4,800,000 organized in the trade unions. This year 5 million. The increase is undeniable. If one takes the 12 basic industrial unions, takes the number of workers employed in these industries and the number organized, the result is 92% organization. In the basic branches of industry, trade union organization accounts for 91-92% of the entire working class. This is in the area of industry.

Things are worse in agriculture, where there are about 800,000 agricultural workers, and if one takes the agricultural workers not employed in state enterprises, trade union organization amounts to 3%.

As for communist influence in the unions, there are figures on the chairmen of provincial councils of trade unions and district councils of trade unions. By the XII Congress, underground veterans among the chairmen were over 57%. By the present congress -- only 35%. A decline. On the other hand, the percentage of those who joined the party after February 1917 has grown. This is explained by the fact that the number of those organized in trade unions has grown, there are not enough underground veterans, and the party's younger members have come to the aid of the cadres. Among these chairmen, workers constituted 55%, and now 61%. An improvement in the social composition of the leading organs.

(b) Cooperatives. In this area the figures are more confused than in any other area and do not inspire confidence. In consumer cooperatives there were about 5 million members last year. This year about 7 million. God grant a new year every day, but I do not believe these figures, for the consumer cooperatives have not yet fully shifted to voluntary membership, and "dead souls" undoubtedly exist here. In agricultural cooperatives there were supposedly 2 million last year (although I have figures obtained last year from the Agricultural Union indicating 4 million members), and this year -- 1,500,000 members. A decline in organization in agricultural cooperatives is undeniable. The party composition of the leading organs of the center of consumer cooperatives was 87% last year, and now 86%. A decline. In the provincial and district unions it was 68% communists, and now it has become 86%. A strengthening of influence. However, if we pose the question not about "leading" organs but about responsible workers who actually lead, it turns out that among all responsible workers in general there are only 26% communists. I consider this figure more credible. In agricultural cooperatives, the composition of the leading organs gives figures of 46% last year and 55% this year. But if one digs deeper and takes the responsible leaders, it turns out that among them there are only 13% communists.

That is how some of our statisticians know how to decorate the facade, the outward appearance, while concealing what is rotten from sight.

(c) Youth League. The number of members and candidates last year was 317,000 (although I have figures for last year, signed by a member of the CC of the RYLCL, indicating 400,000), and this year the number of members and candidates is 570,000. Despite some confusion in the figures, the growth of organization here is undeniable. Workers in the RYLCL constituted 34% last year, 41% this year; peasants constituted 42% last year, 40% this year. Students in factory apprenticeship schools numbered 50,000 last year, 47,000 this year. The number of RCP(b) members in the entire youth league was about 10% last year, 11% this year. The growth is also undeniable.

(d) Associations of women workers and peasant women. The basic organization in this area is the delegate meetings. Here there are as many confused figures as you like, but if one sorts things out properly, it turns out that in the cities there were 37,000 women delegates last year and 46,000 this year, that is, somewhat more than last year. In the villages there were 58,000 women delegates last year, and now 100,000. What quantity of the broad masses of peasant women and women workers these delegates encompass -- I was unable to obtain any more or less precise figures on this.

In view of the special importance of the question of involving women workers and peasant women in Soviet and party work, it will not be superfluous to trace the percentage of participation of women workers and peasant women in trade union organs, in Soviets, and in provincial and county party committees. In rural Soviets last year women constituted only about 1% (terribly few). This year 2.9% (also very few), but an increase exists all the same. In volost executive committees there were 0.3% women last year, this year 0.5% -- a minimal increase not worth mentioning. In county executive committees last year there were about 2% women, this year slightly more than 2% (I give figures for the RSFSR, as figures for all republics are not available). In provincial executive committees in the RSFSR it was over 2% last year, now over 3%. Women trade union members this year are 26%; for last year there are no data. Women members of factory committees are 14%. Women members of provincial union departments are 6%, in central committees of unions over 4%. Women in the party constituted about 8% last year, now about 9%. Women candidates were about 9%, now about 11%. All this is prior to the Lenin enrollment. In provincial committees by the XIII Congress women constituted 3%, in county committees about 6%. Women communists in the most important women's associations, the delegate meetings, were 10%, now 8%. The decline is explained by the growth in the number of non-party women delegates. One must acknowledge that half the population of our Soviet Union -- women -- still remains on the sidelines, or nearly on the sidelines, of the main road of Soviet and party construction.

