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Stalin at the Conference of Stakhanovites

Iosif Stalin, Speech at the First All-union Conference of Stakhanovites. November 17, 1935

 

I. The Significance of the Stakhanov Movement
II. The Roots of the Stakhanov Movement
III. New People — New Technical Standards
IV. Immediate Tasks
V. A Few More Words

1. The Significance of the Stakhanov Movement

Comrades, so much has been said at this conference about the Stakhanovites, and it has been said so well, that there is really very little left for me to say. But since I have been called on to speak, I will have to say a few words.

The Stakhanov movement cannot be regarded as an ordinary movement of working men and women. The Stakhanov movement is a movement of working men and women which will go down in the history of our socialist construction as one of its most glorious pages.

Wherein lies the significance of the Stakhanov movement?

Primarily, in the fact that it is the expression of a new wave of socialist emulation, a new and higher stage of socialist emulation. Why new, and why higher? Because the Stakhanov movement, as an expression of socialist emulation, contrasts favorably with the old stage of socialist emulation. In the past, some three years ago, in the period of the first stage of socialist emulation, socialist emulation was not necessarily associated with modern technique. At that time, in fact, we had hardly any modern technique. The present stage of socialist emulation, the Stakhanov movement, on the other hand, is necessarily associated with modern technique. The Stakhanov movement would be inconceivable without a new and higher technique. We have before us people like Comrades Stakhanov, Busygin, Smetanin, Krivonos, Pronin, the Vinogradovas, and many others, new people, working men and women, who have completely mastered the technique of their jobs, have harnessed it and driven ahead. There were no such people, or hardly any such people, some three years ago. These are new people, people of a special type.

Further, the Stakhanov movement is a movement of working men and women which sets itself the aim of surpassing the present technical standards, surpassing the existing designed capacities, surpassing the existing production plans and estimates. Surpassing them — because these standards have already become antiquated for our day, for our new people. This movement is breaking down the old views on technique, it is shattering the old technical standards, the old designed capacities, and the old production plans, and demands the creation of new and higher technical standards, designed capacities, and production plans. It is destined to produce a revolution in our industry. That is why the Stakhanov movement is at bottom a profoundly revolutionary movement.

It has already been said here that the Stakhanov movement, as an expression of new and higher technical standards, is a model of that high productivity of labor which only socialism can give, and which capitalism cannot give. That is absolutely true. Why was it that capitalism smashed and defeated feudalism? Because it created higher standards of productivity of labor, it enabled society to procure an incomparably greater quantity of products than could be procured under the feudal system; because it made society richer. Why is it that socialism can, should, and certainly will defeat the capitalist system of economy? Because it can furnish higher models of labor, a higher productivity of labor, than the capitalist system of economy; because it can provide society with more products and can make society richer than the capitalist system of economy.

Some people think that socialism can be consolidated by a certain equalization of people’s material conditions, based on a poor man’s standard of living. That is not true. That is a petty-bourgeois conception of socialism. In point of fact, socialism can succeed only on the basis of a high productivity of labor, higher than under capitalism, on the basis of an abundance of products and of articles of consumption of all kinds, on the basis of a prosperous and cultured life for all members of society. But if socialism is to achieve this aim and make our Soviet society the most prosperous of all societies, our country must have a productivity of labor which surpasses that of the foremost capitalist countries. Without this we cannot even think of securing an abundance of products and of articles of consumption of all kinds. The significance of the Stakhanov movement lies in the fact that it is a movement which is smashing the old technical standards, because they are inadequate, which in a number of cases is surpassing the productivity of labor of the foremost capitalist countries, and is thus creating the practical possibility of further consolidating socialism in our country, the possibility of converting our country into the most prosperous of all countries.

But the significance of the Stakhanov movement does not end there. Its significance lies also in the fact that it is preparing the conditions for the transition from socialism to communism.

The principle of socialism is that in a socialist society each works according to his ability and receives articles of consumption, not according to his needs, but according to the work he performs for society. This means that the cultural and technical level of the working class is as yet not a high one, that the antithesis between mental and physical labor still exists, that the productivity of labor is still not high enough to ensure an abundance of articles of consumption, and, as a result, society is obliged to distribute articles of consumption not in accordance with the needs of its members, but in accordance with the work they perform for society.

Communism represents a higher stage of development. The principle of communism is that in a communist society each works according to his abilities and receives articles of consumption, not according to the work he performs, but according to his needs as a culturally developed individual. This means that the cultural and technical level of the working class has become high enough to undermine the basis of the antithesis between mental labor and physical labor, that the antithesis between mental labor and physical labor has already disappeared, and that productivity of labor has reached such a high level that it can provide an absolute abundance of articles of consumption, and as a result society is able to distribute these articles in accordance with the needs of its members.

Some people think that the elimination of the antithesis between mental labor and physical labor can be achieved by means of a certain cultural and technical equalization of mental and manual workers by lowering the cultural and technical level of engineers and technicians, of mental workers, to the level of average skilled workers. That is absolutely incorrect. Only petty-bourgeois windbags can conceive communism in this way. In reality the elimination of the antithesis between mental labor and physical labor can be brought about only by raising the cultural and technical level of the working class to the level of engineers and technical workers. It would be absurd to think that this is unfeasible. It is entirely feasible under the Soviet system, where the productive forces of the country have been freed from the fetters of capitalism, where labor has been freed from the yoke of exploitation, where the working class is in power, and where the younger generation of the working class has every opportunity of obtaining an adequate technical education. There is no reason to doubt that only such a rise in the cultural and technical level of the working class can undermine the basis of the antithesis between mental labor and physical labor, that only this can ensure the high level of productivity of labor and the abundance of articles of consumption which are necessary in order to begin the transition from socialism to communism.

