© Scherl
April 3, 1922 in complex structure The authorities of Soviet Russia received another leadership position - the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). This post was occupied by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin for a long 30 years. How one of the most controversial rulers in the history of Russia began his journey to power - in the RT material.
In the early years of the existence of Soviet Russia, power belonged simultaneously to the government of the country (represented by the Council of People's Commissars) and the government of the party (it consisted of two non-permanent bodies - the party congress and the Central Committee of the RCP (b) - and one permanent - the Politburo). After Lenin's death, the issue of supremacy between these two structures fell away by itself: all the fullness of political power passed into the hands of party bodies, and the government began to solve technical problems.
But in the early 20s there was still a possibility that the Council of People's Commissars would govern the country. Leon Trotsky placed special hopes on this. Lenin, as chairman of the government, head of the party and leader of the revolution, decided otherwise. And Joseph Stalin helped him to bring this decision to life.
Why Stalin?
Stalin was 43 years old in April 1922. Researchers, as a rule, note that the future Secretary General was not a member of the major political league and with Lenin he had complicated relationship. So what helped Stalin climb the communist Olympus? To say that the reason lies in the incredible political genius of Stalin, however, is incorrect, although the personality of the future general secretary really played here important role. It was the active "black" work in the interests of the party that gave him the necessary knowledge, experience and connections.
Stalin was listed in the ranks of the Bolsheviks from the moment the party was founded: he organized strikes, was engaged in underground work, was imprisoned, served a link, edited Pravda, and was a member of the Central Committee and the government.
globallookpress.com
© Keystone Pictures USA / ZUMAPRESS.com
The future general secretary was well known in the widest circles of the party, he was famous for his ability to work with people. Unlike other leaders, Stalin did not stay abroad for a long time, which allowed him "to keep in touch with the practical side of the movement."
Lenin saw in his potential successor not only a strong administrator, but also a capable politician. Stalin understood that it was important to show that he was fighting not for personal power, but for an idea, in other words, he was fighting not with specific people (mainly with Trotsky and his associates), but with their political position. And Lenin, in turn, understood that after his death this very struggle would become inevitable and could lead to the collapse of the entire system.
Together against Trotsky
The situation that had developed by the beginning of 1921 was extremely unstable, largely due to the far-reaching plans of Leon Trotsky. During the Civil War, as a people's commissar of military affairs, he had a very large weight in the government, but after the final victory of Bolshevism, the significance of the position began to decrease. Trotsky, however, did not despair and began to build connections in the secretariat of the Central Committee - in fact, the governing body of the committee. The result was that all three secretaries (who were equal before Stalin's appointment) became ardent Trotskyists, and Trotsky himself could well even openly speak out against Lenin. One of these cases is described by the sister of Vladimir Ilyich - Maria Ulyanova:
“The case of Trotsky is typical in this respect. At one meeting of the PB, Trotsky called Ilyich a "hooligan." IN AND. turned pale as chalk, but restrained himself. "It seems that some people here are playing tricks on their nerves," he said something like this in response to Trotsky's rudeness, according to the comrades who told me about this incident.
However, not only Trotsky, but also other associates of Lenin sought to prove their independence. The situation was complicated by the beginning of a new economic policy. Ordinary communists often misunderstood the return to market relations and private enterprise. They understood the NEP not as a necessary measure for the restoration of the country's economy, but as a betrayal of the idea. In almost all party organizations, there were cases of withdrawal from the RCP (b) "for disagreement with the NEP."
In the light of all these events, the seriously ill Lenin's decision to reorganize the key organs of the state apparatus looks very logical. Vladimir Ilyich began to actively oppose Trotsky at the 10th Party Congress (March 8-16, 1921). The main task Lenin was to fail in the elections to the Central Committee of people supporting Trotsky. The active propaganda work of Lenin and Stalin, as well as the general dissatisfaction with Trotsky and his methods, bore fruit: after the elections, the supporters of the people's commissar for military affairs were in an obvious minority.