(e) Army. In the army, in military educational institutions, and in the navy, the total number of communists decreased from 61,000 to 52,000. This is a deficiency requiring correction. At the same time, the total number of party members among the command staff has increased. By the XII Congress, communists among the command staff were 13%, now we have 18%. The party composition of the army from the standpoint of party seniority is interesting. Of 52,000 communists working in the ranks of the army, underground veterans constitute 0.9% -- less than one percent; those who joined after February through October 1917 -- over 3%; those who joined before 1919 -- 11%; in 1919 -- 22%; in 1920 -- 23%; in 1921-1923 -- 20%. From this you see that our army is served mainly, if not exclusively, by the younger party members.

(f) Voluntary organizations of public initiative. Noteworthy is the fact that this year a new type of organization has emerged -- voluntary organizations, organizations of public initiative: all manner of cultural-educational circles and societies, sports organizations, assistance societies, organizations of worker and peasant correspondents, and the like. The number of these organizations is growing continuously, and it should be noted that among them there are not only organizations sympathetic to Soviet power, but hostile ones as well. If one takes the RSFSR, such organizations of public initiative could have been counted at about 78-80 last year; this year there are over 300. If one takes the physical culture organization in the RSFSR, the number of members in this organization was 126,000 last year, this year 375,000. The social composition of this organization: workers constituted 35% last year, now 42%. The main centers of these organizations are factory committees and clubs at plants, and peasant mutual aid committees in the villages. Noteworthy are the organizations of worker correspondents and village correspondents, whose aim is to serve as exponents of proletarian public opinion. Worker correspondent organizations encompass 25,000 persons, village correspondents 5,000. If one turns to the composition of the provincial organs of these organizations, it turns out that last year in the RSFSR there were 19% communists, this year over 29%. Finally, one cannot fail to mention a new organization, which yesterday held a demonstration before us at Lenin's Mausoleum -- the Pioneer organization, whose membership last year as of June, according to our statistics (which, as I have already said, are somewhat lame), was 75,000, and this year as of April over 161,000. Among the Pioneers, children of workers in industrial provinces constitute 71%, children of peasants 7%. In national regions, children of workers in this organization constitute 38%. In peasant provinces, children of workers constitute 36%.

Such is the situation with the mass organizations surrounding the party and linking it with the class. In the main, the growth of the party's influence in these organizations is undeniable.

2. The State Apparatus

(a) Number of employees. According to the statistics, ministerial employees -- that is, employees of institutions on the state budget -- numbered over 1,500,000 last year; this year there are supposedly 1,200,000. A reduction of 300,000. But if one turns to institutions operating on a cost-accounting basis, it turns out that this year we have about 200,000 in this area (there are no figures for last year), that is, what we gained in budgetary institutions in terms of reduction, we have to a significant extent lost in institutions operating on a cost-accounting basis. I need not even mention that part of the employees were transferred to the local budget, that is, did not fall within this calculation. In general, the number of employees has remained the same, if it has not increased. There remain the employees of cooperatives, who numbered 103,000 last year, now 125,000 -- an increase; employees of trade unions, who numbered 28,000, now 27,000; and employees of the party apparatus, who numbered 26,000, now 23,000. A total of 1,575,000, not counting employees on local budgets. As you see, there are as yet no grounds for speaking of successes in reducing employees in general and especially employees of the state apparatus.

(b) Party composition of the country's highest organs. If one counts the members of the highest institutions, members of collegia, heads of main departments and their deputies (excluding industry), it turns out that in 1923 there were 83% communists, this year 86%. Some progress is undoubtedly there, if one compares it with the situation we experienced about two years ago. Workers in these leading organs constituted 19% last year, 21% this year. Few, but still an increase.

(c) Party composition of industrial organs. As for the industrial organs -- trusts, syndicates, and major enterprises -- we get the following picture: in trusts throughout the USSR, in the entire apparatus, communists constituted over 6% last year, over 10% this year. In the leading organs of trusts, syndicates, and major enterprises, last year over 47%, this year over 52%. If one takes the directors of major enterprises, last year we had 31%, this year 61% communists. In the trusts of the RSFSR, in the entire apparatus, there were 9.5% communists; this year it has become over 12% (about 13%). In the leading composition of the trusts of the RSFSR there were 37% communists, now 49%. In the syndicates last year there were 9%, this year 10% in the entire apparatus as a whole. In the leading composition of the syndicates it was 42%, now 55%.

