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Twenty-First Party Congress— Before and After (Part One)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
Extract
In the period between the 20th and 21st Party Congresses, thirteen plenary sessions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were held, although only twelve can be documented from official sources. These meetings of the CC elected at the February, 1956, meeting, more numerous than for any comparable time interval in party history, not only provided the background for the first extraordinary (vneocherednoj) Congress in more than four decades; they also furnished the forums and tribunals at which all the important issues subsequently referred to the Congress for formal post facto approval had been initially presented and, for for the most part, resolved. Nevertheless, as M. Suslov pointed out, the January 27-February 5 meeting was “not a regular Party Congress, which explains why no Central Committee report was heard.” Yet despite A. Mikoyan's reminder that the delegates had "assembled … to discuss the single question on the agenda—the control figures" of the seven-year plan, Khrushchev's 67,000-word, seven-hour long address and the eighty-five shorter contributions dealt with developments of the intervening three years and prospects for the future.
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References
1 Churayev, V., "Development of Inner Party Democracy in the USSR, World Marxist Review, London, 1959, No. 6, p .25.Google Scholar
2 See National Policy Machinery in the Soviet Union, Report of the Committee on Governmental Operations, U.S. Senate (Washington, 1960), p. 13.
3 In the commentary to the VI Congress of the RKP (b), there is a reference to the March, 1918, meeting as "Ekstrenny." KPSS v Resoljucijakh i reshennijakh (Moscow, 1953, 7th ed.), p. 402. The procedures for calling an extraordinary Congress are described in Articles 29 and 30 of the Party Statutes adopted at the XIX Party Congress (Pravda, October 14, 1952).
4 Pravda, January 31, 1959.
5 Ibid., February 1, 1959.
6 Plenum Centralnogo Komiteta Kommunisticheskoj Partii Sovetskogo Sojuza 15-19 Dekabrja 1958 goda. Stenograficheskij Otchet (Moscow, 1958).
7 For an analysis of the materials of the December, 1958, plenum and its relevance to the XXI Party Congress, see Ulam, Adam B., "The New Face of Soviet Totalitarianism," World Politics, XII, No. 3 (April, 1960), 391 ff.Google Scholar
8 It is not without interest to note that the American edition of the excellent study of the post-Stalin period by G. Boffa, Moscow correspondent of the official organ of the Communist Party of Italy, was changed to Inside the Khrushchev Era from La Grande Svolta.
9 Pravda, February 6, 1959.
10 Ibid., January 28, 1959.
11 Ibid., February 1, 1959.
12 Ibid., July 2, 1956; it is likely that this resolution was adopted at the plenary session for which there is no record.
13 Speech at banquet for Chou En-lai—Ibid., January 18, 1957.
14 A. Mikoyan, Rostov Oblast Regional Service, February 28, 1959, in a speech (February 26) before the elections to the RSFSR Supreme Soviet; this paragraph was not included in the Izvestia text of the same date. Note how Mikoyan's quotation of a query by Stalin is almost identical with a rhetorical question attributed to Stalin by Khrushchev:“You [members of the Politburo] are blind as young kittens; what would happen without me?” Khrushchev's secret speech, Current Soviet Policies II, L. Gruliow, editor (New York: Praeger, 1957), p. 183. See also A. Harriman, Peace with Russia? (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959), p. 103.
15 The seven-year plan represented, it is true, a considerable revision of the original targets ot the sixth Five-Year Plan adopted at the 20th Congress.
16 Izvestia, January 27, 1959, in nomination for the Republican Supreme Soviet elections.
17 In the official translation of the speech delivered in English by an Indian on the occasion of the award of the Lenin Peace prize to Khrushchev, the Russian word for 1 leader was vozhd' (Pravda, May 17, 1959). There has been no repetition of this designation ! for Khrushchev.
18 See speeches of E. Andreevna, Pravda, February 5; A. M. Shkolnikov, ibid., February 6; K. I. Satraev, ibid., February 6.
19 I. V. Kurchatov, ibid., February 5.
20 D. F. Ustinov, ibid., February 5.
21 J. J. Kuzmin, I. V. Zhegalin, ibid., February 5; A. F. Zasjadko, I. T. Novikov, ibid., February 3.
22 N. A. Mukhitdinov, ibid., January 31; D. D. Karaev, ibid., February 5.
23 N. Beljaev, ibid., January 29. f
24 N. A. Mukhitdinov, ibid., September 30, 1958.
25 D. Poljanskij, ibid., January 29, 1959.]
26 Izvestia, January 24, 1959.
27 I. V. Zhegalin, Pravda, February 5, 1959.
28 Pravda, March 28, 1958.
28 Since March, 1956, also Chairman of the CC Bureau for the RSFSR, Pravda, March, 1956.
30 Bauer, R., “The Pseudo-Charismatic Leader in Soviet Society,” Problems of Communism, Vol. III, Nos.3 and 4, 1953.Google Scholar
31 W. Ulbricht, Einheit, April, 1959.
32 After the death of W. Pieck, Ulbricht joined Khrushchev, Novotny (Czechoslovakia), Tsedenbal (Mongolia), as party leaders (First Secretaries) who also hold top state or governmental posts.
33 Open letter from the Presidium, CC, CPSU, to Comrade N. S. Khrushchev, Pravda, April 19, 1959.
34 As a measure of the contrast to the greetings to Khrushchev from all satellite party leaders in April, 1959, only W. Ulbricht and O. Grotewohl sent messages to Mikoyan on his sixty-fifth birthday recently. It was transmitted by ADN, November 24, 1960, but not published in the Soviet press.
35 Except for Rush, Myron, The Rise of Khrushchev (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1958)Google Scholar, there is no detailed study in English of the origins of the Khrushchev cult.