Bolsheviks in the early 20s. First row: second from the left - Joseph Stalin, third from the right in a cloak and hat - Lev Trotsky. In the center, marked with a white cross - Nikita Khrushchev
globallookpress.com
© Manchester Daily Express
"I ask you to assist Comrade Stalin..."
Lenin began to introduce Stalin to the course of all affairs. From August 1921, the future Secretary General began to take an active part in solving the most important economic and economic issues of the country. Evidence that this was Lenin's initiative can be, for example, an excerpt from his letter to diplomat Boris Stomonyakov:
“I ask you to assist comrade. Stalin in getting acquainted with all the economic materials of the Council and the State Planning Commission, especially the gold industry, the Baku oil industry, etc.
The strongest blow for Trotsky was that from the autumn of 1921, part of the military power also passed to Stalin: after that, Trotsky was forced to reckon with the opinion of his main opponent, even in his own commissariat. Gradually, Stalin became involved in the external affairs of the state, and on November 29, 1921, he proposed to Lenin a plan for the reorganization of the Politburo, to which Ilyich, judging by his actions, agreed. In his letter to the leader, Stalin noted:
“The Central Committee itself and its top leadership, the Politburo, are structured in such a way that there are almost no experts in economic affairs among them, which also affects (negatively, of course) the preparation of economic issues. Finally, the members of the Politburo are so overburdened with current and sometimes extremely diverse work that the Politburo as a whole is sometimes forced to decide questions on the basis of trust or distrust in this or that commission, without entering into the essence of the matter. It would be possible to put an end to this situation by changing the composition of the Central Committee in general, the Politburo in particular, in favor of experts in economic affairs. I think that this operation should be carried out at the 11th Party Congress (because before the Congress, I think, there is no way to fill this gap).
Position for Stalin
By the beginning of 1922, Stalin - until recently not ranked among the leaders of the party - was ready to accept the highest leadership post. And Lenin created this post for him.
Now it is already difficult to say who exactly came up with the position of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), but this idea, with the general instability of power in the country, was in the air. So, at one of the party forums, Comrade Krestinsky, who at that time was just a secretary and part-time supporter of Trotsky, was named general secretary. Stalin was the first among equals to be designated in his own letter dated February 21, 1922. In it, the future general secretary outlined his views on holding the XI Party Congress and, in particular, described how he sees the new composition of the secretariat: Stalin, Molotov, Kuibyshev. According to the established tradition, primacy in the list meant supremacy.
Joseph Stalin, Alexei Rykov, Grigory Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin at the XII Congress of the CPSU(b). Moscow. 1923
© Museum "Moscow House of Photography"
Everything was decided at the already mentioned Eleventh Congress. Lenin's goal was to get ten of his main supporters into the Central Committee. It is important that in the list of candidates opposite Stalin's name, the leader personally wrote "general secretary", which caused obvious disapproval among some of the delegates - the composition of the secretariat was determined by the committee itself, but not by Lenin. Then the supporters of Vladimir Ilyich had to note that the notes in the lists were exclusively advisory in nature.
According to the results of the elections, out of 522 delegates with a decisive vote, 193 voted for Stalin as general secretary, only 16 people voted against, the rest abstained. This was a very good result, given that Lenin and Stalin established a new position that was not very clear to the delegates and arranged a vote not at the plenum of the Central Committee, as expected, but at the party congress.
Such a hasty promotion of the post of general secretary can only mean one thing: Lenin needed not the post itself, but Stalin in this post. The leader of the revolution understood that, if successful, he would be able to increase the authority of Stalin and, in fact, present him as his successor.
The point on this issue was put on April 3, 1922 at the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). First, the members of the committee decided what to do with the position of chairman of the Central Committee, that is, in fact, the main person in the party. It is not known exactly who initiated its introduction, but it is believed that this was another attempt by Trotsky to thwart Lenin's plan. And it failed: by a unanimous decision of the Central Committee, the position was rejected. Obviously, Lenin would have become the first chairman, but he firmly decided to leave Stalin in the main official position so that the country would not be divided into two fronts after his death.