In general, one must acknowledge that in the economic organs, if one takes the leading composition, we have about 48-50% communists.

(d) Party composition of trade and credit institutions. Our trade and credit institutions present a completely different picture -- institutions that have acquired exceptional significance at the present moment in our entire economy. Take, for example, Vnutorg [the People's Commissariat of Domestic Trade], which is of the greatest importance in our entire development. Before the latest reform, in its central institution, in the leading composition, there were only 4% communists. If one takes the most important organ of Vneshorg -- Gostorg [State Trade organization] -- it turns out that among responsible workers there are only 19% communists, and what kind of communists these are you may judge by the fact that in the central institution of Gostorg the communists were purged 100%. (Laughter.) A second important organ, of serious significance in the entire economy, is Khleboprodukt [the Grain Products organization], which presents the following picture. In 58 offices of Khleboprodukt, not counting the apparatus of the central institution, the authorized representatives and deputies, there are a total of 9,900 employees. Of these, communists constitute 5.9%, RYLCL members 0.7%, and the rest are non-party. In the organs most closely in contact with the peasantry -- at the grain collection points, at various auxiliary points, and among the agents -- communists constitute only 17%. In the central institution of Khleboprodukt there are 137 responsible workers, of whom RCP(b) members number 13 persons -- 9%. It should be noted that party members in Khleboprodukt are utilized in the highest degree irrationally -- only 20% of them are in responsible work, while the remaining 80% are lower-level employees. Things are no better in such a credit institution as Gosbank [the State Bank]. This is the most important credit institution, of serious significance in our entire economic life. You know the power of credit -- it is a power by means of which one can ruin or raise any stratum of the population; one need only set in motion so-called preferential credit. And this Gosbank has in its entire apparatus only 7% communists, and in its leading composition only 12%, and yet Gosbank decides the fate of a whole number of enterprises and very many economic institutions.

(e) Party composition of Soviets. Data are available for the RSFSR. In rural Soviets we had about 6% communists last year, and this year it has become over 7%. In volost executive committees there were over 39% communists, now 48%. In county executive committees there were over 80%, now over 87%. In city soviets of county towns there were 61%, now less -- 58%. In provincial executive committees there were 90%, now 89%. In city soviets of provincial capitals there were 78%, now 71%. In these last three Soviets -- in city soviets of county towns, provincial executive committees, and city soviets of provincial capitals -- the influence of non-party members is insignificant but still growing. As for the plenums of provincial executive committees -- data are available for 69 provinces, with information on 2,623 workers. And what turns out? Non-party members of plenums of provincial executive committees constitute about 11%. The highest percentage of non-party members is in Siberia and the Far Eastern Region, where it equals 20. As for the national republics, there non-party members constitute 7%. This is the lowest percentage of non-party members in provincial executive committees. And this in the national republics, where party members are few in general!

3. Composition of the Party. The Lenin Enrollment

(a) Membership. By the XII Congress we had over 485,000 members and candidates of the party. Now the figure is 472,000 without the Lenin enrollment. With the Lenin enrollment, if one takes the data as of May 1 (by that date, 128,000 had been admitted), our composition is determined at 600,000 persons. If one assumes that within about two weeks the Lenin enrollment will amount to no less than 200,000, party membership can be determined at 670,000-680,000 persons.

(b) Social composition of the party. Workers constituted 44.9% last year, this year, without the Lenin enrollment, 45.75% -- an increase of 0.8%. Peasants were 25.7%, now 24.6%, that is, a decline of 1.1%. Employees and others were over 29%, now 29% with a slight plus, that is, an insignificant increase. If one takes the social composition with the Lenin enrollment as of May 1, then workers among members and candidates of the RCP(b) turn out to be 55.4%, peasants 23%, employees and others 21.6%.

(c) Composition from the standpoint of party seniority. Those who joined the party before 1905 constituted 0.7% last year, now 0.6%. Those who joined in 1905-1916 constituted 2%, remain 2%. Those who joined in 1917 constituted over 9%, remain slightly less than 9%. Those who joined in 1918 constituted 16.5%, remain 15.7%. Those who joined in 1920 constituted 31.5%, remain 30.4%. Those who joined in 1921 -- 10.5%, remain 10.1%. Those who joined in 1922 -- there are no figures for that year, now 3.2%. Those who joined in 1923 -- 2.3%. All this without taking the Lenin enrollment into account.