36 The only Presidium members to use the words were Beljaev, Kirichenko, Brezhnev, and Shevernik; the first two were removed from the Presidium in May, 1960 (Pravda, May 5, 1960).
37 Although removed from the Presidum in September at the plenary session which convoked the 21st Congress (Pravda, September 7, 1958), Bulganin was first included in the anti-party group by Khrushchev (Pravda, November 15, 1958) one day after the publication of the control figures for the seven-year plan.
38 Shepilov, the fourth of the original group, was a candidate member.
39 Pravda, July 4, 1957.
40 Ibid.
41 Pravda, July 17, 1960; although Voroshilov's waverings in the crisis of June, 1957, had been reported in the Western press (V. Zorza, Manchester Guardian, July 10, 1957), the first hint from Soviet sources came with the omission of Voroshilov's name from the list of Khrushchev's supporters in the new party history (Istorija KPSS, Moscow, 1959, p. 655).
42 Pravda, July 4, 1960.
43 The Times, London, June 27, 1960; also New York Times, June 27, 1960.
44 See also A. Harriman, op. cit., p. 105, for personal evaluations of Molotov by both Khrushchev and Mikoyan; also S. Bialer,“I Chose Truth,” News from Behind the Iron Curtain, October, 1956.
45 National Policy Machinery in the Soviet Union, p. 18.
46 Interview with Turner Cattledge, New York Times, May 11, 1957.
47 Boffa, G., Inside the Khrushchev Era (New York, 1959), p. 27.Google Scholar Boffa was the journalist selected to present Khrushchev's version of the June events to the outside world; see L'Unita (Rome and Milan), July 7 and 8, 1960.
48 From the announcement of the reorganization of the party-state apparatus (Pravda, March 7, 1953), until the announcement of the arrest of Beria (Pravda, July 10, 1953), Malenkov and Beria always headed the official listings, followed by Molotov, Voroshilov, and Khrushchev. The alphabetical listing began at the 11th Trade Union Congress (Pravda, June 7, 1954) and, with some exceptions involving Khrushchev, is still practiced.
49 Three of the full members, L. Melnikov, P. Ponomarenko, and N. Shvernik, were dropped to candidate status (Pravda, October 17, 1952).
50 Pravda, March 21, 1953, reporting on the plenary session of March 14.
51 Ibid., February 1, 1959.
52 An interesting sidelight to Kirichenko's moving the start of the anti-party group's opposition back to the spring of 1953 is provided in his biography in Volume 51 of the B.S.E. (p. 1952, date of publication—May, 1958), and in the M.S.E., Volume 4, publication date—April, 1959). These give May, 1953, as the date of his election as candidate member of the Presidium of the CPSU, although he did not become First Secretary of the Ukrainian CC until June, 1953, when he replaced L. Melnikov. Politicheskij Slovar', Moscow (January, 1958) does not mention Kirichenko's election to candidate member-ship. Since there is no record of any May, 1953, plenum, this intentional chronological blunder seems designed to qualify Kirichenko as an“eye-witness” to all the Presidium debates from the time "immediately after the death of Stalin."
53 O. V. Kuusinen, Pravda, February 4, 1959.
54 A. F. Zasjadko, ibid., February 3, 1959.
55 E. P. Kolushchinskij, ibid., February 6, 1959.
56 Ibid., January 29, 1959.
57 This would imply that, even as a candidate member of the Presidium, Pervukhin had not been scheduled to address the Congress. The only candidate not to speak or submit a text (Voroshilov) was D. S. Korotchenko.
58 Pervukhin's confession was also labelled“unsatisfactory” by Lt. Gen. S. P. Vasjagin, Chief of the Political Administration of the Soviet Forces in the DDR (Radio Volga, February 15, 1959).
59 B. Wolfe, Six Keys to Soviet Power (Boston, 1956), p. 11.
60 Narodnoe Khoxjajstvo SSSR v 1958 godu (Moscow, 1959), p. 352.
61 "Pravda, January 29, 1959.
62 In a speech broadcast by Radio Volga, February 15, 1959, Lt. General S. P. Vasjagin referred to an“obnoxious letter” from Shepilov to the Congress“which proved that he has not recognized his errors.” There is no evidence that any of the others, Malenkov, Molotov, or Kaganovich, submitted similar documents.
63 Sixty-eight of the eighty-seven texts attacked the anti-party group.
64 For detailed analyses of the differences in these attacks, see Meissner, B., Russland unter Chrushchtschow (München, 1960), pp. 150–52;Google Scholar Leonhard, W., Kreml ohne Stalin (Koln, 1959), pp. 472–76;Google Scholar D. Burg,“Discussion at the Party Congress,” Bulletin (Institute for the Study of the USSR) (Munich, May, 1960), pp. 13-17; also the reply to Burg by G. Denike, Socialisticheskij Vestnik, April, 1959.
65 Not previously recorded were accusations that Pervukhin was responsible for the slow growth of electric power (Kuzmin, Pravda, February 5, 1959) and the allegation that Saburov had hindered the development of the oil industry in the Tatar Republic Ignatyev, ibid., February 4, 1959. Saburov's“statement” (Zajavlenie) the only speech thus described, contains 11 examples of anti-party opposition, including objections to economic aid for the“people's democracies” (Vneocherednoj XXI S'ezd Kommunistiches-koj Partii Sovetskogo Sojuza: Stenograficheskij Otchet, 1959, Vol. 2, pp. 289-92).
66 Pravda, February 5, 1959.
67 Ibid., February 1, 1959.
68 Brzezinski, Z., Permanent Purge (Cambridge, 1956), p. 172.Google Scholar
69 Pravda, May 5, 1960.
70 See Khrushchev's attack on Beljaev at the December plenum, Pravda, December 23, 1959.