Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Diagram of the structure of the CPSU

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), was a communist party tracing back to the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), which was established in its second congress in 1903. The party brought together the vanguard of the Soviet peoples in the construction of socialist society.

Its predecessor, the RSDLP, had split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in 1903. The CPSU emerged in continuity with the Bolshevik political line.

The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviks) in 1918, the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1925, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) in 1952.

Names

• 1917–1918: Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks); RSDLP(b)
• 1918–1925: Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks); RCP(b)
• 1925–1952: All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks); AUCP(b)
• 1952–1991: Communist Party of the Soviet Union; CPSU

History

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

In 1898 the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was created, uniting the several communist study groups scattered around Russia. Among its founders were people like Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov. It established itself as a Marxist party that had the task of overthrowing the monarchy and bring about socialism. However during the course of the struggle there was a lot of disagreement about when this goal was to be implemented and how. In 1903 emerged a de facto split in the party, and two factions were formed: the Mensheviks led by Martov and the Bolsheviks led by Lenin.

Although Lenin and many others first anticipated the two groups could merge again, the split ended up worsening and the two factions became separate parties: the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks) and the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks).

The main differences between the groups were the following:

1. The Bolsheviks wanted an organisationally united party of serious revolutionaries while the Mensheviks wanted a more loose reformist party.

2. Both parties agreed that the next course of action was to overthrow the monarchy and carry out the so-called “bourgeois-democratic revolution.” This would make Russia a capitalist parliamentary democracy. However the Mensheviks argued that the class to lead the revolution was the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class, as the bourgeois class served this function in the French Revolution. The Bolsheviks disagreed, they thought the capitalists couldn’t be trusted to carry out the democratic revolution: they were weaker than the bourgeoisie in France at the time, they allied with the monarchy, and they feared the workers and peasants. In fact, Lenin argued that the Russian proletariat was much stronger and more developed than the French proletariat of the late 1700s and therefore should lead the democratic revolution, and not merely support it.

3. Lastly, the Mensheviks didn’t think Russia was ready for socialism, in their opinion the workers could never take power in Russia until after a long time of capitalist and parliamentary development. Even though the debate about workers revolution and socialism would only come about fully later, this attitude relates to the Menshevik position that the workers shouldn’t lead the democratic revolution, but only support the capitalist class against the monarchy.

In the 1907 London Congress (the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP) for example, the Mensheviks advocated for a liquidationist program that would see the RSDLP dissolved in favor of a Bourgeois democratic 'Labor Congress', branding the RSDLP a 'petty bourgeois intellectual' organization. This was in stark contrast to the member compositions of the pro-Party group (Bolsheviks) and anti-Party group (Mensheviks), where the Bolsheviks in percentage and in total numbers possessed a higher degree of Proletarian elements as opposed to the Mensheviks' petty bourgeois composition. The blatant fabrication and liqudationist line advocated by the Mensheviks was opposed by even their own Proletarian elements and denounced as Opportunist by Rosa Luxembourg, a visiting delegate of the SPD.

October Revolution

The party grew from 10,000 members in April 1917 to 500,000 by the time of the October Revolution.

Civil War

The party reached 600,000 members in 1921. Lenin conducted the first purge of the party in 1921 and expelled 25% of its members including 45% in the countryside. This purge was the largest in the party's history. Party members could be expelled for the following reasons:

• Being former kulaks, Whites, or counterrevolutionaries
• Being corrupt, bureaucratic, or overly ambitious
• Rejecting party discipline or disobeying the Central Committee
• Committing crimes or sexual misconduct or being drunk publicly

Internal struggles

Trotsky and Zinoviev formed an anti-Party bloc in 1926, leading the Central Committee to organize a general party discussion. 724,000 party members voted for the Central Committee and only 4,000 or less voted for the Trotskyists.

The Central Committee purged Trotsky and his followers from the party in December 1927. In June 1928, several Trotskyists, including Zinoviev, Kamenev, Preobrazhensky, and Rykov, returned to the party after recanting their views. Bukharin and the Right Opposition soon formed an alliance with the Trotskyists against Stalin.

Between 1928 and 1931, the CPSU accepted 1.4 million new members, including many who lacked theoretical knowledge. 11% of the party was purged in 1929. Another purge began in 1933 and lasted two years. It was difficult to tell who was a party member because 250,000 party cards were lost or stolen. Zinoviev and Kamenev were purged a second time in the early 1930s.

17th Congress

The 17th Party Congress was held in 1934 following the success of the First Five-Year Plan. Opposition leaders were invited to make speeches.

1937–38 purges

278,818 people were expelled from the party during the purges of 1937 and 1938. The number of expulsions was lower than in previous years, but a much higher proportion of those purged were active cadres. Many wrongfully purged members appealed to rejoin the party, and 54% them were readmitted. Out of 182,000 Old Bolsheviks (party members before 1921) in 1934, 125,000 remained in the party by 1939.

19th Congress

At the 19th Party Congress in 1952, the last congress before the death of Stalin, Malenkov upheld Marxism–Leninism, self-criticism, and party discipline. Stalin criticized Mikoyan and Beria and worried that the party would not be able to recognize enemies without him.

Perestroika

The CPSU held its 19th Conference in June 1988, and Gorbachev and Yakovlev implemented parliamentary policies. Gorbachev purged non-revisionists, including Andrei Gromyko, from the Politburo, and changed Ligachyov from head of ideology to head of agriculture. Party membership began dropping, and the party lost more than 250,000 members in 1990.

The 28th Party Congress in July 1990 weakened the Central Committee and made the entire Congress elect the General Secretary. It also allowed the formation of factions within the party.

Demographics

In 1922, Jews made up 5.2% of party membership, roughly five times their total proportion of the population. From the late 1920s through the 1940s, the percentage of Jews in the party was about 4.3%.

In 1972, the majority of CPSU members were Russians, but Georgians made up the highest ratio of party members per capita, followed by Russians and then Armenians. Moldovans were the most underrepresented nationality in the party. The percentage of women in the party rose from 7.4% in 1920 to 26.5% in 1981.

References