This is the style of the party congress in Lenin's era, which ceased to exist after Stalin came to power.
19 17 After the victory of the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Party became the ruling party. In the first six years of Lenin's leadership, even with the armed invasion of 14 imperialist countries and the fierce civil war and rebellion in China, Lenin always adhered to the annual meeting system of the Party Congress, from 19 18 to 6544. If Lenin's practice is different from that of Marx and Engels, it is that when Marx and Engels founded the first * * * in 1847, they originally planned to hold a congress in August every year in party constitution instead of March and April every year. "A year's plan lies in spring". Every spring, gather the wisdom of the whole party, formulate an administrative outline, and then submit it to the all-Russian Soviet Congress for deliberation and concretization, becoming a resolution of the state organs of political power. This is an institutional innovation that embodies the party's right to state organs.
Lenin not only insisted on implementing the annual meeting system of the Party Congress, but also set an example in how to hold the Party Congress well, how to make the Party Congress fully carry forward inner-party democracy and freedom, how to make the Party Congress the highest authority of the Party, and how to effectively implement the resolutions of the Party Congress.
First, the central and local party organizations made a lot of preparations before the meeting. The central government should determine the theme and agenda of the congress, appoint the main speakers, and publish a "debate page" in Pravda, the central organ newspaper, to advocate contention through suggestions made to the congress; All provinces, states, border regions and armed forces should first convene a party congress to discuss the main topics of the congress, make suggestions, elect representatives who have the right to vote and invite representatives who have the right to speak.
Second, Lenin made political reports and reports on major issues on behalf of the CPC Central Committee at every party congress. Lenin did not read a long written manuscript in advance, but gave a vivid explanation according to the outline. 19 18 Lenin even interjected in the report of the Seventh National Congress: "The secretary of the conference and the stenographer don't have to record this sentence." 1923, the 12th National Congress will be held soon. Lenin was unable to attend the meeting because of illness, so he dictated this letter to the congress, which was later called Lenin's political will.
Thirdly, Lenin pointed out in his last report to the Eleventh National Congress: "As a political report of the Central Committee, we should not only talk about what we did in the reporting year, but also point out the major and fundamental political lessons in the reporting year, so as to correctly stipulate our policies for the next year and draw lessons from the past year." Therefore, at the party congress, we should not just show off our achievements and sing praises, but be good at self-criticism and mutual criticism.
Fourth, people have different opinions and different understandings when making decisions by combining Marxist and Communist theories with the current national reality. Therefore, there should be heated discussions and even arguments at the party congress. Every day at the meeting of the Party Congress, there are speeches, some people interrupt, some people refute, there are laughter and applause. Every day, the meeting is full of freedom and democracy.
Fifth, at the Party Congress, you can express opinions that disagree with the decision-making of the CPC Central Committee, or even publish a deputy report that is contrary to the main report of the CPC Central Committee, and submit the two reports to all delegates for discussion. For example, at the Seventh National Congress of 19 18, Lenin advocated signing the Brest Peace Treaty with Germany in order to quit the war and consolidate the political power. Later, Bukharin insisted on fighting against Germany in the deputy report and opposed the signing of a humiliating peace treaty. After debate, the Congress finally adopted Lenin's report with 30 votes in favor, 12 against and 4 abstentions.
Sixth, it is normal and beneficial to have a free debate with different opinions at the party congress. However, at the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth national congresses, there were "Left" communism, military opposition, democratic centralism, workers' opposition and other factional activities. To this end, Lenin specially drafted a resolution on the reunification of the Party at the Tenth Congress, forbidding organized and programmatic factional activities within the Party, and at the same time "decided to publish special pages and collections of debates more often, trying to criticize the essence of the problem", "will continue to take all means and try various new methods, oppose bureaucracy, expand democracy and carry forward the spirit of independence".
Seventh, during the party congress, some important speeches were published in Pravda in time. After the party congress, in addition to verbally conveying the specific situation of the congress to party member in the region, all the documents of the congress should be compiled together as soon as possible, and the shorthand records of all the delegates' speeches at the congress should be sorted out. Usually, the X Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) (shorthand record), which is hundreds of thousands of words thick, was officially published that year, so that the whole party, party member and the people of the whole country can know the inside story of the Congress in detail. The openness of the party congress of the ruling party is the requirement and expression of inner-party democracy and socialist democracy.