April 3, 1922 - Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b)At the beginning of the 1920s, Stalin was not as famous as Lenin or Trotsky. However, at the same time, he confidently entered the second echelon of Bolshevik leaders: one of the oldest Bolsheviks, a member of the party since its foundation in 1898, a member of the Central Committee since 1912 and a member of the Politburo since 1919, Stalin was also a member of the Petrograd VRK and the historical first composition of the Council of People's Commissars, elected by the II Congress of Soviets in 1917. For several years, Stalin oversaw the national policy of Bolshevism, having received a secondary post as People's Commissar for Nationalities, and delivered a number of official reports of the Central Committee on the national question at party congresses. From 1920, Stalin also headed the Rabkrin (state control bodies).
Stalin's sharp ascent to the heights of power began with the end of the Civil War and the transition to the construction of a full-fledged state apparatus in the country. Beginning in late 1921, Lenin increasingly interrupted his work in leadership of the party. He instructed Stalin to carry out the main work in this direction.
Already at the time of the XI Congress of the RCP (b) in the spring of 1922, Lenin was seriously ill, and therefore he was able to appear only at four meetings out of 12. During this period, Stalin was a permanent member of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), and at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) ) April 3, 1922 was elected to the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), as well as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Initially, this position meant only the leadership of the party apparatus, while Lenin continued to be perceived as the leader of the party and government by everyone. Thus, Stalin actually headed the "technical" apparatus of the party at the time of its rapid growth, simultaneously heading the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee, the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the Rabkrin.
The documents available to historians do not allow us to find out exactly who, when and under what circumstances had the idea to single out one of the secretaries of the Central Committee as general. It is known, however, that on the eve of the Eleventh Congress of the RCP(b) the hierarchical scheme of organization and functioning of the apparatus, topped by the post of general secretary, gained popularity in the party leadership.
Thus, a month before the Eleventh Congress of the RCP(b), at a meeting of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev, the question of a new Secretariat of the Central Committee was worked out and put before Lenin for the first time. The question of singling out one of the secretaries as general is not yet on the table, but Stalin's place in the new secretariat has been definitely designated. He is the first on the list, and according to the tradition that has developed in the party, if there were no special reservations, then the primacy in the list of members of a commission, collegium meant an instruction to assemble its members, preside over it, i.e. actually lead its work. This is understandable: as a member of the Politburo, Stalin could not help but have such primacy, so to speak, "in fact." Judging by the further development of events, Lenin agreed with the proposal on the composition of the Secretariat and on the proposal of this composition to the congress delegates.
Molotov provides interesting information about Lenin's preparations for the election of Stalin as General Secretary. It is with Lenin that he connects the first mention of the name of the new position - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). “At the XI Congress,” Molotov recalled, “the so-called “list of dozens” appeared - the names of alleged members of the Central Committee, supporters of Lenin. Against Stalin's name was written in Lenin's hand: "General Secretary."
If Lenin proposed to include in the list of candidates an indication of the future general secretary and secretaries of the Central Committee, then he planned to discuss this issue at the plenary session of the congress before it was discussed by the Plenum of the Central Committee. Could Lenin have foreseen the violent backlash from his opponents? Obviously yes. The question arises: why did Lenin need to address this issue to the delegates of the entire congress, if it fell within the competence of the Plenum of the Central Committee? If Lenin took such an unusual step, it means that he considered it fundamentally important.
What is the meaning of it? If we proceed from the traditional idea that first a position was created, and then a candidate was selected for it, then the step taken by Lenin looks senseless or imprudent: he ran into a scandal and was forced, with the help of Kamenev, to disavow his unsuccessful move. But this step makes a lot of sense if we see what happened: the post of general secretary was created as part of the reorganization of the management system carried out by Lenin and it was created specifically for Stalin. In this case, the meaning of this step could be to force all the congress delegates to speak out about Stalin. The goal was achieved: more than 40% of the delegates of the congress spoke in favor, and this was much more than specific gravity members of the Central Committee in the congress. Objectively, this strengthened the moral and political position of Stalin in the party and its leadership and increased his chances in the upcoming political struggle for leadership in the party. Consequently, we have indirect and independent (from Molotov's story) evidence that Lenin looked at Stalin as the person who should replace him as the leader of the party and the revolution.
