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

The Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P (B) was held in the Sverdlov Hall of the Kremlin, in Moscow between March 27 to April 2, 1922. This was the last Party congress Lenin attended.

The Congress was held one year after the end of the Civil War in Russia and the transition of the Soviet state to its peaceful construction. The task of the Congress was to summarize the first year of the New Economic Policy and to draw up a plan for the continuation of socialist construction. The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, under Lenin's leadership, made extensive preparations for the Congress, the main documents of which were drawn up by Lenin or with his participation.

The Congress was attended by 522 delegates with voting rights and 165 specially invited delegates with consultative rights, representing more than 532,000 party members. The agenda of the Congress included: the political report of the Central Committee; the organisational issues report of the Central Committee; the report of the Central Auditing Commission; the report of the Central Control Commission; the report of the Communist International; the trade unions; the red army; the financial policy; the results of the party purge and the accompanying strengthening of the party ranks, and the co-reports on work with young people and on the press and propaganda; elections to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission. The congress also set up a committee to prepare the congress group on land issues to discuss the Party's rural work and formulate the corresponding resolutions.

Lenin made “the Opening Speech” and gave “the Political Report of the Central Committee” and “the Closing Speech of the Congress”. In the resolution adopted by the Congress, it expressed its approval of the political and organizational line of the Central Committee and considered that the retreat to private capitalist concessions had been completed and that the basic task of the Party was to redeploy its forces to ensure the implementation of the Party's policy. The Congress pointed out the need for a clearer division of responsibilities between the party and the Soviet organs so that the party, while achieving political leadership of the Soviet State, would ensure an increased role of the Soviets in economic construction. The Congress endorsed the activities of the Russian Communist Party's delegation to the Communist International as well as the political line of the Executive Committee of the Communist International and the united front strategy was adopted. The Congress approved the decision of the Central Committee based on the draft outline of "Role and Functions of the Trade Unions Under the New Economic Policy" prepared by Lenin. The decision stated that the trade unions should be the closest collaborators of the state power in all its political and economic activities. The Congress developed measures to reorganize the budget and expand state revenues, and stressed the need to encourage the peasants to make the transition from a consumer economy to a commodity economy as the only guarantee for increasing agricultural production. The resolution “On Work in the Countryside” condemned the attempts to apply administrative pressure against the agricultural cooperatives. As stated in the resolution, the party’s main task in the countryside was to provide the peasantry with practical assistance aimed at increasing agricultural production. In the “Resolution on the Strengthening of the Party and New Tasks of the Party”, the Congress set out the tasks and concrete measures for consolidating the ties between the Party and the masses, strengthening the leadership role of the Party, as well as improving the work of the Party organs and enhancing the discipline of the Party. To prevent the intrusion of dissidents into the party, the resolution set new conditions for joining the party. The Congress confirmed the resolution of the Eleventh All-Russian Conference of the R.C.P. (B) On Strengthening the Party, in View of the Experience of the Verification of Its Members and adopted the Practical Proposal on the Organizational Problems of Party Building—Supplement to the Report on Party Purge and Strengthening of the Party Ranks. In addition, the Congress adopted the resolution “On the Tasks and Aims of Control Commissions” and confirmed the “Statute on Control Commissions and the Statute on the Central Auditing Commission”. In addition, it approved the resolutions “On the Russian Communist Youth League”, “On the Press and Propaganda”, and “On Work Among Women Workers and Women Peasants”. The Congress elected a Central Committee consisting of 27 members and 19 alternates and a Central Control Commission consisting of 5 members and 2 alternates.