From the speech of Comrade Stetsky. February 27, 1937

A source: Questions of history, 1993, No. 7, pp. 5-7

Andreev. Comrade Stetsky has the floor.

Stetsky.

Comrades, it is correct that preparations for the elections to the Supreme Soviet and other bodies of Soviet power begin with our party organizations, because this will be a real test and mobilization, preparation for the elections is not only political, which Comrade Zhdanov spoke about here, but also organizational preparation. -technical. I must say that at the bottom we still have a rather fantastic idea of ​​a secret ballot, that it is such a closed, secret ballot. So, even from this side, the preparation of our party organizations is of great importance. From the point of view of preparing for the elections under the new Constitution, we need to check the second area of ​​our work, this is mass work. It was right here what would matter and what the complexity of the approach would be in this new electoral system.

So far, the matter was simple, because the authority of the party organization stood behind the candidate nominated on the list, and the masses, when voting openly on the list, for the most part voted for the party, sometimes regardless of the business qualities of this or that candidate, as far as they know, and etc. Now the matter will be more complicated when voting is personal and secret. Here it is necessary that the candidacy, both in terms of political and business qualities, be in the public eye, and the masses know her from this point of view.

And there is no need to delude ourselves: we are facing a big lively electoral struggle, comrades justly pointed to this. If we talk about the line along which this struggle will be waged, then, of course, it must be said that it will be difficult for hostile organizations to come forward with their candidates for the Supreme Soviet, but as for the grassroots councils - regional, urban, rural in particular, then there is an electoral the fight will be extremely serious. (Stalin. A number of village councils may fall into their hands.) And in this respect, a number of information suggests that preparation is proceeding along this line not only on the part of the clergy. Comrade Khrushchev spoke today about the Socialist-Revolutionary organization, which was revealed in Ryazan and which was preparing for the elections. There are a number of other signals.

I also want to remind you of this fact. At the Constitutional Commission, Radek made a proposal that any citizen or group of citizens should be allowed to nominate themselves to the council. Obviously, there was a distant calculation here to lead some of our own people, by our own means, etc. Undoubtedly, the fragments, remnants of the Trotskyist organization and the Rights still exist. And our candidates will be nominated not only from party organizations. And so, as far as the grassroots councils are concerned, here the struggle will often take place over the most pressing economic needs, over everyday issues, demagoguery will be fueled by hostile elements. And they, of course, will not come out with an open visor, but catch voters on their immediate needs, formally speaking on the Soviet platform. This, of course, must be reckoned with,

In this respect, it seems to me that now it is necessary not only to alert our party, our organizations, but also to study the face of the constituencies. We must know who these voters are, what they are. In our country, in this respect, they often paint themselves some kind of continuous picture: workers, collective farmers, etc. In fact, this is not at all that simple. The constituencies are not at all the same, and it will be difficult to carry out work here. Even if we take the Moscow districts, the population in a number of these districts, which is covered by our organizations and our organizational work, represents a majority of 60-70%. But there is still a large stratum of people — these are handicraftsmen, workers of small handicraft shops, people of the free professions, a stratum of housewives, etc., which represent a significant weight and which are usually not taken into account.

Recently, in terms of mass work, we have had some improvement in connection with the discussion of the Constitution. The discussion of the Constitution both before the VIII Congress of Soviets and after the Extraordinary VIII Congress of Soviets is a huge fact. And the mass meetings that took place everywhere, and the study circles for the study of the Constitution, not only among party members, but also among non-party workers and collective farmers who were organized and are now working everywhere — they represent an event of great political importance. But from the point of view of managing this matter, our situation is extremely bad. And if it goes on like this, then we will approach the elections unprepared. In this respect, on the part of the district and regional committees, the circumstance to which Comrade Stalin's theses point out is also significant - that people are carried away by economic work. On the other hand, what they overestimate, make the wrong conclusion from the fact of the boundless trust of the working masses in our party, believing that since we have unlimited trust, everyone votes for us, everyone stands on the Soviet platform ... (Stalin. Some boundaries of trust are all - there is a buzz of approval.) But now the people are for us, for the party. And, it seems to me, it would be a major mistake to conclude from this that there is no need to conduct any propaganda or mass work at all.

We still have many difficulties and shortcomings. The demands, both cultural and economic, of the working masses have grown. It is impossible to leave with impunity, without attention, without clarification, those issues that excite and interest the masses, individual strata, groups, professions. A curious case of a completely incorrect bureaucratic approach found its expression in one party organization in the Saratov region. The party organization of the Saratov Oblast Federal University made the following decision: "To instruct the party organizer comrade Pavlov to raise in the district committee the question of the inexpediency of carrying out mass work in the conditions of the Regional Federal University." They ask why? Because there is no one and there is no need to agitate, everyone is literate and therefore there is no need to carry out mass work. Such a bureaucratic attitude, perhaps not so clearly expressed, exists among some of our leading party committees,

We've checked a number of organizations lately. The Constitution is being discussed, all kinds of circles are being held, etc., but what about the leadership from our regional committees, from the district committees, etc.? After all, a number of regional committees during the year never once raised the question of what is being done below, who is doing this work and how, how the district committee directs this work, etc. This applies to the Chelyabinsk organization, the Chelyabinsk regional party committee, i.e. Ryndin. This applies to the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee. Comrade Khatayevich ardently advocated agitation today, but during the year the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee never once asked how this important work on the discussion of the Constitution was going. (Voice from the place. Interested.) This also applies to a number of other areas.

Comrades, this situation is extremely serious, because it leads to the fact that in the role of leaders of these circles, in the role of people who carry out this work, it is not ours, not Soviet elements, not Soviet people who turn out to be. In the Ivanovo region, for example, it turned out that the enemies of the party, expelled from the party, put on trial, who explained the Constitution in their own way, were not working in the Navoloksky region. So, in the Vyazemsky district of the Western region. it turned out that the Komsomol, when studying the history of the party, turned to the priest for advice, because he is a literate person, and later the priest turned out to be the organizer of the gang. In general, it must be said that the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the priests have now stood as if on the Soviet platform, on the platform of the Constitution, they serve prayers, make all kinds of gratitude addresses on the Constitution, etc., but in fact they explain it in their own way. They are carrying on anti-Soviet agitation on a number of the most pressing issues. All these circumstances must be borne in mind in order to direct our work.

I must also make a comment: in my opinion, we need now to think about how to unite the levers of agitation. We will have to set everything in motion - the radio, the shortcomings of which were discussed yesterday, and restore a political poster, and a leaflet, and small popular brochures before the elections, use cinema. We have a number of levers, even in the apparatus of the Central Committee, are scattered: the radio is in one department, the poster is in another department, and so on. we will not be able to properly direct all this mass work.