Theses for a Report on the Tactics of the Russian Communist Party

Lenin’s report on the tactics of All-Russian Communist Party (B) delivered at the Third Congress of the Communist International. It was written on June 13, 1921. Printed in Moscow as a full pamphlet in 1921. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 42 of the second edition of the Complete Works of Lenin.

The World War I intensified the inherent s contradictions and led to a crises in the capitalist world. The victory of the socialist October Revolution greatly encouraged and promoted the rise of the proletarian revolutionary movement in European countries, and also opened up a new era of the national liberation movements of the colonialized peoples. Under the new and complex situation, in order to formulate correct strategies and tasks of struggle, as well as the organizational construction, working methods and contents of the communist parties, and guide and unite the national democratic revolutions of the people of all countries, the Communist International held its Third Congress in Moscow from June 22 to July 12, 1921, with 605 participants from 52 countries which represented 48 communist parties, 8 socialist parties, 28 youth leagues, 4 trade union organizations, 2 opposition communist parties (German Communist Workers’ Party and Spanish Workers’ Communist Party) and 13 other organizations. There were 72 Deputies from All-Russian Communist Party (B) who participated the Congress. Lenin was the head of the Russian delegation and was elected honorary president of the Congress. He led all the preparatory work and the progress of the Congress. The outline of this report is one of the “Documents of the Third Congress of the Communist International”.

The main contents are as follows: (1) This work analyzes the international and domestic situations and the comparison of class forces at that time, and introduces the tasks, strategies and experiences of All-Russian Communist Party (B) in socialist revolution and construction. It is pointed out that the characteristics of the current international situation facing the Soviet Union are that a kind of balance of power was formed; although the international imperialism is much stronger than the Soviet Russia, it was unable to destroy it. Instead, it had to recognize it temporarily or half-heartedly, and has to enter into trade treaties with it, and although this kind of balance is extremely unreliable and unstable, the Socialist Republic can survive in the capitalist encirclement after all. In this context, the international situation of class forces was as follows: The proletariat and its vanguard, namely, the Communist Party, are surging in the advanced capitalist countries in the world; the working masses and the proletariat in the colonial and semi-colonial countries, which account for the majority of the world’s population, have awakened politically, and become the positive factor in attacking imperialism with revolutions. In the capitalist countries, the petty bourgeois democrats, who take the Second International and the second half international as their vanguard, are becoming more and more unstable as the main pillar element of capitalism. The domestic political situation of Soviet Russia is that for the first time in the world history, there are only two classes in Russia: proletariat and small-scale peasants, who account for the majority of the population. The class of big landlords and big capitalists was deprived economically and completely smashed politically. However, they did not disappear, and some forces remained at home and abroad, trying to destroy the Soviet regime and restore capitalism in Russia. (2) This document briefly explains the necessity and main tasks of Soviet Russia’s transformation from the “War Communism” policy with surplus grain collection system as the core to the New Economic Policy with grain tax as the core. Lenin pointed out that the policy of surplus grain collection system has completed the historical task of preserving the dictatorship of the proletariat in the backward countries whose economy has been destroyed. The main task of the proletariat as the ruling class is to explore various ways. Restore the transportation industry and large industry, realize the commodity exchange between industry and agriculture, establish the normal economic relationship between the proletariat and the peasants on the basis of the existing military alliance between them, establish a certain economic alliance between the two classes to consolidate the alliance between the industry and the peasants, and make a gradual transition to the socialized large agriculture using machines. This task is extremely difficult in the socialist construction, especially in Russia where small-scale farmers are dominant, and grain tax is just a transitional method from collecting all surplus grain of farmers to carrying out normal socialist product exchange between industry and agriculture. He reminded the communist parties of all countries that only when they have sufficient grain reserves, can proletarian countries have a firm foothold in economy, resume large-scale industry slowly but continuously, and establish a normal financial system. (3) The significance and conditions of grain tax policy as well as the plan and achievements of socialist construction are explained. Lenin pointed out that peasants have the freedom to buy and sell surplus grain after paying taxes. In order to exchange all surplus grain of peasants with the products of socialist factories, the Soviet regime must allow capitalism to develop to a certain extent. As long as the proletariat controls the political power, the transportation industry and the large-scale industry, in a backward small-scale peasant country whose economy was extremely damaged, the development of state capitalism under the supervision and regulation of the proletarian state in a certain extent would not terrible, but beneficial and necessary. The New Economic Policy would be the right decision to develop economy and realize the transition to socialism. However, without electrification (the newest technology) of all parts of Russia, none of these policies and measures could be implemented. The national electrification was of great significance to adapt to the latest technological level in the world, and in order to large scale agriculture which will use farming machinery as well as build the material foundation of socialism. With the participation of more than 200 outstanding Russian scholars, engineers and agronomists, the scientific work of the “Electrification Plan of the Soviet Union” was drawn up—the first phase of the project was expected to be completed in 10 years, with 8 new power stations built in 1918 and 100 in 1920. These major achievements increasingly showed to the Russian farmers that only the leadership of the proletariat can make the majority of small farmers get rid of the enslavement of capital and move towards socialism.

(4) This report on theses criticized the political vacillation and unreliability of the pure democracy concept of the petty bourgeoisie, that is, the Second International and Two and a Half International, and pointed out that the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the Menshevik Party in Russia were following their footprints. As the allies of capital bourgeoise, they had in fact colluded with the whole bourgeois counter revolutionaries and worked faithfully for them. It was necessary that the proletariat and its political parties should not be swayed by this kind of vacillation and carry out the cause of liberating labor from the shackles of capital to the end under the condition of the dictatorship of the proletariat

Lenin’s theses are an important document expounding on the program and tactics of socialist revolution and construction in Russia, and it was also an important inspiration and reference for the young communist parties of all countries participating in the “Third Congress of the Communist International” to formulate their own tactics of proletarian revolution and promote the further development of the revolution in the right direction.