In this connection, the Stakhanov movement is significant for the fact that it contains the first beginnings — still feeble, it is true, but nevertheless the beginnings — of precisely such a rise in the cultural and technical level of the working class of our country.

And, indeed, look at our comrades, the Stakhanovites, more closely. What type of people are they? They are mostly young or middle-aged working men and women, people with culture and technical knowledge, who show examples of precision and accuracy in work, who are able to appreciate the time factor in work and who have learnt to count not only the minutes, but also the seconds. The majority of them have taken the technical minimum courses and are continuing their technical education. They are free of the conservatism and stagnation of certain engineers, technicians and economic executives, they are marching boldly forward, smashing the antiquated technical standards and creating new and higher standards; they are introducing amendments into the designed capacities and economic plans drawn up by the leaders of our industry; they often supplement and correct what the engineers and technicians have to say, they often teach them and impel them forward, for they are people who have completely mastered the technique of their job and who are able to squeeze out of technique the maximum that can be squeezed out of it. Today the Stakhanovites are still few in number, but who can doubt that tomorrow there will be lo times more of them? Is it not clear that the Stakhanovites are innovators in our industry, that the Stakhanov movement represents the future of our industry, that it contains the seed of the future rise in the cultural and technical level of the working class, that it opens to us the path by which alone can be achieved those high indices of productivity of labor which are essential for the transition from socialism to communism and for the elimination of the antithesis between mental labor and physical labor?

Such, comrades, is the significance of the Stakhanov movement for our socialist construction.

Did Stakhanov and Busygin think of this great significance of the Stakhanov movement when they began to smash the old technical standards? Of course not. They had their own worries — they were trying to get their enterprises out of difficulties and to overfulfil the economic plan. But in seeking to achieve this aim they had to smash the old technical standards and to develop a high productivity of labor, surpassing that of the foremost capitalist countries. It would be ridiculous, however, to think that this circumstance can in any way detract from the great historical significance of the movement of the Stakhanovites.

The same may be said of those workers who first organized the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies in our country in 1905. They never thought, of course, that the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies would become the foundation of the socialist system. They were only defending themselves against tsarism, against the bourgeoisie, when they created the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. But this circumstance in no way contradicts the unquestionable fact that the movement for the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies begun in 1905 by the workers of Leningrad and Moscow led in the end to the rout of capitalism and the victory of socialism on one-sixth of the globe.

2. The Roots of the Stakhanov Movement

We now stand at the cradle of the Stakhanov movement, at its source.

Certain characteristic features of the Stakhanov movement should be noted.

What first of all strikes the eye is the fact that this movement began somehow of itself, almost spontaneously, from below, without any pressure whatsoever from the administrators of our enterprises. More than that — this movement in a way arose and began to develop in spite of the administrators of our enterprises, even in opposition to them. Comrade Molotov has already told you what troubles Comrade Musinskii, the Arkhangelsk sawmill worker, had to go through when he worked out new and higher technical standards, in secret from the administration, in secret from the inspectors. The lot of Stakhanov himself was no better; for in his progress he had to defend himself not only against certain officials of the administration, but also against certain workers, who jeered and hounded him because of his “newfangled ideas.” As to Busygin, we know that he almost paid for his “newfangled ideas” by losing his job at the factory, and it was only the intervention of the shop superintendent, Comrade Sokolinskii, that helped him to remain at the factory.

So you see, if there was any kind of action at all on the part of the administrators of our enterprises, it was not to help the Stakhanov movement but to hinder it. Consequently, the Stakhanov movement arose and developed as a movement coming from below. And just because it arose of itself, just because it comes from below, it is the most vital and irresistible movement of the present day.

Mention should further be made of another characteristic feature of the Stakhanov movement. This characteristic feature is that the Stakhanov movement spread over the whole of our Soviet Union not gradually, but at an unparalleled speed, like a hurricane. How did it begin? Stakhanov raised the technical standard of output of coal five or six times, if not more. Busygin and Smetanin did the same — one in the sphere of machine building and the other in the shoe industry. The newspapers reported these facts. And suddenly, the flames of the Stakhanov movement enveloped the whole country. What was the reason? How is it that the Stakhanov movement has spread so rapidly? Is it perhaps because Stakhanov and Busygin are great organizers, with wide contacts in the regions and districts of the USSR, and they organized this movement themselves? No, of course not! Is it perhaps because Stakhanov and Busygin have ambitions of becoming great figures in our country, and they themselves carried the sparks of the Stakhanov movement all over the country? That is also not true. You have seen Stakhanov and Busygin here. They spoke at this conference. They are simple, modest people, without the slightest ambition to acquire the laurels of national figures. It even seems to me that they are somewhat embarrassed by the scope the movement has acquired, beyond all their expectations. And if, in spite of this, the match thrown by Stakhanov and Busygin was sufficient to start a conflagration, that means that the Stakhanov movement is absolutely ripe. Only a movement that is absolutely ripe, and is awaiting just a jolt in order to burst free — only such a movement can spread with such rapidity and grow like a rolling snowball.