(d) National and gender composition. Great Russians in the party by the XIII Congress constitute 72%; obviously, after the Lenin enrollment the percentage should increase. The second group -- Ukrainians -- 5.88%. The third group -- Jews -- 5.2%. Then come the Turkic nationalities -- over 4%, and after them other nationalities such as Latvians, Georgians, Armenians, and the like. Women party members constituted 7.8% by the XII Congress, now 8.8%. Women candidates were 9%, now 10.5%. Under the Lenin enrollment, women admitted constitute 13% of the total number, which will somewhat increase the above-mentioned percentage of women.

Finally, communists from the factory bench as of December 1, 1923 (members and candidates) constitute 17%; with the Lenin enrollment, assuming the figure of 128,000, the figure is 35.3%.

(e) Party organization of the working class. If one counts the entire working-class part of our party -- that is, both the number that exists as of May 1 and the number that we will have in about two weeks, when the Lenin enrollment reaches (and will perhaps exceed) 200,000 -- the total number of the working-class part of our party will amount to 410,000 out of a grand total of 672,000. This constitutes, in relation to the entire industrial and agricultural proletariat of the Union, numbering 4,100,000, a figure of 10%.

We have achieved a situation in which for every 100 workers we have 10 organized in the party.

4. Composition of the Party's Leading Organs. Cadres and Younger Members

(a) Composition of local organs. I take the plenums of provincial committees and regional committees from 45 organizations. Underground veterans constitute over 32% of the plenums of provincial and regional committees; the remaining 67% are those who joined the party later: those who joined in 1917 -- 23%, in 1918-1919 -- 33%, in 1920 -- 9%. In the leading local organs, both in provincial and regional committees, the predominant group is not underground veterans but those who joined after October. If one takes the presidiums of provincial and regional committees from 52 organizations for which data on party seniority are available, those who joined before the revolution constitute 49%, after February in 1917 -- 19%, those who joined in 1918-1919 -- 26%, and the rest -- 6%. Here we still have a predominance of party members who joined our party after February. Underground veterans among heads of organizational departments of provincial and regional committees constituted 27.4% by the XII Congress, 30% by the XIII Congress; underground veterans among heads of agitation-propaganda departments constituted 31% by the XII Congress, now 23%. As for the secretaries of provincial and regional committees, we have the opposite tendency. Underground veterans among secretaries of provincial and regional committees constituted 62.5% by the XII Congress, 71% by the present congress.

The task is clear -- we must lower the seniority threshold for secretaries of provincial committees.

Composition of plenums of county committees from 67 counties: underground veterans -- 12%; those who joined in 1917 -- 22%; those who joined in 1918-1919 -- 43%. Secretaries of county committees, from data on 248 counties: underground veterans by our XIII Congress -- 25%; those who joined in 1917 before October -- 27%; those who joined before 1919 -- 37%. Secretaries of cells from 28 provinces (data exist for 6,541 secretaries): underground veterans are only over 3%; the main figure -- 55% -- falls on the group that joined the party after October, in 1917-1918.

By social composition, in 45 organizations workers constituted 48% this year in provincial and regional committees. In the presidiums of provincial and regional committees from 52 organizations, workers constituted 41%. Among secretaries of provincial and regional committees, by the XII Congress workers constituted 44.6%, by the XIII Congress 48.6%. In the plenums of county committees (from 67 counties) workers constituted 63.4%. Among secretaries of county committees (from 248 counties) workers constitute 50%.

All these data refer to the period before the latest party conferences, provincial and county.

But I have received some data on the results of the latest conferences just before the party congress. These data, covering 11 provinces and 16 regions, show that the number of underground veterans in the plenums of provincial and regional committees has decreased to 27%, while the number of workers has increased to 53%.

From this it is clear that we are dealing with two tendencies: the integration of younger members into the cadres and the broadening of cadres, on the one hand, and the improvement of the social composition of party organizations, on the other.

(b) Composition of the CC and the Central Control Commission. If one takes the candidates and members of the CC, 56 persons in all, then workers among them are 44.6%, peasants and intellectuals 55.3%. It is necessary, therefore, to expand the CC at the expense of increasing its working-class composition. In the CCC, workers among members and candidates are 48%, peasants and intellectuals 52%. Here the conclusion is the same. By party seniority, underground veterans among members and candidates of the CC constitute 96%. These are all those who joined before February. Of 56 members and candidates of the CC there are only 2 who joined later -- this constitutes 4%. The same goes for the CCC. Of 60 persons -- 57 are underground veterans and 3 (constituting 5%) are not underground veterans. It is necessary, therefore, to add young people.

