Second Program of the CPSU

Last updated
Programme of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved at the 8th Party Congress in 1919 Programme of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved at the 8th Party Congress (1919).jpg
Programme of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved at the 8th Party Congress in 1919

The Second Program of the CPSU was the main document of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, adopted during the 6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) in 1917. The Program was later amended during the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (b) in 1919, after the Bolsheviks had been swept to power during the October Revolution, to include numerous changes, including a description of Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism and elaborations on the economic structure of Russia, including descriptions of Small Commodity Production and the role of the Middle Peasantry. [1] [2]

The Program, as amended during the 8th Party Congress, contains a clause addressing the National Question which declares:

9. In the national question the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is guided by the following postulates:

(1) The cornerstone of our policy is the policy of drawing together the proletarians and the semi-proletarians of the various nationalities for the purpose of waging a joint revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of the landowners and the bourgeoisie.

(2) In order to overcome the distrust felt by the working masses of oppressed countries towards the proletariat of states which used to oppress those countries, it is necessary to abolish all the privileges enjoyed by any national group, to establish complete equality of rights for all nationalities, to recognise the right of colonies and dependent nations to separation.

(3) With the same aim in view the Party proposes, as a transitional form towards complete unity, a federation of states organised according to the Soviet type.

(4) As for the question as to who is to express the will of the nation to separate, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union adopts the historical class viewpoint, taking into consideration the stage of the historical development of the given nation: whether it is evolving from medievalist to bourgeois democracy, or from bourgeois democracy to Soviet or proletarian democracy, etc.

In any case, the proletariat of the nation which has been the oppressing nation must exercise special caution and pay special attention to the survivals of national sentiment among the toiling masses of oppressed nations or those not possessing full rights. Only by following such a policy will it be possible to create conditions for really durable, voluntary unity among the nationally heterogeneous elements of the international proletariat, as was shown by the experience of uniting a number of national Soviet republics around Soviet Russia. [3]

Bukharin and Pyatakov argued against the inclusion of this clause, believing that such a declaration affirming the rights of nations to self determination could work against and hinder the cause of "drawing together of proletarians and semi-proletarians of various nationalities," however, in this they were overruled by Lenin and the clause was accepted into the program. [4] The program also argued for a strong, proletarian Red Army, the transformation of the Education System in order that it should become "vehicle of communist principles in general... a vehicle of the ideological, organisational and educational influence of the proletariat over the proletarian and non-proletarian strata of the toiling masses, for the purpose of educating a generation capable of finally establishing communism," - that is the education system should become a beacon of socialist ideology - the establishment of a planned economy, the eradication of child labour, the introduction of a bonus system "in order to encourage the productivity of labour," and for the adoption of "far-reaching health and sanitary measures, for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease," among numerous other declarations. [2] [4] [5]

The Program was replaced in 1961, during the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union by the Third Program, which set the party goal of achieving "Communism in 20 years". [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of the Soviet Union</span> Founding and ruling party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), at some points known as the Russian Communist Party, All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet Communist Party (SCP), was the founding and ruling political party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU was the sole governing party of the Soviet Union until 1990 when the Congress of People's Deputies modified Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, which had previously granted the CPSU a monopoly over the political system. The party's main ideology was Marxism–Leninism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leninism</span> Political theory developed by Vladimir Lenin

Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishment of communism. Lenin's ideological contributions to the Marxist ideology relate to his theories on the party, imperialism, the state, and revolution. The function of the Leninist vanguard party is to provide the working classes with the political consciousness and revolutionary leadership necessary to depose capitalism.

The ten years 1917–1927 saw a radical transformation of the Russian Empire into a socialist state, the Soviet Union. Soviet Russia covers 1917–1922 and Soviet Union covers the years 1922 to 1991. After the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), the Bolsheviks took control. They were dedicated to a version of Marxism developed by Vladimir Lenin. It promised the workers would rise, destroy capitalism, and create a socialist society under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The awkward problem, regarding Marxist revolutionary theory, was the small proletariat, in an overwhelmingly peasant society with limited industry and a very small middle class. Following the February Revolution in 1917 that deposed Nicholas II of Russia, a short-lived provisional government gave way to Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist Party (RCP).

Bolshevism is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, focused on overthrowing the existing capitalist state system, seizing power and establishing the "dictatorship of the proletariat".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist International</span> Political organization (1919–1943)

The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was an international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism, and which was led and controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress in 1920 to "struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state". The Comintern was preceded by the dissolution of the Second International in 1916. Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky were both honorary presidents of the Communist International.