How is it to be explained that the Stakhanov movement proved to be absolutely ripe? What are the causes for its rapid spread? What are the roots of the Stakhanov movement?

There are at least four such causes.

1) The basis for the Stakhanov movement was first and foremost the radical improvement in the material welfare of the workers. Life has improved, comrades. Life has become more joyous. And when life is joyous, work goes well. Hence the high rates of output. Hence the heroes and heroines of labor. That, primarily, is the root of the Stakhanov movement. If there had been a crisis in our country, if there had been unemployment — that scourge of the working class — if people in our country lived badly, drably, joylessly, we should have had nothing like the Stakhanov movement. (Applause.) Our proletarian revolution is the only revolution in the world which had the opportunity of showing the people not only political results but also material results. Of all workers’ revolutions, we know only one which managed to achieve power. That was the Paris Commune. But it did not last long. True, it endeavored to smash the fetters of capitalism; but it did not have time enough to smash them, and still less to show the people the beneficial material results of revolution. Our revolution is the only one which not only smashed the fetters of capitalism and brought the people freedom, but also succeeded in creating the material conditions of a prosperous life for the people. Therein lies the strength and invincibility of our revolution. It is a good thing, of course, to drive out the capitalists, to drive out the landlords, to drive out the tsarist henchmen, to seize power and achieve freedom. That is very good. But, unfortunately, freedom alone is not enough, by far. If there is a shortage of bread, a shortage of butter and fats, a shortage of textiles, and if housing conditions are bad, freedom will not carry you very far. It is very difficult, comrades, to live on freedom alone. (Shouts of approval. Applause.) In order to live well and joyously, the benefits of political freedom must be supplemented by material benefits. It is a distinctive feature of our revolution that it brought the people not only freedom, but also material benefits and the possibility of a prosperous and cultured life. That is why life has become joyous in our country, and that is the soil from which the Stakhanov movement sprang.

2) The second source of the Stakhanov movement is the fact that there is no exploitation in our country. People in our country do not work for exploiters, for the enrichment of parasites, but for themselves, for their own class, for their own, Soviet society, where power is wielded by the best members of the working class. That is why labor in our country has social significance, and is a matter of honor and glory. Under capitalism labor bears a private and personal character. You have produced more — well, then receive more, and live as best you can. Nobody knows you, or wants to know you. You work for the capitalists, you enrich them? Well, what do you expect? That is what they hired you for, to enrich the exploiters. If you do not agree with that, join the ranks of the unemployed and get along as best you can — we shall find others who are more tractable. That is why people’s labor is not valued very highly under capitalism. Under such conditions, of course, there can be no room for a Stakhanov movement. But things are different under the Soviet system. Here the working man is held in esteem. Here he works not for the exploiters, but for himself, for his class, for society. Here the working man cannot feel neglected and alone. On the contrary, the man who works feels himself a free citizen of his country, a public figure, in a way. And if he works well and gives society his best, he is a hero of labor, and is covered with glory. Obviously, the Stakhanov movement could have arisen only under such conditions.

3) We must regard as the third source of the Stakhanov movement the fact that we have a modern technique. The Stakhanov movement is organically bound up with the modern technique. Without the modern technique, without the modern mills and factories, without the modern machinery, the Stakhanov movement could not have arisen. Without modern technique, technical standards might have been doubled or trebled, but not more. And if the Stakhanovites have raised technical standards five and six times, that means that they rely entirely on the modern technique. It thus follows that the industrialization of our country, the reconstruction of our mills and factories, the introduction of modern technique and modern machinery, was one of the causes that gave rise to the Stakhanov movement.

4) But modern technique alone will not carry you very far. You may have first-class technique, first-class mills and factories, but if you have not the people capable of harnessing that technique, you will find that your technique is just bare technique. For modern technique to produce results, people are required, cadres of working men and women capable of taking charge of the technique and advancing it. The birth and growth of the Stakhanov movement means that such cadres have already appeared among the working men and women of our country. Some two years ago the Party declared that in building new mills and factories and supplying our enterprises with modern machinery, we had performed only half of the job. The Party then declared that enthusiasm for the construction of new factories must be supplemented by enthusiasm for mastering these factories, that only in this way could the job be completed. It is obvious that the mastering of this new technique and the growth of new cadres have been proceeding during these two years. It is now clear that we already have such cadres. It is obvious that without such cadres, without these new people, we would never have had a Stakhanov movement. Hence the new people, working men and women, who have mastered the new technique constitute the force that has shaped and advanced the Stakhanov movement.

Such are the conditions that gave rise to and advanced the Stakhanov movement.

3. New People — New Technical Standards

I have said that the Stakhanov movement developed not gradually, but like an explosion, as if it had broken through some sort of dam. It is obvious that it had to overcome certain barriers. Somebody was hindering it, somebody was holding it back; and then, having gathered strength, the Stakhanov movement broke through these barriers and swept over the country.

What was wrong? Who exactly was hindering it?