The same idea is also suggested by the fact that at the 11th Party Congress Lenin defended Stalin against Preobrazhensky's criticism, giving Stalin an excellent political characterization in the face of the congress. If the chairman of the Central Committee was conceived as the highest position in the party instead of the general secretary, then it can be assumed that it came from Trotsky and his supporters. This option allowed them to politically torpedo Lenin's plan by placing the work of the Secretariat of the Central Committee under the constant political control of the chairman of the Central Committee.
Lenin was against the establishment of the post of chairman of the Central Committee. Against, even if it was meant for him. Why? Perhaps because he knew that after his retirement, rivalry and struggle would arise in the Politburo, relying on two almost equivalent positions - the chairman and general secretary of the Central Committee? A struggle which, under these conditions, can only become more difficult, sharper and more threatening to split the party. If Lenin was against the establishment of the post of chairman of the Central Committee, then he advocated that the general secretary should not share his power with him. But it follows from this that the point is not in the position, but in the system in which it is inscribed. Lenin's rejection of the proposal for the chairman of the Central Committee of the party says that Lenin wanted a general secretary at the head of the party.
This proposal by Lenin, coupled with his rejection of the proposal to introduce the post of chairman of the Central Committee, indicates that he wanted to see Stalin at the head of the party as general secretary. Indeed, if the scheme of the Comintern is adopted in the RCP(b), then the power and influence of I.V. Stalin as General Secretary of the Central Committee are balanced by the post of Chairman of the Central Committee, and he himself is doomed to play the role of a conductor in the life of decisions taken by a collegial body working under the leadership of the chairman. Lenin rejected this scheme. If the scheme adopted for the Profintern is adopted, then the General Secretary of the Central Committee will inevitably play a much more independent role. political role. Lenin supported a scheme that prevented the fragmentation of power in the leadership of the party, allowing to combine the work of a collegiate body with a significant concentration of political power in the hands of the general secretary of the party's Central Committee. It was possible to grant such power only to a person in whom you have absolute political trust.
The Plenum of the Central Committee of the party also formed the Politburo, the Orgburo and the representation of the RCP in the Comintern. The Politburo included 7 people: “TT. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Tomsky, Rykov. Candidates for membership in the Politburo were “TT. Molotov, Kalinin, Bukharin. Stalin, Molotov, Kuibyshev, Rykov, Tomsky, Dzerzhinsky and Andreev were "appointed" members of the Orgburo, and Rudzutak, Zelensky, Kalinin were candidates for membership. The order in which the names are listed on the list reflects the fact that the 11th Congress was the time when Stalin seriously strengthened his political positions. In the list of members of the Politburo, he took third place, in contrast to the fifth in the list of members of the Central Committee, put to the vote. Among the members of the Orgburo, he occupies the first place, which, according to the traditions of that time, meant chairmanship in a collective body.
Now the reader can appreciate the version of the creation of the post of general secretary and the election of Stalin to it, proposed by Trotsky and picked up by traditional historiography.
There are enough grounds to accept as a working hypothesis the proposition that Lenin brought Stalin to power and ensured his leadership in the party and, therefore, the entire political hierarchy, because, thinking about a successor, he fixed his eyes on Stalin.
If we take into account the position that the party occupied in the political system of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, it becomes clear that the post of general secretary, being the highest position in the party, at the same time became the highest position in the political system of the Soviet state. Above her was only Lenin, whose position was determined not by positions, but by his role as leader of the party and revolution. Therefore, the introduction of the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) actually meant the replacement of Trotsky by Stalin as "leader No. 2" in the party. It may not have been clear to everyone yet, but two years later it will become clear even to outside observers.
If we evaluate the establishment of the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) from the point of view of Lenin's desire to strengthen the positions of his supporters in the Central Committee and the party, their ability to ensure the implementation of a jointly developed course, then we must admit that this innovation was a logical and timely political step, quite in line with in the reorganization of the political system that Lenin carried out.
