ONE PARTY— THE POLICY OF 200,000,000

Historian

THERE IS ONLY one political party in our country—the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). This specific feature of the political life of our society seems puzzling to some people. They claim that it is abnormal and undemocratic. This is an altogether erroneous conception. A multiple-party system is no guarantee of democracy. The political history of many countries, including that of prerevolutionary Russia, makes that fact abundantly evident.

The one-party system of the Soviet Union evolved naturally out of the struggle to extend democracy to the broadest sections of the population. Before the October Socialist Revolution of 1917 there were many opposing political parties in Russia. With few exceptions, their programs won them no substantial support from the people.

On the right were the monarchist League of the Russian People; the Octobriats, who represented the interests of the landlords and the bourgeoisie; and the Constitutional Democrats—the Cadets—who served the big capitalists. Their policies were all dedicated to securing the interests of the bourgeoisie and the landlords, to preserving the monarchy and landed proprietorship, to maintaining the system of colonial oppression of the non-Russian peoples of the czarist empire and to continuing the imperialist war. As a consequence, they lost what narrow support they originally gathered and either faded away before the October Revolution, as had happened with the League of Russian People, or, like the Octobriats and the Constitutional Democrats, degenerated into counterrevolutionary conspiratorial groups that took up arms against the government of the Soviets.

In addition to these blatantly reactionary, anti-democratic parties there were the so-called socialist parties—the Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries. They opposed the monarchy, favored agrarian reform and proclaimed themselves supporters of socialism. For a time their ostensibly democratic program won them the support of some of the intellectuals, peasants and workers.

A veteran of the revolutionary movement, the author of this article, Andrei Kuchkin, is an eminent scientist specializing in the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He is one of the co-authors of the textbook History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which has been published in editions totaling many million copies.

Finally, there was the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). To explain its origin, we must turn history back a half-century. Prerevolutionary Russia had four basic classes—the landlords, capitalists, workers and peasants. The workers and the great mass of the peasants, with the exception of the rich exploiting kulaks, were poverty-stricken.

With the development of capitalism in Russia at the turn of the century, the working class grew in size and in strength. The workers and peasants were savagely exploited. They worked 14 to 16 hours a day at wages that were not enough to keep body and soul together. Their bitterness and hatred broke out in spontaneous revolts that the czarist officialdom put down by shooting and hanging strikers and rioters.

The class struggle had to be channeled and properly organized if the working people were to be eased of their terrible burden of suffering. So thought the best representatives of the people of Russia, like Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) and others who came from the intellectuals and from the working class itself. Life demanded the formation of a political party capable of expressing the people's aspirations and of carrying out a policy that accorded with the interests and needs of the working people. Lenin and his comrades-in-arms worked persistently for the creation of such a party. His efforts were concentrated on organizing the working class in order to lead it in a relentless struggle against its exploiters.

The Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was founded in 1903. Its organizer was Vladimir Lenin. The ideological weapon it adopted was and remains Marxism, the teachings of Marx and Engels founded on the objective laws that govern the development of society and explain the successive changes of social formations in the process of social development. The Party worked out a plan and tactics of struggle divided into a minimum program and a maximum program. The minimum program called for the overthrow of czarism by reasonable tactics and a change in the social order, with the goal of achieving democratic freedoms. The maximum program called for the establishment of the power of the working class, an end to the exploitation of man by man, conversion of the means of production into public property as a basis for building a classless communist society that would use these great productive potentials to satisfy all of man's material and cultural wants. This was, in brief, Lenin's theory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and its transformation into the socialist revolution which was to create the basis for constructing a classless, communist society.

Almost from the moment of its birth the Communist Party was tested in battle. In 1905 the people rose against the czarist autocracy, and the Party marched in the foremost ranks of the revolutionary fighters. No other party so devotedly defended the interests of the working people.

