The 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (b) was held in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
18–23 March 1919. The Congress was attended by 301 voting delegates who represented 313,766 Party members. A further 102 delegates attended with speaking rights, but no vote. It elected the
8th Central Committee.
Debates
The Congress agenda was:
*Report of the
7th Central Committee
*Programme of the R.C.P.(B.)
*Foundation of the Communist International
*War situation and war policy
*Work in the countryside
*Organisational problems
*Other business
18 March
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
's opening words were dedicated to
Yakov Sverdlov
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (russian: Яков Михайлович Свердлов; 3 June Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._22_May.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S ...
, who had died on 16 March. He also submitted the ''Report of the Central Committee''.
Mikhail Kalinin
Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (russian: link=no, Михаи́л Ива́нович Кали́нин ; 3 June 1946), known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych", was a Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik revolutionary. He served as head of st ...
replaced Sverdlov as Soviet head of state, a position he held till his death in March 1946.
19 March
The ''Report on the Party Programme'' introduced the principal issue of the day.
The congress adopted a new Party Program. This program included a description of capitalism and imperialism, and compared two systems of state – the bourgeois-democratic system and the Soviet system. It specified the specific tasks of the Party in the struggle for socialism: completion of the expropriation of the bourgeoisie; administration of the economic life of the country in accordance with a single socialist plan; participation of the trade unions in the organization of the national economy; socialist labour discipline; utilization of bourgeois experts in the economic field under the control of Soviet bodies; gradual and systematic enlistment of the middle peasantry in the work of socialist construction.
The congress adopted Lenin's proposal to include in the program in addition to a definition of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, the description of industrial capitalism and simple commodity production contained in the old program adopted at the
2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was held during July 30–August 23 (July 17–August 10, O.S.) 1903, starting in Brussels, Belgium (until August 6) and ending in London. Probably as a result of diplomatic pressu ...
. Lenin considered it essential that the program should take account of the complexity of the economic system and note the existence of diverse economic formations in the country, including small commodity production, as represented by the middle peasants.
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
, however, proposed that the clauses dealing with capitalism, small commodity production, the economy of the middle peasantry, should have been left out of the program.
Bukharin and
Georgy Pyatakov
Georgy (Yury) Leonidovich Pyatakov (russian: Гео́ргий Леони́дович Пятако́в; 6 August 1890 – 30 January 1937) was a leader of the Bolsheviks and a key Soviet politician during and after the 1917 Russian Revolution ...
differed with Lenin on the national question. Bukharin and Pyatakov argued against the inclusion in the program of a clause on the right of nations to self-determination; claiming that the slogan that would hinder the victory of the proletarian revolution and the union of the proletarians of different nationalities. Lenin's rejection of the standpoints of Bukharin and Pyatakov was accepted
After the first
Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states.
Names
The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contracti ...
was created in October 1917, in order to manage the Revolution, this second Politburo was voted by the Congress of the party, and appointed with five full members (
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
,
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
,
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
,
Lev Kamenev
Lev Borisovich Kamenev. (''né'' Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician.
Born in Moscow to parents who were both involved in revolutionary politics, Kamenev attended Imperial Moscow Uni ...
and
Nikolay Krestinsky
Nikolay Nikolayevich Krestinsky (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Крести́нский; 13 October 1883 – 15 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician who served as the Responsible Sec ...
) and three non-voting members (
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...
,
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
and
Mikhail Kalinin
Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (russian: link=no, Михаи́л Ива́нович Кали́нин ; 3 June 1946), known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych", was a Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik revolutionary. He served as head of st ...
). The first
Orgburo
The Orgburo (russian: Оргбюро́), also known as the Organisational Bureau (russian: организационное бюро), of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union existed from 1919 to 1952, when it was abo ...
was also set up. Stalin and Krestinsky were members as well. The other three members were
Elena Stasova
Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova ( rus, Елена Дмитриевна Стасова; 15 October Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._3_October.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/> O.S._3_October">Old_Style_and_New_St ...
,
Alexander Beloborodov,
Leonid Serebryakov
Leonid Petrovich Serebryakov (russian: Леонид Петрович Серебряков) (11 June 1890 – 1 February 1937) was a Russian Soviet politician and Bolshevik who became a victim of the Great Purge.
Early life
Born at Samara, the son ...
plus candidate member
Matevi Muranov.
22 March
The Congress sent greetings to the
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...
:
:"The Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party sends ardent greetings to the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Our Congress is convinced that the time is not far distant when communism will triumph all over the world. The working class of Russia is making every effort to come to your aid. The proletariat throughout the world is watching your struggle with intense interest and will not permit the imperialists to raise their hands against the new Soviet Republic."
Decisions of the Congress
Elections during the Congress
Central Committee: 19 elected members, 8 candidates to Central Committee membership
Central Revision Committee: three elected members
Adoption of Resolutions and Decisions
* Report of the Central Committee;
* Program's project;
* War issue;
* Organisation issue;
* Attitude towards middle peasantry;
* Political propaganda and enlightenment and educational work in the countryside;
* Working amongst female proletariat;
* Working amongst youth;
* Party and Soviet printing.
References
Eighth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)accessed 9 April 2009
*
Mark von Hagen
Mark Louis von Hagen (July 21, 1954 – September 15, 2019) was an American military historian who taught Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian history at Arizona State University. He was formerly at Columbia University. He was commissioned by ''The N ...
. ''Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship: The Red Army and the Soviet Socialist State, 1917–1930''.
Cornell University Press
The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in ...
, 1990, pp. 57–63.
Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik)in ''The
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
'', 3rd Edition (1970–1979).
The Military Writings of Leon Trotsky. Volume 1, 1918 Theses adopted by the Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party in March 1919
{{Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union 08
1919 in Russia
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March 1919 events