It was the old technical standards, and the people behind these standards, that were hindering it. Several years ago our engineers, technicians, and economic executives drew up certain technical standards, adapted to the technical backwardness of our working men and women. Several years have elapsed since then. During this period people have grown and acquired technical knowledge. But the technical standards have remained unchanged. Of course, these standards have now proved out of date for our new people. Everybody now abuses the existing technical standards. But, after all, they did not fall from the skies. And the point is not that these technical standards were set too low at the time when they were drawn up. The point is primarily that now, when these standards have already become antiquated, attempts are made to defend them as modern standards. People cling to the technical backwardness of our working men and women, guiding themselves by this backwardness, basing themselves on this backwardness, and matters finally reach a pitch when people begin to play at backwardness. But what is to be done if this backwardness is becoming a thing of the past? Are we really going to worship our backwardness and turn it into an icon, a fetish? What is to be done if the working men and women have already managed to grow and to gain technical knowledge? What is to be done if the old technical standards no longer correspond to reality, and our working men and women have already managed in practice to exceed them five or tenfold? Have we ever taken an oath of loyalty to our backwardness? It seems to me we have not, have we, comrades? (General laughter.) Did we ever assume that our working men and women would remain backward for ever? We never did, did we? (General laughter.) Then what is the trouble? Will we really lack the courage to smash the conservatism of certain of our engineers and technicians, to smash the old traditions and standards and allow free scope to the new forces of the working class?

People talk about science. They say that the data of science, the data contained in technical handbooks and instructions, contradict the demands of the Stakhanovites for new and higher technical standards. But what kind of science are they talking about? The data of science have always been tested by practice, by experience. Science which has severed contact with practice, with experience — what sort of science is that? If science were the thing it is represented to be by certain of our conservative comrades, it would have perished for humanity long ago. Science is called science just because it does not recognize fetishes, just because it does not fear to raise its hand against the obsolete and antiquated, and because it lends an attentive ear to the voice of experience, of practice. If it were otherwise, we would have no science at all; we would have no astronomy, say, and would still have to get along with the outworn system of Ptolemy; we would have no biology, and would still be comforting ourselves with the legend of the creation of man; we would have no chemistry, and would still have to get along with the auguries of the alchemists.

That is why I think that our engineers, technicians, and economic executives, who have already managed to fall a fairly long distance behind the Stakhanov movement, would do well if they ceased to cling to the old technical standards and readjusted their work in a real scientific manner to the new way, the Stakhanov way.

Very well, we shall be told, but what about technical standards in general? Does industry need them, or can we get along without any standards at all?

Some say that we no longer need any technical standards. That is not true, comrades. More, it is stupid. Without technical standards, planned economy is impossible. Technical standards are, moreover, necessary in order to help the masses who have fallen behind to catch up with the more advanced. Technical standards are a great regulating force which organizes the masses of the workers in the factories around the advanced elements of the working class. We therefore need technical standards; not those, however, that now exist, but higher ones.

Others say that we need technical standards, but that they must immediately be raised to the level of the achievements of people like Stakhanov, Busygin, the Vinogradovas, and the others. That is also not true. Such standards would be unreal at the present time, since working men and women with less technical knowledge than Stakhanov and Busygin could not fulfill these standards. We need technical standards somewhere between the present technical standards and those achieved by people like Stakhanov and Busygin. Take, for example, Maria Demchenko, the well-known “five-hundreder” in sugar beet. She achieved a harvest of over 500 centners of sugar-beet per hectare. Can this achievement be made the standard yield for the whole of sugar-beet production, say, in the Ukraine? No, it cannot. It is too early to speak of that. Maria Demchenko secured over 500 centners from one hectare, whereas the average sugar-beet harvest this year in the Ukraine, for instance, is 130 or 132 centners per hectare. The difference, as you see, is not a small one. Can we set the standard of sugar-beet yield at 400 or 300 centners? Every expert in this field says that this cannot be done yet. Evidently, the standard yield per hectare for the Ukraine in 1936 must be set at 200-250 centners. And this is not a low standard; for if it were fulfilled it might give us twice as much sugar as we got in 1935. The same must be said of industry. Stakhanov exceeded the existing standard of output ten times or even more, I believe. To declare this achievement the new technical standard for all pneumatic drill operators would be unwise. Obviously, a standard must be set somewhere between the existing technical standard and that achieved by Comrade Stakhanov.

One thing, at any rate, is clear: the present technical standards no longer correspond to reality; they have fallen behind and become a brake on our industry; and in order that there shall be no brake on our industry, they must be replaced by new, higher technical standards. New people, new times — new technical standards.

4. Immediate Tasks

What are our immediate tasks from the standpoint of the interests of the Stakhanov movement?

In order not to be diffuse, let us reduce the matter to two immediate tasks.