But in 1905 the people still lacked the strength to overthrow the old regime, and czarism won. But the party of the Communists continued its work among the people, getting them ready for the decisive revolution which was inevitably brewing since brutal exploitation went on unabated and the people were being stripped of all rights. The Communists were persecuted by the czarist officialdom. With exile, hard prison labor, firing squad and gallows, the autocracy hoped to crush the Communists or to terrorize them until they gave up the revolutionary struggle. But Communists are as indestructible as the working class itself, that endless reservoir from which the Party constantly reinforces itself. In the years following 1905 the Party gained in influence and authority with its steadfast program of struggle for the interests of all working people.

Then came the year 1917. The first imperialist war brought the country to the verge of ruin. Starvation and the whip ruled the cities and villages. War-weary and hungry, millions of soldiers refused to fight. This was not their war, they wanted an end to it. The czarist government and all the bourgeois parties demanded that the war go on. Only the Communist Party called on the workers, soldiers and peasants to struggle to overthrow the czarist government and to put a workers' and peasants' government in power that would give the country peace, bread and land, and once and for all put an end to national oppression.

In March 1917 the people overthrew the czarist government, but the bourgeoisie seized power and formed a Provisional Government

1

which the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries joined. The Communists could not participate in a government that represented the interests of big capital and the landlords and that called on the people for a "war until victory." The Bolsheviks demanded a government without capitalists that would declare an immediate peace and distribute the land among the peasants.

The Provisional Government did nothing to ameliorate the want and privation. The people learned soon enough that the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries who collaborated with the capitalist parties had nothing to offer but empty promises. The suffering and hunger continued. Only the Communist Party kept fighting for the people's needs. The Provisional Government answered with reprisals and ordered the arrest of Lenin, the Party's leader.

Forced to the conclusion that the people could not win power by peaceful means, the Communists appealed to the workers, soldiers and poor peasants to rise up against the Provisional Government. The response to this appeal was immediate. It needed no lengthy persuasion for a worker, a soldier, a peasant to support and fight for the kind of government the Party called for—one without oppression, without exploitation. The people took up arms, and on November 7, 1917 (October 25, Old Style calendar), the Provisional Government was overthrown.

The Socialist Revolution carried through under the leadership of the Communist Party was practically bloodless. Immediately afterward the Congress of Soviets, authorized representatives of the people, adopted the first epoch-making decrees—the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land.

How did the other parties react to the Socialist Revolution?

The Octobrists and Constitutional Democrats openly embarked on a course of armed struggle against the Soviet power. They bred counterrevolutionary plots and supported the foreign interventionist armies. Some time later the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries also came out against the Socialist Revolution. Their tactics at first was to destroy the Soviet governmental bodies from within.

Of the 649 delegates to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, 72 were Mensheviks, 160 were Socialist Revolutionaries and the remaining 390 were members of the Communist Party. The Mensheviks and the Right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries joined in a resolution to condemn the October Revolution as adventurism and then walked out of the meeting. Their clear intent was to break up the Congress. The tactics lost them what little public support they had managed to retain.

Some of the rank-and-file Mensheviks and Right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries remained at the Congress as did the group of Left-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries with a leadership that took a vacillating position.

When the government was formed on November 8, (October 26) 1917, the Communist Party, with an overwhelming majority at the Second Congress of Soviets, demonstrated its readiness to cooperate with other parties. In an appeal to all the working classes of Russia issued at the time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party declared: "We were willing, and remain willing, to share power with the minority . . ." The Party insisted only on one condition, that the minority agree to carry out the program of gradual but undeviating progress toward socialism adopted by the Second All-Russian Congress.

The answer of the minority parties to cooperation on that basis was an unambiguous "no." In November 1917 the Mensheviks and Right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries joined in a "Committee for the Salvation of the Father-

The Party committee of the Kuban Collective Farm in the North Caucasus discussing steps to increase yield. Party members enjoy no special privileges. They work at farms, factories and schools like everyone else. But wherever he works, the Communist is expected to set the example for integrity, civic-mindedness, industry and responsibility.

land and the Revolution," a conspiratorial group whose aim was non-recognition of the Soviet power and the organization of a bitter struggle against it.

