RESOLUTION “ON PARTY UNITY” -1921

CC

1. The Congress draws the attention of all members of the Party to the fact that in view of a number of circumstances, which are intensifying wavering amidst the petty-bourgeois section of the country’s population, unity and solidarity within the Party, implicit trust between Party members, and team work that really embodies the proletarian vanguard’s unity of will are particularly vital today.

2. Some indications of factional activity, i.e., the formation of groups with their own  platforms and with a certain tendency to keep to themselves and establish their own group discipline, have revealed themselves even prior to the general Party discussion on the trade unions.

All class-conscious workers must clearly see the harm and impermissibility of any form of factional activity, which inevitably undermines team work and encourages enemies, who have wormed their way into the governing Party, to redouble their efforts to widen and utilise the division for counter-revolutionary purposes.

The Kronstadt mutiny, when the bourgeois counter-revolution and the whiteguards in all countries of the world at once showed their willingness to adopt even the slogans of the Soviet system in order to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, when in Kronstadt the Socialist- Revolutionaries and the bourgeois counter-revolution as a whole used the slogans of uprising allegedly in the name of the Soviet power against the Soviet Government in Russia, most strikingly showed how the enemies of the proletariat use all deviations from the firm and consistent Soviet line. These facts fully bear out the fact that the whiteguards are trying and know how to masquerade as Communists and as being even more to ‘the “Left” if only that helps to weaken and demolish the mainstay of the proletarian revolution in Russia. The Menshevik leaflets distributed in Petrograd on the eve of the Kronstadt rising also show how the Mensheviks have used the divergences in the RCP actually to goad and support the Kronstadt insurgents, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the whiteguards, while giving themselves out in words as opponents of revolts and supporters of the Soviet power with what outwardly look like insignificant reservations.

3. On this issue propaganda must consist, on the one hand, of a comprehensive explanation of the harm and danger of factional activity to Party unity and the implementation of the proletarian vanguard’s unity of will as the prime condition for the success of the proletarian dictatorship and, on the other hand, of an explanation of the specifics of the latest tactics used by the enemies of the Soviet power. Having realised the futility of open counter-revolution under the whiteguard flag, these enemies are now making every effort to use the divergences in the RCP to set the counter evolution moving by transferring power, in one way or another, to political groups that are outwardly closest to recognition of the Soviet power.

Furthermore, propaganda must study the experience of preceding revolutions, when the counter-revolution supported the petty-bourgeois groups standing closest to the most radical revolutionary party in order to shake and overthrow the revolutionary dictatorship and, thereby, open the road for the subsequent total victory of the counter-revolution, of the capitalists and landowners.

4. It must be a strict rule that unquestionably necessary criticism of shortcomings in the Party, every analysis of the Party’s general line or study of its practical experience, executive control and the methods of rectifying mistakes, and so forth shall be directed by every Party organisation not towards a discussion in groups forming round some “platform” and so on, but towards a discussion by all members of the Party. To this end the Congress directs that a Discussion Bulletin and special collections of articles shall be published regularly. Those who offer criticism must bear in mind the Party’s position amidst the enemies surrounding it, and by their direct participation in Soviet and  Party activities strive to rectify the Party’s mistakes by their deeds.

5. While instructing the Central Committee to put an end to all factional activity, the Congress declares that on questions attracting the special attention of Party members—the purging of the Party of non-proletarian and unreliable elements, the struggle with bureaucracy, the promotion of democracy and of the initiative of workers, and so on—all business-like suggestions must be considered with the closest attention and tested in practical work. All Party members must know that on these questions the Party is not taking all the necessary measures on account of many diverse obstacles,  and  that  while  emphatically  rejecting  unbusiness-like  and  factional  criticism,  it  will tirelessly continue,  while  trying out  new methods, to use  all  means to combat  bureaucracy, extend democracy, promote initiative, and uncover, expose and expel those who have wormed their way  into the Party, and so on.

6. The Congress directs that all groups that have formed round one platform or another shall be forthwith disbanded without exception, and instructs all organisations to make sure that no factional activity is pursued. Non-fulfilment of this decision of the Congress shall be followed by unconditional and immediate expulsion from the Party.

7. In order to achieve strict discipline in the Party and in all Soviet work and secure the greatest unity while eliminating all factional activity, the Congress authorises the Central Committee, in the event of a case (or cases) of violation of discipline or of a resurgence or of tolerance of factional activity, to impose all forms of Party penalties up to expulsion, while in the case of members of the CC, their transfer to the status of alternate members or even, as an extreme measure, their expulsion from the Party. A condition for the application (to members and alternate members of the CC and members of the Control Commission) of this extreme measure must be the convocation of a plenary meeting of the CC, to which all alternate members of the CC and all members of the Control Commission shall be invited. If at such a general meeting of the most responsible leaders of the Party two-thirds of the votes are in favour of transferring a member of the CC to the status of alternate member or of his expulsion from the Party, this measure shall be put into effect forthwith.*

The CPSU in Resolutions and 

Decisions of Congresses and 

Conferences and of Plenary Meetings of the 

Central Committee, 8th Russ. ed., Vol. 2.

pp. 218-21