First. The task is to help the Stakhanovites further to develop the Stakhanov movement and to spread it in all directions throughout all the regions and districts of the USSR That, on the one hand. And on the other hand, the task is to curb all those elements among the economic executives, engineers, and technicians who obstinately cling to the old, do not want to advance, and systematically hinder the development of the Stakhanov movement. The Stakhanovites alone, of course, cannot spread the Stakhanov movement in its full scope over the whole face of our country. Our Party organizations must take a hand in this matter and help the Stakhanovites to consummate the movement. In this respect the Donets regional organization has undoubtedly displayed great initiative. Good work is being done in this direction by the Moscow and Leningrad regional organizations. But what about the other regions? They, apparently, are still “getting started.” For instance, we somehow hear nothing, or very little, from the Urals, although, as you know, the Urals is a vast industrial center. The same must be said of Western Siberia and the Kuzbass, where, to all appearances, they have not yet managed to “get started.” However, we need have no doubt that our Party organizations will take a hand in this matter and help the Stakhanovites to overcome their difficulties. As to the other aspect of the matter — the curbing of the obstinate conservatives among the economic executives, engineers and technicians — things will be a little more complicated. We shall have in the first place to persuade these conservative elements in industry, persuade them in a patient and comradely manner, of the progressive nature of the Stakhanov movement and of the necessity of readjusting themselves to the Stakhanov way. And if persuasion does not help, more vigorous measures will have to be adopted. Take, for instance, the People’s Commissariat of Railroads. In the central apparatus of that commissariat there was until recently a group of professors, engineers, and other experts — among them Communists — who assured everybody that a commercial speed of 13-14 kilometers per hour was a limit that could not be exceeded without contradicting “the science of railroad operation.” This was a fairly authoritative group, who preached their views by word of mouth and in print, issued instructions to the various departments of the People’s Commissariat of Railroads, and in general were the “dictators of opinion” in the traffic departments. We, who are not experts in this sphere, basing ourselves on the suggestions of a number of practical workers on the railroads, on our part assured these authoritative professors that 13-14 kilometers could not be the limit, and that if matters were organized in a certain way this limit could be extended. In reply, this group, instead of heeding the voice of experience and practice and revising their attitude to the matter, launched into a fight against the progressive elements on the railroads and still further intensified the propaganda of their conservative views. Of course, we had to give these esteemed individuals a light tap on the jaw and very politely remove them from the central apparatus of the People’s Commissariat of Railroads. (Applause.) And what is the result? We now have a commercial speed of 18-19 kilometers per hour. (Applause.) It seems to me, comrades, that at the worst we shall have to resort to this method in other branches of our national economy as well — that is, of course, if the stubborn conservatives do not cease interfering and putting spokes in the wheels of the Stakhanov movement.

Second. In the case of those economic executives, engineers and technicians who do not want to hinder the Stakhanov movement, who sympathize with this movement, but have not yet been able to readjust themselves and assume the lead of the Stakhanov movement, the task is to help them readjust themselves and take the lead of the Stakhanov movement. I must say, comrades, that we have quite a few such economic executives, engineers and technicians. And if we help these comrades, there will undoubtedly be still more of them.

I think that if we fulfill these tasks, the Stakhanov movement will develop to its full scope, will embrace every region and district of our country, and will show us miracles of new achievements.

5. A Few More Words

A few words regarding the present conference, regarding its significance. Lenin taught us that only such leaders can be real Bolshevik leaders as know not only how to teach the workers and peasants but also how to learn from them. Certain Bolsheviks were not pleased with these words of Lenin’s. But history has shown that Lenin was one hundred per cent right in this field also. And, indeed, millions of working people, workers and peasants, labor, live and struggle. Who can doubt that these people do not live in vain, that, living and struggling, these people accumulate vast practical experience? Can it be doubted that leaders who scorn this experience cannot be regarded as real leaders? Hence, we leaders of the Party and the Government must not only teach the workers, but also learn from them. I shall not undertake to deny that you, the members of the present conference, have learnt something here at this conference from the leaders of our Government. But neither can it be denied that we, the leaders of the Government, have learnt a great deal from you, the Stakhanovites, the members of this conference. Well, comrades, thanks for the lesson, many thanks! (Loud applause.)

Finally, two words about how it would be fitting to mark this conference. We here in the presidium have conferred and have decided that this conference between the leaders of the government and the leaders of the Stakhanov movement must . be marked in some way. Well, we have come to the decision that 100-120 of you will have to be recommended for the highest distinction.

Voices : Quite right. (Loud applause.)

Stalin : If you approve, comrades, that is what we shall do.

(The conference gives Comrade Stalin a stormy enthusiastic ovation. Thunderous cheers and applause. Greetings are shouted to Comrade Stalin, the leader of the Party, from all parts of the hall. The 3,000 members of the conference join in singing the proletarian hymn, the “Internationale.”)

Source: Labour in the Land of Socialism: Stakhanovites in Conference (Moscow: Cooperative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the U. S. S. R., 1937).

The Stalin Constitution

Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. December 1936

 

Full text of the Stalin Constitution of 1936.

CHAPTER I. THE ORGANIZATION OF SOVIET SOCIETY
CHAPTER II. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SOVIET STATE
CHAPTER III. THE HIGHEST ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY OF THE UNION OF SOVIET
CHAPTER IV. THE HIGHEST ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY OF THE UNION REPUBLICS
CHAPTER V. THE ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST
CHAPTER VI. THE ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION REPUBLICS
CHAPTER VII. THE HIGHEST ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY OF THE AUTONOMOUS SOVIET
CHAPTER VIII. THE LOCAL ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY
CHAPTER IX. THE COURTS AND THE PROCURATOR’S OFFICE
CHAPTER X. FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS
CHAPTER XI. THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM
CHAPTER XII. ARMS, FLAG, CAPITAL
CHAPTER XIII. PROCEDURE FOR AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION

CHAPTER I. THE ORGANIZATION OF SOVIET SOCIETY

ARTICLE 1. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a socialist state of workers and peasants.

ARTICLE 2. The Soviets of Working People’s Deputies, which grew and attained strength as a result of the overthrow of the landlords and capitalists and the achievement of the dictatorship of the proletariat, constitute the political foundation of the USSR

ARTICLE 3. In the USSR all power belongs to the working people of town and country as represented by the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies.