The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries became increasingly bold in their counterrevolutionary activities, apparently encouraged by the tolerance displayed by the Soviet government. Soon after the Revolution they took to armed struggle and instigated counterrevolutionary outbreaks led by Kaledin, Kornilov and Dutov.

In 1918 Right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries precipitated revolts against the Soviet Republic in Samara, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Tambov and other cities. Armed conspiracy, sabotage, murder—violence of every kind on a growing scale—was resorted to by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries to undermine the young Soviet Republic. In 1918 the Socialist-Revolutionary Kaplan shot Lenin in an attempted assassination.

In March 1918 the Socialist-Revolutionaries withdrew from the government, and in July of that same year, while the Fifth Congress of Soviets was meeting, their Left-wing group engineered a counterrevolutionary uprising in Moscow. The Fifth Congress of Soviets thereupon expelled them. Thus, the Left-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries themselves broke their alliance with the Communists by deserting to the enemies of the Revolution.

It was not long before the policy of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks brought the crisis within these parties to a head. They began to splinter, and rank-and-file members left, some to join the Communists. The two parties lost influence at a disastrous rate. In the first half of 1918 representatives of these parties made up 24.6 per cent of the delegates to the gubernia and uyezd congresses of Soviets; by the second half of the year their representation had shrunk to 4.6 per cent.

With the people's support lost, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries turned completely to illegal methods of struggle. In many cities they formed underground groups with their leaders directing the counterrevolutionary activities of their small number of associates from a center across the border.

The political parties that refused to accept Soviet power and failed to understand that it was a people's revolution the Communist Party had led in October 1917 vanished from the scene in the twenties. Their public support faded, and they degenerated into factions and conspiracies.

So it was that the Communist Party, by reason of its leadership of the people during the preparation and carrying out of the Revolution, the defense of its achievements in the harrowing years of the Civil War and the construction of socialist society, emerged historically as the only political party.

The October Revolution brought about the formation of a socialist state which has two friendly classes with interlocking interests—workers and farmers—with a working intelligentsia closely related. The Communist Party represents the harmonious interests of workers, peasants and intelligentsia who are moving together toward a common goal. Without conflicting classes there is no reason for the existence of other political parties.

As the only political party, the governing party, the Communist Party's existence is unthinkable without the closest possible contact with the masses of people. This close relationship with the people was underscored by Lenin, the Party's founder. The Party does not counterpose itself to the people. In all its daily work and in all its fundamental decisions it relies upon the masses, and the masses associate the realization of all their strivings with the Party.

There is only one party in the Soviet Union, but that party carries out the policy of all the two hundred million people of the country. Therein lies the source of the Party's strength and authority. For all its fundamental decisions and even for its day-to-day work the Party and its Central Committee rely on the people's knowledge and experience. Before every Party Congress and plenary meeting of the Central Committee, the questions to be discussed are published in advance so that every citizen—Party member or not—may have the opportunity to present his opinion and make his suggestions.

Take the current seven-year plan which was drafted at the initiative of the Communist Party as an example. Before the plan was finalized at the 21st Congress of the Party, it was discussed by workers, farmers, and intellectuals throughout the country at public meetings attended by more than 70 million people. Some five million citizens proposed changes and additions, many of which were incorporated into the final draft.

The Party raises the most important problems for discussion by the people, and the decisions taken by the Party embody the people's collective opinion. People from industry, agriculture, science, the arts—many of them not affiliated with the Party—are invited to the plenary sessions of the Central Committee. Their suggestions are given serious consideration before decisions are adopted. That is why the people see in the Party's decisions their own aspirations, plans and interests. That is why the decisions are carried through with such determination and enthusiasm. The country's industry now turns out in a ten-day period as much manufactured goods as prerevolutionary Russia did in a year. Soviet science has made major contributions to cosmic exploration, rocket engineering, the peaceful uses of atomic energy, electronics, automation and other areas of research. Thousands of new factories and power stations dot the country. Consumer goods are available in ever larger quantities. Wages keep rising, the workday is being cut, taxes are being abolished, welfare services are increasing. The Soviet Union educates more engineers than any other country in the world. These are achievements that speak eloquently for the able leadership of the Communist Party.

