THE RESOLUTION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY (BOLSHEVIKS) OF THE UKRAINE

From THE RESOLUTION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY (BOLSHEVIKS) OF THE UKRAINE ON THE REPORTS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE RCP AND THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CP(B)U

Kharkov, December 6 - 12, 1925

15. The period since the Eighth All-Ukraine Party Conference has witnessed the strengthening of the Party’s ties with the broad masses and a huge growth of the Party itself. The pessimistic statements of the opposition on the eve of the Thirteenth Congress, alleging that the Party has divorced itself from the proletarian masses, have been strikingly refuted by the doubling of the Party membership, chiefly through an influx of factory workers, and lately through the growth and strengthening of the rural organisation. While further promoting the attraction of factory workers into the Party and regulating the Party’s social composition towards increasing the number of factory workers, the Congress considers it wrong to bring the majority of the proletariat into the Party immediately. Attention must be given to the qualitative aspect of the work, to improving the services for and education of new members and candidate members of the Party, and intensifying Party educational work, bearing in mind that every effort must be made to raise the ideological and political level of the Party membership.

16. The new methods of leadership presently implemented with regard to the Soviets and the trade unions are all the more necessary in the Party organisation itself. The Congress approves the appeal of the July plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the CP(B)U and the October plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the RCP(B) for speeding up the implementation of the principles of inner-Party democracy in all the Party’s work as the basic condition for successful Party 

leadership of the worker and peasant masses under conditions witnessing a growth of their activity. 

The Congress notes the Party’s considerable achievements in this sphere and, furthermore, notes the extensive activity displayed by the entire Party organisation of the Ukraine at all stages of the election of Party organs during the preparations for the Congress in discussing its agenda at cells, Party meetings and district and area conferences. At the same time, the Congress does not close its eyes to the shortcomings and certain passivity in some organisations, and the certain inertness in implementing inner-Party democracy. Inner-Party democracy must continue to be implemented most vigorously. By firmly maintaining inner-Party democracy, which will grow together with the growth of our economic and political might, the Party bears in mind that in its history there have been cases of attempts to secure a radical change of the Party line, revise Leninism and remove the Leninist leadership under the guise of inner-Party democracy. Lately, during the preparations for the Congress, there have been individual cases in which the slogan of inner-Party democracy has been used with the object of discrediting the Party, its apparatus and its line. By no means identifying any business-like Party criticism with the opposition deviation, considering, on the contrary, a critical discussion of its work and the work of individual Party organs with the broad Party masses as extremely useful, the Party must, however, continue giving a firm rebuff to all attempts, under the guise of inner-Party democracy, to change its Leninist line, discredit its Leninist leading cadres and undermine its unity and discipline.

17. In a situation witnessing the Party’s rapid growth and the implementation of inner-Party democracy, it is of paramount importance to preserve, promote and select veteran, experienced and steeled Party leaders. At the same time, while selecting and preserving veteran cadres, it is necessary to step up the promotion and training of new cadres, particularly women, and strengthen the ties between leading Party cadres and the broad mass of new Party members. This is the only condition under which the successiveness of the firm Leninist line can be ensured in the Party.

18. The Congress considers that unshakable Bolshevik unity and discipline in our Party are the fundamental condition for preserving and strengthening the proletarian dictatorship and the Soviet power in our country. This unity and discipline must be absolutely ensured in the entire Party from top to bottom, beginning with the Central Committee, which must be the model and example for the whole Party. Unconditional fulfilment of the decisions adopted by the Party and the subordination of lower to higher Party organs are mandatory for all Party members and organisations no matter what services they may have rendered. Without this there can be no Bolshevism and no Leninism. The Congress calls on the Central Committee of the CP(B)U and the Central Committee of the RCP to continue taking the most determined steps against all attempts to undermine the Leninist Bolshevik discipline in our Party.

19. The difficult conditions for building socialism in a single country encircled by capitalist states have given and are giving rise to ideological departures from the Leninist line accompanied by attacks on the Central Committee of the Party, which pursues the Leninist line. The Party has always found sufficient inner strength to fight and overcome these deviations (Workers’ Opposition, the 1923 opposition, Trotskyism) and repulse the attacks on the Leninist Central Committee. The Party will continue to rid itself of the remnants of old groups and ideological deviations and prevent the emergence of new ones.

The protraction of the world revolution is making individual Party members lose sight of that revolution. On the other hand, this gives rise to pessimism and lack of faith in socialist construction in one country and to underestimation of the achievements of this construction in the USSR. With this are linked the allegations that our state industry is not socialist but amounts to state capitalism, panic fear of elements of capitalism that we are permitting under strict state control, the accusations that the Party is degenerating, and so on, the exaggeration of the role and importance of the kulaks in the present-day Soviet countryside, the trend to ignore the role of the co-operative, and the efforts to achieve a so-called neutralisation of the middle peasants instead of actively drawing them to the side of the Soviet power. On the other hand, there is a trend to belittle the danger from the kulaks and the profiteers. Survivals of national chauvinism—Great Russian, Ukrainian and so on—have still to be reckoned with in the Party ranks in the Ukraine.

The Congress considers that the Party has to intensify its work of putting down and overcoming all the above mentioned deviations. The Congress believes that at present the press is acquiring immense significance in giving Party guidance to the masses. The Congress notes with satisfaction that Pravda, central organ of the RCP and Kommunist, central organ of the CP(B)U, have been pursuing a correct line. The Congress greets the editorial board of Pravda as being a consistently militant organ of the Bolshevik Party.

The Congress expresses the firm confidence that on the basis of inner-Party democracy, by drawing the entire Party membership more and more into the discussion and settlement of questions of Party policy and practice, and by rallying round its leading organs, which are pursuing a consistently Leninist policy, above all, round its Central Committee, the tested headquarters of Leninism, the Party will successfully resolve the tasks confronting it.

The Party in the Struggle for the

Restoration etc., pp. 557-58