ARTICLE 4. The socialist system of economy and the socialist ownership of the means and instruments of production firmly established as a result of the abolition of the capitalist system of economy, the abrogation of private ownership of the means and instruments of production and the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, constitute’ the economic foundation of the USSR

ARTICLE 5. Socialist property in the USSR exists either in the form of state property (the possession of the whole people), or in the form of cooperative and collective-farm property (property of a collective farm or property of a cooperative association).

ARTICLE 6. The land, its natural deposits, waters, forests, mills, factories, mines, rail, water and air transport, banks, post, telegraph and telephones, large state-organized agricultural enterprises (state farms, machine and tractor stations and the like) as well as municipal enterprises and the bulk of the dwelling houses in the cities and industrial localities, are state property, that is, belong to the whole people.

ARTICLE 7. Public enterprises in collective farms and cooperative organizations, with their livestock and implements, the products of the collective farms and cooperative organizations, as well as their common buildings, constitute the common socialist property of the collective farms and cooperative organizations. In addition to its basic income from the public collective-farm enterprise, every household in a collective farm has for its personal use a small plot of land attached to the dwelling and, as its personal property, a subsidiary establishment on the plot, a dwelling house, livestock, poultry and minor agricultural implements in accordance with the statutes of the agricultural artel.

ARTICLE 8. The land occupied by collective farms is secured to them for their use free of charge and for an unlimited time, that is, in perpetuity.

ARTICLE 9. Alongside the socialist system of economy, which is the predominant form of economy in the USSR, the law permits the small private economy of individual peasants and handicraftsman based on their personal labor and precluding the exploitation of the labor of others.

ARTICLE 10. The right of citizens to personal ownership of their incomes from work and of their savings, of their dwelling houses and subsidiary household economy, their household furniture and utensils and articles of personal use and convenience, as well as the right of inheritance of personal property of citizens, is protected by law.

ARTICLE 11. The economic life of the USSR is determined and directed by the state national economic plan with the aim of increasing the public wealth, of steadily improving the material conditions of the working people and raising their cultural level, of consolidating the independence of the USSR and strengthening its defensive capacity.

ARTICLE 12. In the USSR work is a duty and a matter of honor for every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principle: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat.”

The principle applied in the USSR is that of socialism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work.”

CHAPTER II. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SOVIET STATE

ARTICLE 13. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a federal state, formed on the basis of the voluntary association of Soviet Socialist Republics having equal rights, namely:

The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
The Tadzhik Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic

ARTICLE 14. The jurisdiction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as represented by its highest organs of state authority and organs of government, covers:

  • Representation of the Union in international relations, conclusion and ratification of treaties with other states;
  • Questions of war and peace;
  • Admission of new republics into the USSR;
  • Control over the observance of the Constitution of the USSR and ensuring conformity of the Constitutions of the Union Republics with the Constitution of the USSR;
  • Confirmation of alterations of boundaries between Union Republics;
  • Confirmation of the formation of new territories and regions and also of new Autonomous Republics within Union Republics;
  • Organization of the defense of the USSR and direction of all the armed forces of the USSR;
  • Foreign trade on the basis of state monopoly;
  • Safeguarding the security of the state;
  • Establishment of the national economic plans of the USSR;
  • Approval of the single state budget of the USSR as well as of the taxes and revenues which go to the all-Union, Republican and local budgets;
  • Administration of the banks, industrial and agricultural establishments and enterprises and trading enterprises of all-Union importance;
  • Administration of transport and, communications;
  • Direction of the monetary and credit system;
  • Organization of state insurance;
  • Raising and granting of loans;
  • Establishment of the basic principles for the use of land as well as for the use of natural deposits, forests and waters;
  • Establishment of the basic principles in the spheres of education and public health;
  • Organization of a uniform system of national economic statistics;
  • Establishment of the principles of labor legislation;
  • Legislation on the judicial system and judicial procedure; criminal and civil codes;
  • Laws on citizenship of the Union; laws on the rights of foreigners;
  • Issuing of all-Union acts of amnesty.

ARTICLE 15. The sovereignty of the Union Republics is limited only within the provisions set forth in Article 14 of the Constitution of the USSR. Outside of these provisions, each Union Republic exercises state authority independently. The USSR protects the sovereign rights of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 16. Each Union Republic has its own Constitution, which takes account of the specific features of the Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with the Constitution of the USSR

ARTICLE 17. To every Union Republic is reserved the right freely to secede from the USSR

ARTICLE 18. The territory of a Union Republic may not be altered without its consent.

ARTICLE 19. The laws of the USSR have the same force within the territory of every Union Republic.

ARTICLE 20. In the event of a discrepancy between a law of a Union Republic and an all-Union law, the all-Union law prevails.

ARTICLE 21. A single Union citizenship is established for all citizens of the USSR. Every citizen of a Union Republic is a citizen of the USSR.

ARTICLE 22. The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic consists of the Altai, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Ordzhonikidze, Maritime and Khabarovsk Territories; the Archangel, Vologda, Voronezh, Gorky, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kalinin, Kirov, Kuibyshev, Kursk, Leningrad, Molotov, Moscow, Murmansk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orel, Penza, Rostov, Riazan, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Smolensk, Stalingrad, Tambov, Tula, Cheliabinsk, Chita, Chkalov and Yaroslavl Oblasts; the Tatar, Bashkir, Daghestan, Buryat-Mongolian, Kabardino-Balkarian, Kalmyk, Komi, Crimean, Mari, Mordovian, Volga German, North Ossetian, Udmurt, Chechen-Ingush, Chuvash and Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics; and the Adygei, Jewish, Karachai, Oirot, Khakass and Cherkess Autonomous Regions.