(c) Composition of the present congress. A total of 742 delegates have been registered. Of these, workers 63.2%, underground veterans 48.4%. The rest are more or less young.

5. The Party's Work in the Area of Agitation and Propaganda

(a) Communist education. Striking is the large percentage of political illiteracy within the party: in some provinces it reaches 70%. On average across several provinces of central Russia (60,000 persons were tested), politically illiterate members constitute 57%; last year it was about 60%. This is one of the basic defects of our work. Evidently the work proceeds not so much in depth as in breadth. The number of Soviet-party schools -- properly speaking, the number of students in Soviet-party schools -- has decreased somewhat because some Soviet-party schools were transferred to local budgets. The number of students in communist universities has increased compared to last year. We shall have to reduce their number somewhat, however, in order to improve their material conditions proportionally to available resources and to press for a deepening of communist education. Particular emphasis must be given to the propaganda of Leninism, which is of decisive importance in the matter of communist education.

(b) Press. We had 560 newspapers last year, this year the number dropped to 495, but the circulation increased from 1.5 million to 2.5 million. Interesting is the growth of newspapers in non-Russian languages. We even have such republics where not a single Russian newspaper is published -- for example, Armenia, where 100% of newspapers are published in Armenian. In Georgia, 91% of newspapers are published in Georgian. In Byelorussia, 88% in non-Russian. The growth of the number of national newspapers is observed literally in all national regions and republics. Attention should be drawn to the editorial composition of our periodical organs. A survey was made of 287 press organs, and it turns out that among these press organs, underground-veteran editors constitute only 10%. The largest figures fall on party members of 1918-1919. This is a deficiency that should be corrected by sending experienced, older workers to the aid of the young newspaper workers.

(c) Work among the peasants. In this area there are a whole number of shortcomings. Soviets in the villages and volosts are for the time being still organs of the tax apparatus. Peasants regard them above all as organs that collect taxes. The work of local organs in the villages, according to general assessments of workers who know the countryside, is as follows: our policy is correct, but it is implemented incorrectly in the localities. The composition of Soviet organs in villages and volosts leaves much to be desired. The administrative character of cells in the villages has a bad influence on the work. Even worse is the influence of the ignorance of Soviet laws on the part of workers close to the countryside and the inability to explain these laws to the village poor, the inability to defend on the basis of Soviet laws the interests of the poor and middle peasants against kulak domination, on the basis of those benefits that are provided to the poor by Soviet laws. Then a general error: people want to approach the peasant from the standpoint of verbal agitation, not understanding that the peasant needs practical agitation, not verbal -- agitation that gives direct benefit. Involvement in cooperatives, the use of benefits for the poor, agricultural credit, mutual aid organized by peasant committees -- these are, above all, the questions that can interest the peasant.

6. The Party's Work in the Area of Registration, Distribution, and Promotion of Workers

(a) Registration and distribution. Last year about 5,000 responsible workers were registered; this year we have about 15,000 registered responsible workers of all scales. Our registration is improving, that is undeniable. The figures show that last year 10,000 various workers were distributed, of whom over 4,000 were responsible. This year 6,000 were distributed, of whom 4,000 were responsible. The party's main work in distribution went toward supplying workers above all to the party itself, then to the organs of the Supreme Council of National Economy, and, finally, to the organs of the People's Commissariat of Finance, chiefly its tax apparatus. All other branches of work were supplied with communists to a lesser degree. This is a major error in our work. At a time when the center of economic life has shifted to trade, we displayed insufficient initiative and determination to move toward the maximum supply of our most active workers to trade and credit institutions, their representatives in the localities and abroad. I have in mind, in particular, such organs as Gostorg and Khleboprodukt.

7. The Party's Internal Life

I shall not enumerate how many questions were considered in the CC and its organs and of what kind -- this is not of decisive significance, and it has already been stated in the written report distributed to you. I would only like to draw attention to the following circumstances.

First, the internal life of our organizations has undoubtedly improved. One gets the impression that the organizations have settled down, there are few squabbles, and practical work is proceeding. There are exceptions in the borderlands, where alongside old workers, not very firm in communism, there are growing cadres of young Marxist workers who have been to Sverdlovsk and other educational institutions, strong in party work and terribly weak in Soviet work. These conflicts in the borderlands between young and old workers will not be liquidated soon. In this sense, the borderlands constitute an exception. As for the majority of provinces of central Russia, one must consider that the organizations there have settled down and practical work has moved forward. The most quarrelsome republic -- Georgia, about which we spoke so much at the last congress -- has now turned out to be pacified in party terms. The best people among the former deviationists, such as Filipp Makharadze and Okudzhava, have definitively broken with the extreme deviationists and declared their readiness to work together.

