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

The Twelfth Congress of the R.C.P (B) was held in Kremlin, Moscow between April 17 to 25, 1923. The Congress was attended by 408 delegates with voting rights and 417 delegates with consultative rights, representing a total of 386,000 Party members and 99,000 member candidates. The Congress discussed The Central Committee Political Report; Report of the Central Control Commission; Report of the Russian representation in the Comintern Executive Committee; the Report About Industry; the Report on National Issues in Party and State Development; the Report on Tax Policy in Rural Areas, the Report on Establishment of Districts. Lenin did not attend the Congress because of his illness. Shortly before the Congress he published his articles: “The Question of Nationalities or ‘Autonomisation’", “Pages from a Diary”, "On Co-operation", "Our Revolution", " Better Fewer, But Better", etc. The delegates carefully considered and made extensive use of these articles in their discussions to solve various problems. This congress made a summary of the two years of implementation of the NEP, firmly rejected the views of Trotsky, Bukharin, and their followers who interpreted the NEP as an abandonment of the socialist position. The Congress gave great attention to organizational and ethnic-national issues. Stalin gave the “Organizational Report of the Central Committee” at the afternoon session on April 17. In the resolution adopted on the “Organizational Report of the Central Committee”, the Congress approved Lenin's plan to reorganize the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate and the Central Control Commission, pointing out the improvements in the central organizational apparatus and all organizational work. On April 23, the Congress heard Stalin's report on “National (ethnic-based) Issues in Party and State Development”. The report was discussed on April 23-24, and further discussion of the issue was passed to the commission of national issues of the Congress, which was directly headed by Stalin. On April 25, the Congress adopted the resolution proposed by the commission of national issues which was guided by Stalin's thoughts. The Congress exposed the elements of nationalist tendencies and called on the Party to resolutely oppose two tendencies on the national question, namely, Great Russian chauvinism and bourgeois localism. The General Assembly elected the Central Committee, consisting of 40 members and 17 alternate members, the Central Inspection Commission, consisting of 3 members, and the Central Supervisory Commission, comprising of 50 members and 10 alternate members.