Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B)

The Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B) was held at the Taurida Palace in Petrograd on March 6 to 8, 1918. This was the first congress of the Bolshevik Party after the victory of the October Revolution. There were 46 delegates with voting rights and 58 delegates with consultative rights attending the Congress, representing a total of about 170,000 party members. At that time the Russian Communist Party had more than 300,000 members, and due to the urgency of the Congress and the temporary occupation of certain regions by Germany, a part of the party organizations were unable to elect and send delegates. The main task of the Congress was to settle once and for all the issue concerning the conclusion of the “Brest Peace Treaty” with Germany.

On the issue of signing the peace treaty with Germany, the struggle within the party was very sharp at that time. Lenin and the Central Committee members who supported him pressed for the withdrawal of Soviet Russia from the imperialist war. Lenin's position and basic principles are most fully reflected in his “Theses on the Question of the Immediate Conclusion of a Separate and Annexationist Peace”. The Left Communists led by N.I. Bukharin opposed the signing of the Brest Peace Treaty. The Left Communists took the leadership of the party organizations in Moscow, Petrograd, and the Urals and fiercely opposed Lenin's line. L.D. Trotsky's position was close to Left Communists. The adventurist slogans of the Left Communists were refuted by most grassroots party organizations. By the time of the Congress, Lenin's line of concluding the peace treaty had gained the support of most of the party organizations.

The Congress discussed the political report of the Central Committee “Resolution on War and Peace” drafted by Lenin and adopted the decision on the conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty with 30 votes in favor, 12 against, and 4 absents. The Congress adopted the decision to change the name of the party and revise its program. From this congress onwards, the party began to be called as "Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviks)", or "R.C.P. (B)" for short, because the name "Communist Party" was more in line with the party's goal of achieving communism. The Congress decided that a special committee consisting of Lenin, Stalin, and others would draft the new party program. The “Rough Outline of the Party Programme” prepared by Lenin was adopted as the basis of the party program. The Congress elected a Central Committee consisting of 15 members and 8 candidate members.

With the defeat of the Left Communists and Trotskyists at the Seventh Congress Russia withdrew from the imperialist war, gave it a moment of peaceful respite, and bought the Party time to build the Red Army and organize the Soviet economy.