Second, in the provincial committees, and especially in the CC of the party, over the past year there has been a shift of the center of gravity in work from bureaus or presidiums to plenums. Previously, plenums of the CC delegated the resolution of basic questions to the Politburo. That is no longer the case. Now the basic questions of our policy and our economy are decided by the plenum. Look at the agendas of our plenums, the stenographic reports that are distributed to all provincial committees, and you will understand that the center of gravity has shifted from the Politburo and the Orgburo to the plenum. This is very important in the sense that about one hundred to one hundred twenty persons assemble at our plenum (these are members and candidates of the CC and CCC), and owing to the shift of the center to the plenum, the plenum has been transformed into the greatest school for the training of leaders of the working class, political leaders of the working class. Before our eyes new people are growing and flourishing, the leaders of tomorrow of the working class -- therein lies the inestimable importance of our expanded plenums.

Characteristically, the same tendency is observed in the localities. The most important questions are being shifted from the bureaus of provincial committees to the plenums; the plenums are being expanded, their sessions are becoming longer, the best workers of the province are being attracted to them, and thus the plenums of provincial committees are being transformed into a school of leaders of local and regional significance. We must ensure that this tendency in the localities, in the provinces and counties, becomes a fact.

Third, the internal life of our party over the past year has been unprecedentedly intensive -- one might say it was brimming with energy. We Bolsheviks are accustomed to handling great affairs and often, while accomplishing the most major deeds, do not notice it. Such facts as the discussion and the Lenin enrollment -- there is no need to prove it -- are the most important events in the country and in the party, and they naturally could not but invigorate the party's internal life.

What do these two facts say? That our party, having weathered the discussion, is strong as a rock. That our party, having admitted 200,000 new members by the will and with the approval of the entire working class, is in essence an elected party, an elected organ of the working class.

8. Conclusions

1. Among the mass organizations surrounding our party, particular attention should be paid to cooperatives and to the associations of women workers and peasant women. I single out these organizations because they are at the present moment the most threatened.

(a) There is no doubt that the apparatus of consumer cooperatives, called upon to link state industry with peasant economy, has not proved equal to the task. This is shown by the undeniable fact that the peasant sector of consumer cooperatives constitutes only one-third of the total membership. We must ensure that peasants occupy a fitting position in consumer cooperatives. It is necessary for communists to shift the center of work from the provinces to the counties and districts in order to forge links with the masses of the peasantry and thus transform consumer cooperatives into a connecting link between industry and peasant economy.

(b) Things are no better in agricultural cooperatives. Confusion in the figures, a decrease in the number of members over the year -- all these are facts over which one must ponder. Here, too, as in consumer cooperatives, communists must shift the center of gravity to the counties and districts -- closer to the peasant masses, setting themselves the goal of ensuring that the local organs of the Agricultural Union do not serve as a cover for kulak domination. But this is not enough. It is necessary to strengthen the leading organs of the Agricultural Union with communist forces, where things have lately begun to go seriously lame.

(c) Things are worse in the area of work among women. True, the delegate meetings of women workers and peasant women are growing and widening, but what the workers of the women's movement have managed to achieve in the area of agitation is far from consolidated organizationally, even to a hundredth part of the necessary minimum. The percentage of participation of women workers and peasant women in Soviets, in unions, in the party speaks to this with certainty. The party must take all measures to see that this gap is filled in the near future. One cannot tolerate a situation in which half the population of the Soviet Union still stands on the sidelines of the main road of Soviet and party development.

(d) Particular attention is drawn to the voluntary organizations of public initiative, especially the organizations of worker and village correspondents. The organizations of worker and village correspondents have a great future. Under certain conditions of development, these organizations can play the role of a most important exponent and powerful conductor of proletarian public opinion. You know the power of proletarian public opinion in the matter of exposing and correcting the shortcomings of our Soviet public life -- it is much more serious than the power of administrative pressure. That is why the party must render every possible aid to these organizations.

2. The matter of the state apparatus draws particular attention. The unsatisfactory state of affairs in this area can hardly give rise to any doubt.