Eighth, in order to make up for the shortcomings of the annual meeting system of the Party Congress, Lenin also initiated the annual meeting system of the Party Congress. The Party Congress is composed of representatives from provincial committees and ethnic regional committees convened by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Its scale and authority are smaller than the party congress. 19 19 February, 19 decided to hold a party representative meeting every three months. March 192 10 is held twice a year, and August 1922 is held once a year, that is, the annual meeting system is implemented. Usually held between the two congresses, it plays a role as a bridge and turning point for the two congresses and avoids excessive concentration of central power.
Ninth, the Central Committee elected by the Party Congress is the executive organ of the Party Congress. In order to strengthen the collective leadership and division of responsibilities of the CPC Central Committee, 19 19 stipulated in June that the Central Plenary Session should be held at least twice a month, and 1922 stipulated in August that it should be held every two months. 19 19 From March, the Central Committee has three institutions, namely, the Political Bureau, the Organization Department and the Secretariat, which are responsible for politics, organization and daily work respectively. They are the permanent core organs of the Central Committee, not the leading organs higher than the Central Committee, and report to the Central Committee once every two weeks. In order to strengthen collective leadership, the CPC Central Committee does not have a chairman, and Lenin is only one of the five members of the Politburo. 1922 In April, the Secretariat added the post of General Secretary, which was held by Stalin, who was only the head of the Secretariat. At the end of the same year, in view of Stalin's monopolization of power and bad temper, Lenin wrote to the party congress and suggested that he be transferred from his post.
Tenth, in order to strengthen the supervision of the central authorities, the Central Supervision Commission was established in September. 1920. It is elected by the Party Congress, parallel to the Central Committee, responsible for the Party Congress and reporting its work. Its duty is to fight against the inner-party bureaucracy, the idea of promoting to a higher position and party member's abuse of power, and to accept all kinds of complaints and accusations. Lenin also pointed out before his death that the Central Supervisory Commission should be "insensitive" and should be careful not to let anyone's prestige, whether it is the prestige of the general secretary or that of other members of the Central Committee, hinder them from asking questions and checking documents, so as to know the situation absolutely and make everything strictly in accordance with regulations.
Lenin also wanted to develop inner-party democracy in his later years, and made up for the deficiency of the annual meeting system of the Party Congress by expanding the proportion of workers in the Central Committee and establishing the highest representative meeting of the Party. However, he did not expect to implement the permanent system of the party congress.
1924 10 After Lenin's sudden death in October, Stalin kept the position of general secretary. He also held the thirteenth and fourteenth national congresses of the Party as usual in that year and the following year. However, the 15th National Congress was postponed for one year, and it was not held until 1927. In order to create a legal basis for this practice of undermining the fine tradition of the annual meeting system, the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China "made the following amendments to party constitution: the National Congress of the Party will be held at least every two years." However, the 16th National Congress was postponed to 1930, and the 17th National Congress was postponed for one year to 1934. The 17th National Congress of New party constitution changed the Party Congress to "be held at least once every three years". The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China dragged on for five years until 1939. The 19th National Congress was not held until 13 years later. Stalin not only destroyed the annual meeting system of the party congress, but also changed the annual meeting system of the party congress and the regular meeting system of the central plenary session, shifting the party's power center to the Politburo, which often did not meet. As there was no chairman the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Lenin's period, it was convenient for the general secretary to overstep his authority and monopolize the power of the whole party after Lenin's death in 1924, and the general secretary's personal centralization system was implemented. What's more, Stalin cleansed people who disagreed with the party as contradictions between ourselves and the enemy, abolished inner-party democracy and freedom, engaged in personality cult, and turned the postponed party congress into a meeting to praise the CPC Central Committee and leaders. He also turned the Central Supervisory Committee, which specializes in supervising local Party organizations, into a subordinate institution under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Stalin's practice of personal centralization and life tenure in leadership positions has extremely serious consequences.