ARTICLE 23. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Vinnitsa, Volynsk, Voroshilovgrad, Dnepropetrovsk, Drogobych, Zhitomir, Zaporozh’e, Izmail, Kamenets-Podolsk, Kiev, Kirovograd, L’vov, Nikolaev, Odessa, Poltava, Rovno, Stalino, Stanislav, Sumy, Tarnopol, Kharkov, Chernigov and Chernovitsy Oblasts.

ARTICLE 24. The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic includes the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.

ARTICLE 25. The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic includes the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Adzhar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast.

ARTICLE 26. The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Fergana, and Khorezm Oblasts, and the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

ARTICLE 27. The Tadzhik Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Garm, Kuliab, Leninabad and Stalinabad Oblasts, and the Gomo-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast.

ARTICLE 28. The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Akmolinsk, Aktyubinsk, Alma-Ata, East Kazakhstan, Guriev, Dzhambul, West Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kzyl-Orda, Kustanai, Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan. Semipalatinsk, and South Kazakhstan Oblasts.

ARTICLE 29. The Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Baranovichi, Belostok, Brest, Vileika, Vitas, Gomel, Minsk, Mogilev, Pinsk and Poless’e Regions.

ARTICLE 29a. The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Ashkhabad, Krasnovodsk, Mari, Tashauz and Chardzhu Oblasts.

ARTICLE 29b. The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic consists of the Dzhalalabad, Issyk-Kul, Osh, Tian-Shan and Frunze Oblasts.

CHAPTER III. THE HIGHEST ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY OF THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

ARTICLE 30. The highest organ of state authority of the USSR is the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

ARTICLE 31. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR exercises all rights vested in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in accordance with Article 14 of the Constitution, in so far as they do not, by virtue of the Constitution, come within the jurisdiction of organs of the USSR that are accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, that is, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the People’s Commissariats of the USSR

ARTICLE 32. The legislative power of the USSR is exercised exclusively by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

ARTICLE 33. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR consists of two Chambers: the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities.

ARTICLE 34. The Soviet of the Union is elected by the citizens of the USSR according to electoral areas on the basis of one deputy for every 300,000 of the population.

ARTICLE 35. The Soviet of Nationalities is elected by the citizens of the USSR according to Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Regions and national areas on the basis of twenty-five deputies from each Union Republic, eleven deputies from each Autonomous Republic, five deputies from each Autonomous Oblast and one deputy from each national area.

ARTICLE 36. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR is elected for a term of four years.

ARTICLE 37. Both Chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities, have equal rights.

ARTICLE 38. The Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities have an equal right to initiate legislation.

ARTICLE 39. A law is considered adopted if passed by both Chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR by a simple majority vote in each.

ARTICLE 40. Laws passed by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR are published in the languages of the Union Republics over the signatures of the President and Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

ARTICLE 41. Sessions of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities begin and terminate simultaneously.

ARTICLE 42. The Soviet of the Union elects a Chairman of the Soviet of the Union and two Vice-Chairmen.

ARTICLE 43. The Soviet of Nationalities elects a Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities and two Vice-Chairmen.

ARTICLE 44. The Chairmen of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities preside over the sittings of the respective Chambers and direct the procedure of these bodies.

ARTICLE 45. Joint sittings of both Chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR are presided over alternately by the Chairman of the Soviet of the Union and the Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities.

ARTICLE 46. Sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR are convened by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR twice a year.

Special sessions are convened by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at its discretion or on the demand of one of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 47. In the event of disagreement between the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities, the question is referred for settlement to a conciliation commission formed on a parity basis. If the conciliation commission fails to arrive at an agreement, or if its decision fails to satisfy one of the Chambers, the question is considered for a second time by the Chambers. Failing agreement between the two Chambers, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dissolves the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and orders new elections.

ARTICLE 48. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR at a joint sitting of both Chambers elects the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR consisting of a President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, sixteen Vice-Presidents, a Secretary of the Presidium and twenty-four members of the Presidium.

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR is accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for all its activities.

ARTICLE 49. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR:

  • Convenes the sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR;
  • Interprets laws of the USSR in operation, issues decrees;
  • Dissolves the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in conformity with article 47 of the Constitution of the USSR and orders new elections;
  • Conducts referendums on its own initiative or on the demand of one of the Union Republics;
  • Annuls decisions and orders of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and of the Councils of People’s Commissars of the Union Republics in case they do not conform to law;
  • In the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, relieves of their posts and appoints People’s Commissars of the USSR on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, subject to subsequent confirmation by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR;
  • Awards decorations and confers titles of honor of the USSR;
  • Exercises the right of pardon;
  • Appoints and removes the higher commands of the armed forces of the USSR;
  • In the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, proclaims a state of war in the event of armed attack on the USSR, or whenever necessary to fulfill international treaty obligations concerning mutual defense against aggression
  • Orders general or partial mobilization;
  • Ratifies international treaties;
  • Appoints and recalls plenipotentiary representatives of the USSR to foreign states;
  • Receives the credentials and letters of recall of diplomatic representatives accredited to it by foreign states;
  • Proclaims martial law in separate localities or throughout the USSR in the interests of the defense of the USSR or for the purpose of ensuring public order and state security.

ARTICLE 50. The Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities elect Credentials Commissions which verify the credentials of the members of the respective Chambers.