(a) Lenin's behests on the reduction and simplification of the state apparatus have been carried out only in part, to the most minimal degree. The reduction of ministerial apparatuses by 200,000-300,000 employees, while alongside them new apparatuses have grown up -- trusts, syndicates, and the like -- cannot properly be called either a reduction or a simplification of the apparatus. The party must take all measures to see that Lenin's behests in this area are carried out with an iron hand.

(b) I have set before you figures speaking of the minimal percentage of participation of non-party people in our Soviets. Comrades, one cannot go on living like this, and one cannot go on building a new state in this manner. Without paying special attention to the matter of involving non-party people in Soviet work in the province and the county, serious constructive work is impossible. Various paths could be envisioned here. One expedient path could be as follows: to create sections attached to the departments of provincial and county Soviets, or, better still, regularly convened business conferences for non-party people -- in the city, from among workers, in the counties, from among peasants -- so as to draw non-party people into practical work in various branches of administration and then, from among the non-party workers and peasants drawn into practical work, to select the best, the most capable, and place them in state work. Without such a broadening of the base of city and county Soviets, a broadening of the base of Soviet work, without the involvement of non-party people, the Soviets may seriously lose in weight and influence.

(c) There exists an opinion in our party that the real party work consists of work in provincial committees, regional committees, county committees, and cells. As for all other kinds of work, this is supposedly not purely party work. People working in trusts and syndicates are often ridiculed: "They have become detached, they say, from the party." (A voice from the floor: "They get purged.") Certain comrades need to be purged both in economic organs and in party organizations. But I am not taking the exceptional case; I am taking the case of a mass character. Usually our people divide party work into two categories: the higher category -- that is purely party work in provincial committees, regional committees, cells, in the CC -- and the lower category, called party work "in quotation marks," that is, work in all Soviet organs, especially trade ones. Comrades! Such an attitude toward economic workers is profoundly alien to Leninism. Every economic worker operating in the most wretched shop, in the most wretched trading establishment, if he is building and moving things forward, is a genuine party worker deserving full support from the party. One cannot move a single step in our construction with such a lordly, intellectualist attitude toward trade. Recently I delivered a lecture at Sverdlov University, where I spoke about the fact that we might have to transfer some ten thousand communists from the area of party or industrial work to the area of trade work. They burst out laughing. They don't want to trade! And yet it is clear that all our talk about socialist construction risks degenerating into empty chatter if we do not root out lordly intellectualist prejudices against trade in the party, and if we communists do not master all branches of trade.

(d) Comrades, no constructive work, no state work, no planning work is conceivable without proper accounting. And accounting is inconceivable without statistics. Accounting without statistics cannot move a single step forward. Recently at a conference, Rykov said that in the period of war communism he had a statistician in the VSNKh who today gave one set of figures on a given question and tomorrow different figures on the same question. Unfortunately, such statisticians have not yet died out among us. The work of statistics is such that the individual branches of the whole represent continuous links, and if one link is spoiled, the entire work risks being spoiled. In a bourgeois state, the statistician has some minimum of professional honor. He cannot lie. He can be of any political conviction or tendency, but as regards facts, figures, he will sacrifice himself but will not tell an untruth. If only we had more such bourgeois statisticians, people who respect themselves and possess some minimum of professional honor! If such an approach to statistical work is not adopted among us, constructive work will not move a single step.

The same must be said about reporting. No economic work can advance without reporting. And our accountants do not always, unfortunately, possess the elementary qualities of an ordinary bourgeois, honest accountant. I bow before some of them -- among them there are honest and devoted workers -- but that there also exist wretched ones who can fabricate any report and who are more dangerous than counter-revolutionaries -- that is a fact. Without overcoming these deficiencies, without liquidating them, we cannot advance either the economy of the country or its trade.

(e) The percentage of workers and communists in the leading organs of certain state institutions is still minimal and insufficient. This deficiency is especially glaring with respect to the leading institutions and foreign representatives of trade organs (foreign trade, domestic trade, syndicates) and credit institutions, which at the present moment are of decisive significance in the life and development of the national economy and, above all, state industry. The party must take all measures to see that this gap is filled. Without this, there is no point even in thinking about implementing the economic-political directives of the party.

(f) Until now, the most important question of economic construction has been the question of organizing and formalizing trusts. Now, when the center has shifted to the area of trade, questions about the organization of mixed and joint-stock companies for domestic and foreign trade have come to the fore. Practice has shown that, while we may have coped with the question of trusts, our institutions go lame on both legs when it comes to resolving questions about mixed and joint-stock companies. There is a tendency to achieve the organization of such a type of trade institution that would reduce to a minimum the significance of state control in this important matter. There is no doubt that the party will fight by all means against such a tendency.