<i>The State and Revolution</i> 1917 book by Vladimir Lenin

The State and the Revolution: The Marxist Doctrine of the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution is a book written by Vladimir Lenin and published in 1917 which describes his views on the role of the state in society, the necessity of proletarian revolution, and the theoretic inadequacies of social democracy in achieving revolution to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The intensification of the class struggle along with the development of socialism is a component of the theory of Stalinism.

The history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was generally perceived as covering that of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party from which it evolved. In 1912, the party formally split, and the predecessor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union became a distinct entity. Its history since then can roughly be divided into the following periods:

National communism is a term describing various forms in which Marxism–Leninism and socialism has been adopted and/or implemented by leaders in different countries using aspects of nationalism or national identity to form a policy independent from communist internationalism. National communism has been used to describe movements and governments that have sought to form a distinctly unique variant of communism based upon distinct national characteristics and circumstances, rather than following policies set by other socialist states, such as the Soviet Union.

The 12th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was held during 17–25 April 1923 in Moscow. The congress elected the 12th Central Committee. It was attended by 408 delegates with deciding votes and 417 with consultative votes, representing 386,000 party members. This was the last congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (RCP(b) during Vladimir Lenin's leadership, though Lenin was unable to attend due to illness.

The Communist Party of Turkestan was a branch of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) which operated in the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It was formed in June 1918. At the time of its formation, the party was joined by a large section of Jadids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union</span> Soviet Union Communist Russian party government

Before the perestroika Soviet era reforms of Gorbachev that promoted a more liberal form of socialism, the formal ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was Marxism–Leninism, a form of socialism consisting of a centralised command economy with a vanguardist one-party state that aimed to realize the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviet Union's ideological commitment to achieving communism included the national communist development of socialism in one country and peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries while engaging in anti-imperialism to defend the international proletariat, combat the predominant prevailing global system of capitalism and promote the goals of Russian Communism. The state ideology of the Soviet Union—and thus Marxism–Leninism—derived and developed from the theories, policies, and political praxis of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.

The 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (b) was held in Moscow 18–-23 March 1919. The Congress was attended by 301 voting delegates who represented 313,766 Party members. A further 102 delegates attended with speaking rights, but no vote. It elected the 8th Central Committee.

The first significant attempt to implement communism on a large scale occurred in Russia following the February Revolution of 1917, which resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. The Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, capitalized on the discontent with the Provisional government and successfully seized power in the October Revolution of the same year. Lenin's government began to transform Russian society through policies such as land redistribution, nationalization of industry, and withdrawal from World War I. After Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin's rise to power brought about rapid industrialization, forced collectivization, and widespread political repression, which solidified the Soviet Union's status as a major world power but at a tremendous human cost.

<i>The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky</i>

The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky is a work by Vladimir Lenin written in October and November 1918 defending the Bolsheviks against criticisms being made against them by Karl Kautsky who was then the intellectual leader of the Second International.

In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat, or working class, holds control over state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the transitional phase from a capitalist to a communist economy, whereby the post-revolutionary state seizes the means of production, mandates the implementation of direct elections on behalf of and within the confines of the ruling proletarian state party, and institutes elected delegates into representative workers' councils that nationalise ownership of the means of production from private to collective ownership. During this phase, the organizational structure of the party is to be largely determined by the need for it to govern firmly and wield state power to prevent counterrevolution, and to facilitate the transition to a lasting communist society.

Vanguardism, in the context of Leninist revolutionary struggle, relates to a strategy whereby the most class-conscious and politically "advanced" sections of the proletariat or working class, described as the revolutionary vanguard, form organizations to advance the objectives of communism. They take actions to draw larger sections of the working class toward revolutionary politics and to serve as manifestations of proletarian political power opposed to the bourgeoisie. This theory serves as the underpinning of the leading role of the Communist party, usually enshrined in the constitution, after the seizure of power in the state by Communists.

Socialism in one country was a Soviet state policy to strengthen socialism within the country rather than socialism globally. Given the defeats of the 1917–1923 European communist revolutions, Joseph Stalin encouraged the theory of the possibility of constructing socialism in the Soviet Union alone. The theory was eventually adopted as Soviet state policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Lenin bibliography</span>

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917, and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death. Based in Marxism, his political theories are known as Leninism.

Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is the perception of all proletarian revolutions as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory that capitalism is a world-system and therefore the working classes of all nations must act in concert if they are to replace it with communism.

References

  1. Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) in The Great Soviet Encyclopedia , 3rd Edition (1970–1979).
  2. 1 2 "Vladimir Lenin at the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)'s eighth Congress". caravanmagazine.in. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  3. "Political Program of the CPSU". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  4. 1 2 "Eighth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) March 18-23, 1919: Section Three". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  5. "Eighth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) March 18-23, 1919: Section Four". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  6. Tompson, William J. (1997). Khrushchev: A Political Life. New York City: St. Martin's Press. p. 238.