I.V. STALIN’S TAKING THE POLITICAL ADVANTAGE IN THE PARTY INFIGHTING IN THE SOVIET STATE IN 1922–1936

DOI: 10.47026/1810-1909-2022-2-45-55

УДК 94:[329(470)КП:316.482.3]

ББК Т3(2)612–542

Igor V. KALLIN

Key words

Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Council of People’s Commissars, Council of Labor and Defense, Central Executive Committee of the USSR, Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (AUCP(b)), Soviet State, General Secretary, decree, resolution, struggle, political elite

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the factors of transformation of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b) into the governing body of the Soviet state. The article has studied the activities of such party and state institutions as the Council of People’s Commissars, the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee. In this work, an attempt was made to consider the transformation of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b) headed by I.V. Stalin into a body for developing key decisions. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that it describes the main events of the internal political struggle of various departments of the Soviet state in terms of their priority on the political Olympus at the time of the initial formation of a new one-party state. The article uses the methods of comparison and analysis of archival documents.

A chain of various political events led to the fact that by the beginning of the 1930s, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b), headed by the Secretary General I.V. Stalin, had begun to hold a privileged position in the political circles of the Soviet state. As a result of the internal political struggle, the interaction between the members and candidates for membership in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b) began to focus on the political position of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b), which since April 1922 was headed by I.V. Stalin.

In a long and bitter struggle, I.V. Stalin gained a privileged position in political circles and got a stable majority of votes at party congresses. Considering various disputable situations that constantly arose between the opposing factions in the Bolshevik Party, it can be revealed that as a result of the internal political struggle, ideological principles were often pushed into the background. The primary task of one or another group of party leaders was to discredit political opponents and exclude them from the leadership, and then from the Communist Party. I.V. Stalin gained a preponderance of political power due to combining positions in the leadership of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b) and in the leadership of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b). The realization of this benefit took place through frequent changes within the Party and gaining the overwhelming majority of Stalin supporters’ votes at the plenums of the Central Committee of the Party, meetings of the Political Bureau and congresses of the Bolshevik organization. After I.V. Stalin had been promoted to the position of General Secretary in April 1922, the Central Committee Secretariat headed by him was gradually becoming superior to other political institutions. Stalin’s work in the above-mentioned party organ turns into a decision-making activity, and over time the nature of the documents emanating from him is transformed. As a result of the party infighting of the 1920s, such leaders of the October Revolution as Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky, Pyatakov were removed from the political arena. Their names had ceased to appear in the business correspondence of the central party organs. In the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, the factor of the informal system of political decision-making is gradually becoming crucial.

The practical significance of the article is that the results obtained in the study can be used in the preparation of generalizing works on the history of Russia, as well as the history of party-state construction in the USSR. The prospects of the research consist in using the article by teachers and students of educational institutions in the framework of educational courses on the history of the Fatherland. The research materials and the conclusions obtained may be of interest to the heads of state authorities for the development and implementation of personnel policy, the implementation of measures aimed at improving its effectiveness, as well as the strategy of sustainable development of the state.

References

1. Aliev A.Sh., Osmaev A.D. Vnutripartiinaya bor’ba v VKP(b) vo vtoroi polovine 1920-kh godov i ee otgoloski v Chechenskoi avtonomnoi oblasti [Internal party struggle in the CPSU(b) in the second half of the 1920s and its echoes in the Chechen Autonomous Region]. Vestnik Kompleksnogo nauchno-issledovatel’skogo instituta im. Kh.I. Ibragimova RAN, 2020, no. 2(2), pp. 13–19.
2. Bol’shaya sovetskaya entsiklopediya [The Great Soviet Encyclopedia]. Moscow, BSE Publ., 1955, vol. 38, 665 p.
3. Dekrety Sovetskoi vlasti [Decrees of Soviet power]. Moscow, Politizdat Publ., 1957, vol. 1, 625 p.
4. Zelenov M.V., Krylova A.V., Pivovarov N.Yu. Byuro Sekretariata TsK RKP(b) 1921–1924 gg.: struktura, kadry, funktsii [Bureau of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) 1921–1924: structure, personnel, functions]. Vestnik NGTU im. R.E. Alekseeva. Ser. Upravlenie v sotsial’nykh sistemakh, kommunikativnye tekhnologii, 2016, no. 2, pp. 57–60.
5. KPSS v rezolyutsiyakh i resheniyakh s”ezdov, konferentsii i plenumov TsK (1898–1986) [The CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee (1898–1986)]. Moscow, Politizdat Publ., 1970, vol. 3, 552 p.
6. Lenin V.I. Ocherednye zadachi Sovetskoi vlasti [The next tasks of the Soviet power]. In: sobr. soch. [Full composition of writings], vol. 36, pp. 165–208.
7. Leninskoi «Pravde» – 70 let [Lenin’s «Pravda» – 70 years]. Moscow, Pravda Publ., 1982, 264 p.
8. Nazarov O.G. Organizatsionno-kadrovaya deyatel’nost’ Sekretariata TsK RKP(b) v period mezhdu X i XI S”ezdami RKP(b) [Organizational and personnel activities of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) in the period between the X and XI Congresses of the RCP (b)]. Servis v Rossii i za rubezhom, 2012, no. 4(31), pp. 144–153.
9. Reed John. Desyat’ dnei, kotorye potryasli mir /s predisloviyami V.I. Lenina i N.K. Krupskoi [Ten days that shook the world/with forewords by V.I. Lenin and N.K. Krupskaya]. Moscow, Gospolotizdat Publ., 1957, 352 p.
10. Sannikov V.A. Partiinye kontrol’nye organy kak instrument bor’by s oppozitsiei v Moskve v 1920-e gody [Party control bodies as a tool for combating the opposition in Moscow in the 1920s]. Krasnodar: Istoricheskaya i sotsial’no-obrazovatel’naya mysl’, 2016, vol. 8, no. 3, part 1, pp. 64–67.
11. Sovetskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [The Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya Publ., 1982, 1500 p.
12. Cherepanov A.V. Reformirovanie Raboche-krest’yanskoi Krasnoi Armii v kontekste vnutripartiinykh diskussii 1925–1930 gg. [Reforming the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in the context of intra-party discussions of 1925–1930]. Lokus: lyudi, obshchestvo, kul’tury, smysly, 2021, vol. 12, no. 2, pp.11–25. DOI: 10.31862/2500-2988-2021-12-2-11-25.
13. Chernev A.D. O roli i funktsiyakh pravyashchei partii v sisteme Sovetskogo gosudarstvennogo upravleniya [On the role and functions of the ruling party in the system of Soviet state administration]. Bezopasnost’ Evrazii, 2003, no. 1, pp. 631–656.
14. Chernyakov S.F. Voprosy dogmatizma. Teoriya i politika v istorii vnutripartiinoi bor’by bol’shevistskoi partii v 1923–1927 gg. [Questions of dogmatism. Theory and politics in the history of the internal party struggle of the Bolshevik Party in 1923–1927]. Al’ternativy, 2019, no. 1, pp. 82–103.

Information about the author

Igor V. Kallin – Post-Graduate Student, Russian History Department, Chuvash State University, Russia, Cheboksary (history20182022@mail.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8335-9200).

For citations

Kallin I.V. I.V. STALIN’S TAKING THE POLITICAL ADVANTAGE IN THE PARTY INFIGHTING IN THE SOVIET STATE IN 1922–1936. Vestnik Chuvashskogo universiteta, 2022, no. 2, pp. 45–55. DOI: 10.47026/1810-1909-2022-2-45-55 (in Russian).

Download the full article