3. It is necessary to continue further improving the composition of the party in general and its leading organs in particular. Under no circumstances should the cadres of the party be regarded as something closed. The cadres must expand step by step at the expense of the party's younger members. The younger members of the party must replenish the cadres. Without this, the existence of cadres is purposeless.

4. In the area of agitation:

(a) Things are bad with political literacy of party members (60% political illiteracy). The Lenin enrollment increases the percentage of illiteracy. Systematic work on liquidating this deficiency is needed. The task is to move this matter forward.

(b) Things are bad with cinema. Cinema is the greatest means of mass agitation. The task is to take this matter into our hands.

(c) The press is developing, but insufficiently. The task is to raise the circulation of the Peasant Newspaper to one million, the circulation of Pravda to 600,000, and to set up a popular newspaper for the Lenin enrollment, bringing its circulation to at least half a million.

(d) Wall newspapers are developing, but insufficiently. The task is to support the correspondents of wall newspapers and move the matter forward.

(e) Things are bad with work in the countryside. Agitation in the countryside must be chiefly of a practical nature, along the lines of every possible aid to the poor and middle-peasant elements, including preferential credit, along the lines of developing the beginnings of collective farms (not communes), on the model of the Committees of Poor Peasants in Ukraine, where there are about 5,000 collective farms, along the lines of involving the peasantry in cooperatives, above all in agricultural cooperatives. A particularly important task should be considered the mastering of the peasant committees. One should remember the territorial formations, which are of major significance for agitation in the countryside.

5. In the area of registration, distribution, and promotion of workers, both party and non-party:

(a) Registration is more or less established.

(b) Things are somewhat worse with distribution, for the basic tasks of regrouping forces in the new situation of internal development, posed by Lenin at the XI Congress, have not yet been fulfilled. The current task of maximum saturation of all manner of trade organizations with the most active workers awaits its resolution.

Last year, the Registration and Distribution Department worked, properly speaking, for the organs of the VSNKh and the People's Commissariat of Finance, especially its tax apparatus, supplying workers predominantly to these organs. Now the task consists of turning the rudder toward trade organs and credit institutions, supplying them with workers in preference to other institutions. Here, perhaps, some 5,000 communists will be needed.

At the same time, the task consists of supplementing the existing method of distributing forces with new methods: the method of voluntariness, the method of calling for volunteers to organize work at especially important points of Soviet construction. This method has a direct bearing on the question of establishing model work in certain districts, without which (without the establishment of model work) it is impossible to manage at the present stage. Lenin's idea about model work, set forth in his "Tax in Kind," must be implemented.

(c) Particular attention must be paid to the promotion of workers, both party and non-party. The method of promoting new people only from above is insufficient. It must be supplemented by methods of promotion from below in the course of practical work, in the course of drawing new forces into practical work. In this sense, in the matter of promoting workers to responsible posts in factories and trusts, production conferences and factory and trust conferences should play a major role. It is necessary to develop sections attached to the departments of Soviets in provincial and county cities, transforming them into periodically convened business conferences and drawing into these conferences both members of Soviets and, especially, non-members -- workers and women workers, peasants and peasant women. Only in the course of such broad practical work will it be possible to promote new people from among non-party workers and peasants. The wave of the Lenin enrollment in the cities and the increased political activity of the peasantry indicate with certainty that this path of promotion should yield great results.

6. Two conclusions from the area of the party's internal life:

(a) The so-called "principle" of expanding the CC of the party has proved correct. Experience has shown that the expansion of the CC yielded enormous benefit, and that the comrades who upheld the "principle" of narrowing the CC were on the wrong path.

(b) It is now clear to all that the opposition during the discussion, when speaking of the disintegration of the party, was profoundly wrong. There is hardly to be found in our party even one serious organization which, observing the course of the party's internal life and its mighty growth, would not say that the people who were croaking not long ago about the ruin of our party in fact did not know the party, stood far from the party, and very much resembled people whom one should call foreigners in the party.

The result: our party is growing, it is moving forward, it is learning to govern, it is becoming the most authoritative organ of the working class. The Lenin enrollment is a direct indication of this. (Long, unceasing applause.)

Pravda No. 118, May 27, 1924.