The fact that Stalin took this political position with the most active support of Lenin was of great importance for Stalin's political future and far-reaching consequences for the alignment of political forces in the leadership of the party, for the outcome of the struggle between Bolshevism and Trotskyism in the RCP(b) and in the Comintern.
In itself, the post of general secretary added little to the power that was already concentrated in the hands of Stalin by the 11th Party Congress. It would be more correct to say that this position expanded his power opportunities and strengthened his political positions, since now his power was based on the authority of the decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee approved by the party congress, and the position of general secretary itself was already included in new system management and was its pinnacle. Now Stalin could enter into the most diverse issues of foreign and domestic policy as the highest official of the ruling party.
On September 12, 1953, Nikita Khrushchev was elected First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. After Stalin's death, he was one of the initiators of the removal from public office and the arrest of Lavrenty Beria, and in principle was considered one of the main contenders for the first post in the state.
One of the most notable events during his reign was the 20th Congress of the CPSU and Khrushchev's report on Stalin's personality cult and mass repressions. This event was the beginning of the "Khrushchev thaw." By decision of the Central Committee, following the results of the congress, the body of Joseph Stalin was removed from the mausoleum and buried near the Kremlin wall, in addition, all geographical objects named after him were renamed, and the monuments (except for the monument in his native Gori) were dismantled. Rallies in Tbilisi, where participants protested against the condemnation of the cult of personality, were dispersed by the authorities. The official procedure for the rehabilitation of victims of Stalinist repressions and repressed peoples began.
You can also recall his decision to stop payments on all issues of domestic bonds, that is, in modern terminology, the USSR actually found itself in a state of default. This led to significant losses in savings for most of the inhabitants of the USSR, who had been forcibly forced to buy these bonds by the authorities themselves for decades. At the same time, it should be noted that, on average, each citizen of the Soviet Union spent on compulsory subscriptions for loans from one to three monthly salaries per year.
In 1958, Khrushchev began to pursue a policy directed against personal subsidiary plots - since 1959, residents of cities and workers' settlements were forbidden to keep livestock, and personal livestock was bought from collective farmers by the state. The mass slaughter of livestock by collective farmers began. This policy led to a reduction in the number of livestock and poultry, and worsened the position of the peasantry.
At the same time, it was during these years that, by order of Khrushchev, the development of virgin lands began, primarily fallow lands in Kazakhstan. Over the years of development, more than 597.5 million tons of grain have been produced in Kazakhstan.
In 1954, by decision of Khrushchev, the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR took place.
From the tragic pages in the history of Khrushchev's reign, one can single out the entry of Soviet troops into Hungary in 1956 and the Novocherkassk execution in 1962.
In foreign policy I remember the Caribbean crisis associated with the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, the meeting with US Vice President Richard Nixon in Iowa, the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957 in Moscow.
The first attempt to remove Khrushchev from power took place in June 1957 at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. It decided to release him from the duties of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. However, a group of Khrushchev's supporters from among the members of the Central Committee of the CPSU, headed by Marshal Zhukov, managed to intervene in the work of the Presidium and achieve the transfer of this issue to the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU convened for this purpose. At the June plenum of the Central Committee in 1957, Khrushchev's supporters defeated his opponents from among the members of the Presidium. The latter were branded as “the anti-party group of Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich and Shepilov who joined them” and removed from the Central Committee, and later, in 1962, expelled from the party. Four months after these events, Khrushchev relieved Marshal Georgy Zhukov of his duties as Minister of Defense and member of the Presidium of the Central Committee.
In 1964, the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, assembled in the absence of Khrushchev, who was resting, removed him from all party and government posts "for health reasons." The place at the head of the state was taken by Leonid Brezhnev.
After his resignation, his name was “unmentioned” for more than 20 years (like Stalin and, to a greater extent, Malenkov). In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia he was accompanied by a brief description of: "There were elements of subjectivism and voluntarism in his activity."
In Perestroika, the discussion of Khrushchev's activities became possible again, his role as the "predecessor" of perestroika was emphasized, at the same time, attention was paid to his own role in the repressions, and to the negative aspects of his leadership. Khrushchev's "Memoirs" written by him in retirement were published in Soviet journals.
