The Ninth Congress of the R.C.P. (B)

Between March 29 to April 5, 1920, the 9th Congress was opened in the hall of Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow and the subsequent meeting was held in the Sverdlov Hall of the Kremlin Palace. A total of 715 delegates attended the Congress, including 553 delegates with voting rights and 162 delegates with consultative rights, representing a total of 611,978 party members. The Congress was held under the conditions when the Red Army had won a decisive victory against foreign armed intervention and domestic counter-revolution, and Soviet Russia entered into a peaceful development stage. The main agenda of the Congress was: the Report of The Central Committee; Report on the Immediate Tasks of Economic Construction; Report on the Trade Union Movement; Report on Organizational Questions; Report on the Tasks of the Communist International; the Subject of Cooperatives; the Transition to a Militia System; Election of the Central Committee. Lenin directly chaired and led the work of the Congress.

The central theme of this Congress was the issue of economic construction, i.e., the shift from the struggle on the military front to the struggle on the labor front, the victory over economic destruction, and the restoration and development of the national economy. L.D. Trotsky reported on the current tasks of economic construction. The resolution adopted by the Congress on this question states that the basic condition for the economic recovery of Soviet Russia is the implementation of a unified economic program for the latest historical period. The resolution sets out the order of priority of the fundamental tasks for the completion of the unified program: (1) To improve the work of the transport sector by mobilizing and stockpiling the necessary food, fuel, and raw materials; (2) Development of machinery industries serving the transportation industry and access to fuel, raw materials, and food. (3) Intensify the development of machinery industries for the production of daily necessities; (4) Stepping up the production of daily necessities. The realization of national electrification took a prominent place in the Unified Economic Plan; the Congress adopted instructions for the development of an electrification program. The Congress demanded that the Party organizations at all levels carry out the directives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia to deploy 5,000 qualified and tested Communists to the transportation work, and decided to mobilize 10 percent of the Congress delegates to the transportation work. The Congress decided to declare May 1, 1920 (Saturday) as the Russian Labor Day.

The Congress approved the outline of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) on the mobilization of the industrial proletariat, the implementation of the labor obligation system, the militarization of the economy, and the use of the army for economic needs, and charged the party organizations to help the trade union and the labor department count all skilled workers to absorb them to participate in the production. At the same time, it categorically rejected Trotsky's proposal that the establishment of the labor force should be regarded as the guarantee of the national economy. The only good way to help the labor force and the idea of applying military methods to peaceful economic construction. The Congress attached great importance to the organization of management. The resolution adopted by the Congress on this issue points out that it is necessary to establish strong and effective leadership that is familiar with business on the basis of the one leader system. The “Democratic Centralist Group” represented by T. V. Sapronov were opposed to the implementation of the one leader system and the individual responsibility system in enterprises, to the unlimited collective management system, to the use of old experts, and the centralized management of the country. They were supported by A. I. Rykov, M. P. Tomskii, V. P. Miliutin, A. Lomov (Georgy Oppokov), and others. The Congress condemned and rejected the proposals of the “Democratic Centralist Group” within the Party.

The Congress clearly defined the role of the trade unions, their relationship with the Soviet state and party, and the forms of their participation in economic construction. The Congress stressed that in the age of the dictatorship of the proletariat, trade unions face problems primarily in economic organization and education. The decision on cooperatives proposed the strengthening of party leadership in cooperative bodies. The Congress also decided on the publication of Lenin's complete works. On April 4, a new Central Committee consisting of 19 members and 12 candidate members was elected at the secret meeting of the Congress.