The fact that there is only one political party in the Soviet Union does not in any way limit the democratic rights and freedoms of the citizen. The Communist Party is not the only public organization in the country. There are the trade unions, the Young Communist League (Komsomol), the cooperative societies, the women's organizations, and many others. Being a leading force of socialist society, the vanguard of the working people, the Communist Party relies upon the work of all these organizations, draws them into discussion of various problems relating to communist construction and listens to the voices of their representatives. The active exchange of ideas expressing the people's initiative, embodied in all Party decisions, takes place through the various channels for the free expression of public opinion—the press, radio, television, forums, debates and other types of public meetings.

The ideological unity of the Party itself, the harmony and discipline within the Party, presumes the active and effective exchange of opinion so characteristic of Party life. The airing of problems, the criticism of shortcomings and the continuous search for the best way to eliminate them—this is what the

Party demands of all its members. Free and unhampered discussion until a decision is democratically arrived at is a law of Party life, so recorded in its Charter.

Party members enjoy no special privileges. They work in factories, farms, stores, schools and laboratories like everyone else. But wherever he works, the Communist is expected to set an example for responsibility, industry and integrity.

Nor does the fact that there is only one Party place the non-Party citizen at a disadvantage. In local government bodies, as a matter of fact, about 50 per cent of the deputies are non-Party people.

The Communist Party, like every other mass organization, has the right and the duty to nominate candidates for public office. The nominees are discussed at general election rallies. The fact that one candidate is placed on the ballot does not mean that the one-party system eliminates the possibility of choosing the worthiest candidate. On the contrary, the very absence of party rivalry enables the Party, the trade unions and other organizations to concentrate on evaluating the qualifications of the nominees and to select the candidate most likely to measure up to the job of deputy. Should the voters choose a deputy who is remiss in his duties or who does not carry out their mandate, they may recall him at will and elect another deputy in his place.

The growth of the Party membership attests to the vitality of its program and policy. Immediately before the October Revolution the Party had no more than 240,000 members. Just prior to the Second World War its membership approximated 2.5 million. The delegates to the 21st Party Congress that met in 1959 represented some eight million members.

Note, too, that the requirements for Party membership are demanding and that only the most civic minded, those who enjoy the affec-tion and esteem of their neighbors and workmates, are permitted to call themselves Communists, a title of honor but also one of great responsibility.

To Soviet people the word Communist is a synonym for courage, self-sacrifice, social consciousness and understanding, love of people and country. It was not without reason that the Communists were the first to be hunted down and killed by the White Guards and foreign interventionists when they captured a village or town during the Civil War. The enemies knew that the Party's strength lies in its people, in the invincibility of their ideas, in their inflexible will.

When the fascists attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, one of the first jobs they set themselves was the compilation of lists of Communists in the various cities. The invaders knew well enough the Communists would organize resistance and inspire the people to struggle against the enemy.

It is no coincidence that whenever the country faces a task that requires men of exceptional steadfastness, the call is for Communists. They fought in the most exposed positions on the fronts in the Civil War and the Second World War. Today they work at the most arduous tasks that have to be accomplished to build communism.

The Soviet people have high regard for the Communist Party. They know that Communists give freely of their energy and even their life for the sake of the people's happiness. Everything for the people's welfare—this is the Party's motto. Years of experience has convinced the Soviet people that the Communist Party is concerned only with the progress of the country, with the interests of the people—this is the Party's motivating force. That is why there is only one Party in the USSR, and its policy is the policy of two hundred million Soviet people.