V. I.   Lenin

Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)

Written: (See below.)
Published: (See below.).
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1971, Moscow, Volume 42, pages 411-413^a.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala and D. Walters
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive (2004). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Other Formats:   Text • README

March 27-April 2, 1922[1]

Proposal to the Draft Resolution on the Report of the R.C.P.(B.) Delegation in the Comintern

The purpose and sense of the tactics of the united front consist in drawing more and more masses of the workers into the struggle against capital, even if it means making repeated offers to the leaders of the II and II 1/2 Internationals to wage this struggle together. When the majority of the workers have already established their class, i.e., their Soviet, and not “general national” (i.e., in common with the bourgeoisie) representation, and have overthrown the political domination of the bourgeoisie, then the tactics of the united front, of course, cannot require co-operation with parties such as that of the Mensheviks (the “R.S.D.L.P.”) and the S.R.s (the “Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries”) for these have turned out to be opponents of Soviet power. Influence upon the working-class masses under Soviet rule has to be extended not by seeking co-operation with the Mensheviks and S.R.s, but in the manner mentioned above.^[2]

2

Speech on the Question of Printing Advertisements in Pravda
April 2^[3]

Comrades, an almost fatal mistake has occurred here. I have risen to a point of order (as the chairman made clear) and not to make a closing speech. I have taken the floor to ask the congress to waive standing orders and   procedure. There is a rule that after a decision has been passed there can be no interference on that question. I ask the congress to give me 4 or 5 minutes in order to oppose the decision that has been wrongly passed here.

When I heard that the congress had passed this decision and when I heard that Comrade Ryazanov had defended it (Ryazanov: “That is not so.”) All the better—at least one absurd decision has by-passed Ryazanov. If we were dealing here with an innocent young lady of some twelve summers, who had learned only yesterday that there was such a thing in the world as communism, and she would have put on a frilly white frock with red ribbons and said that Communists were just pure tradesmen—that would be funny, and we could enjoy a hearty laugh over it, but seriously, what are we doing? Where will Pravda get the money to make up for the advertisements we have deprived it of? I ask—how much money does Pravda need to keep up with Izvestia? You don’t know? Nor do I!

3

Notes at the Congress Meeting
April 2

Sedoi:

α) ... Contradictions, abnormality, inconsistency....

β) “greatest trust” and!!?

1) Groundlessness of the accusation that the C.C. is persecuting the former Workers’ Opposition

2) refusal to do positive work

3) concentration on playing at opposition

4) behaviour at metalworkers’ congress

5) ditto after the congress

6) is there such a division within the former Workers’ Opposition, which makes the Party draw a line between the majority who are working loyally in the Party, despite   difference in views, and the minority (perhaps even an insignificant one) who are behaving in a definitely unloyal manner.

Notes

[1] The Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P. (B.) was held in Moscow from March 27 to April 2,1922. It was attended by 522 voting delegates and 164 delegates with a consultative voice.

The items on the agenda were: 1) The political report of the Central Committee; 2) The organisational report of the Central Committee; 3) The report of the Auditing Commission; 4) The report of the Central Control Commission; 5) The report of the R.C.P. delegation in the Comintern; 6) The trade unions; 7) The Red Army; 8) Financial policy; 9) Results of the Party purge and the strengthening of the Party’s ranks; co-reports on work with young people and on the press and propaganda; 10) Elections to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission. In addition, the congress set up a commission to prepare the question of Party work in the countryside for discussion in the   Agrarian Section of the Party Congress and for drafting a resolution.

Considerable preparatory work for the congress was carried out by the C.C. under Lenin’s direction. The most important documents of the congress were drafted by Lenin or with Lenin’s help. Lenin opened the congress, delivered the political report of the C.C., wound up the debate on the report, spoke about the printing of advertisements in Pravda, and made the closing speech at the congress.

See also present edition, Vol. 33, pp. 259-326.

[2] Lenin’s wording was incorporated wholly in the resolution of the Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) “On the Report of the R.C.P. Delegation in the Comintern” adopted on April 2, 1922 (see The C.P.S. U. in the Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences and Plenary Meetings of the Central Committee, Part I, 1954, pp. 601-03).

[3] During the discussion of the resolution “On the Press and Propaganda” at the Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.), D. B. Ryazanov moved an addendum, proposing that advertisements should not be printed in the Party press. The congress adopted the motion with the amendment that advertisements were to be forbidden not in the Party press as a whole, but only in Pravda. Lenin was not in attendance at the moment. Upon hearing of the congress decision he wrote the following note to L. B. Kamenev who had chaired that session: “Comrade Kamenev, I hear that the congress has placed a ban on advertisements in Pravda? Cannot this be mended, it’s an obvious mistake?” (Lenin Miscellany XIII, 1930, p. 29). Kamenev did not think the decision could be altered, and suggested that other ways be found for supporting Pravda. However, after the list of members of the C.C. and the Central Control Commission elected by the congress had been announced, Lenin took the floor and proposed that this decision be reversed on the grounds that under the New Economic Policy it would be incorrect to depend upon appropriations for the press being made from the gold fund or revenue receipts. His motion was adopted.

Since Lenin’s speech was taken down in shorthand only partially and inadequately at that, the version printed in this volume is incomplete.