The Fifteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U (B)

The Fifteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U (B) was held in the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow from December 2 to19, 1927. The Congress was attended by 898 delegates with voting rights and 771 delegates with consultative rights, representing 887,233 Party members and 348,957 member candidates.

The Congress was held in an economic situation where the development of socialist industry in the USS.R. had achieved great success while agriculture was lagging behind. The Congress discussed the Political and Organizational Reports of the Central Committee; the report of the Central Auditory Commission; the reports of the Central Control Commission and the People’s Commissariat for Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection; and heard and deliberated on the report delivered by the ACP(B) delegates to the Comintern; the directives for drawing up the five-year plan for the development of the national economy; report on work in the countryside; heard the report of the special commission of the Congress in respect to dealing with opposition elements, and elected the Party's central organs. Stalin made the political report of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) on December 3, and on December 7 he made conclusive remarks on his report. On December 12, the Congress elected Stalin as a member of the Commission for drafting the resolution on the report on the work of the delegation of the ACP(B) to the Executive Committee of the Communist International.

The Congress approved the political and organizational line of the Party Central Committee and entrusted the Party Central Committee to continue the policy of maintaining peace and consolidating the defense forces of the USS.R., to continue the socialist industrialization of the country with the same speed, to expand and strengthen the socialist component in the cities and villages, and to adopt the policy of eliminating the capitalist components of the national economy. The Congress adopted a resolution for the full-scale collectivization of agriculture, drew up plans for the expansion of collective farms and state farms, and formulated instructions on the methods of collectivization of agriculture. The 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik), ACP(B), entered the history of the Party as a congress of agricultural collectivization. The Congress drew up instructions for the elaboration of the first five-year plan for the national economy of the USS.R.. The Congress adopted the resolution On the Opposition, in which it stated that the ideological differences between the party and the opposition were of a programmatic nature. In matters of tactics, the opposition had overstepped the bounds of party discipline and had embarked on an open struggle against Soviet rule. In the organizational respect, it had taken steps to create its own party and directing bodies and to establish its own party discipline. The Congress confirmed the expulsion of L. D. Trotsky and G. E. Zinoviev from the party by the Nov. 14, 1927, resolution of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission and expelled 75 other active members of the anti-party bloc from the party. T. V. Sapronov’s group (23 persons) was expelled from the party for factionalism.

The Congress elected the 71 full members and 50 candidate members to Central Committee, the 5 members to Central Control Commission and the 9 members to Central Auditory Commission.