On the recommendation of the Credentials Commissions, the Chambers decide either to endorse the credentials or to annul the election of the deputies concerned.

ARTICLE 51. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR, when it deems necessary, appoints commissions of inquiry and investigation on any matter.

It is the duty of all institutions and public servants to comply with the demands of these commissions and to submit to them the necessary materials and documents.

ARTICLE 52. A member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR may not be prosecuted or arrested without the consent of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and during the period when the Supreme Soviet of the USSR is not in session, without the consent of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

ARTICLE 53. On the expiration of the term of office of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, or after the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet prior to the expiration of its term of office, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR retains its powers until the formation of a new Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR by the newly-elected Supreme Soviet of the USSR

ARTICLE 54. On the expiration of the term of office of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, or in the event of its dissolution prior to the expiration of its term of office, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR orders new elections to be held within a period not exceeding two months from the date of expiration of the term of office or dissolution of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

ARTICLE 55. The newly-elected Supreme Soviet of the USSR is convened by the outgoing Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR not later than one month after the elections.

ARTICLE 56. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR at a joint sitting of both Chambers, appoints the Government of the USSR, namely, the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR.

CHAPTER IV. THE HIGHEST ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY OF THE UNION REPUBLICS

ARTICLE 57. The highest organ of state authority of a Union Republic is the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 58. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic is elected by the citizens of the Republic for a term of four years.

The basis of representation is established by the Constitution of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 59. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic is the sole legislative organ of the Republic.

ARTICLE 60. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic:

  • Adopts the Constitution of the Republic and amends it in conformity with Article 16 of the Constitution of the USSR;
  • Confirms the Constitutions of the Autonomous Republics forming part of it and defines the boundaries of their territories;
  • Approves the national economic plan and also the budget of the Republic;
  • Exercises the right of amnesty and pardon of citizens sentenced by the judicial organs of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 61. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic elects the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic, consisting of a Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic, Vice-Chairmen, a Secretary of the Presidium and members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic. The powers of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic are defined by the Constitution of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 62. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic elects a Chairman and Vice-Chairmen to conduct its sittings.

ARTICLE 63. The Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic appoints the Government of the Union Republic, namely, the Council of People’s Commissars of the Union Republic.

CHAPTER V. THE ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

ARTICLE 64. The highest executive and administrative organ of state authority of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR

ARTICLE 65. The Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR is responsible to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and accountable to it; and in the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet it is responsible and accountable to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

ARTICLE 66. The Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR issues decisions and orders on the basis and in pursuance of the laws in operation, and supervises their execution.

ARTICLE 67. Decisions and Orders of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR are binding throughout the territory of the USSR

ARTICLE 68. The Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR:

Coordinates and directs the work of the All-Union and Union-Republican People’s Commissariats of the USSR and of other institutions, economic and cultural, under its administration;

Adopts measures to carry out the national economic plan and the state budget, and to strengthen the credit and monetary system;

Adopts measures for the maintenance of public order, for the protection of the interests of the state, and for the safeguarding of the rights of citizens;

Exercises general guidance in respect of relations with foreign states;

Fixes the annual contingent of citizens to be called up for military service and directs the general organization and development of the armed forces of the country;

Sets up, whenever necessary, special committees and Central Administrations under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR for matters conceding economic, cultural and defense organization and development.

ARTICLE 69. The Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR has the right, in respect of those branches of administration and economy which come within the jurisdiction of the USSR, to suspend decisions and orders of the Councils of People’s Commissars of the Union Republics and to annul orders and instructions of People’s Commissars of the USSR

ARTICLE 70. The Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR is appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and consists of:

The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR;
The Vice-Chairmen of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR;
The Chairman of the State Planning Commission of the USSR;
The People’s Commissars of the USSR;
The Chairman of the Committee on Arts;
The Chairman of the Committee on Higher Education;
The Chairman of the Board of the State Bank.

ARTICLE 71. The Government of the USSR or a People’s Commissar of the USSR to whom a question of a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR is addressed must give a verbal or written reply in the respective Chamber within a period not exceeding three days.

ARTICLE 72. The People’s Commissars of the USSR direct the branches of state administration which come within the jurisdiction of the USSR

ARTICLE 73. The People’s Commissars of the USSR issue, within the limits of the jurisdiction of the respective People’s Commissariats, orders and instructions on the basis and in pursuance of the laws in operation, and also of decisions and orders of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, and supervise their execution.

ARTICLE 74. The People’s Commissariats of the USSR are either All-Union or Union-Republican Commissariats.

ARTICLE 75. The All-Union People’s Commissariats direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them throughout the territory of the USSR either directly or through bodies appointed by them.

ARTICLE 76. The Union-Republican People’s Commissariats, as a rule, direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them through the corresponding People’s Commissariats of the Union Republics; they administer directly only a definite and limited number of enterprises according to a list confirmed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

ARTICLE 77. The following People’s Commissariats are All-Union People’s Commissariats: Defense, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Railroads, Post and Telegraph and Telephones, Maritime Transport, River Transport, Coal Industry, Oil Industry, Power Stations, Electrical Industry, Iron and Steel Industry, Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, Chemical Industry, Aviation Industry, Shipbuilding Industry, Munitions, Armaments, Heavy Machine-building, Medium Machine-building, General Machine-building, Navy, Agricultural Procurement, Construction, Paper and Cellulose Industry.

ARTICLE 78. The following People’s Commissariats are Union-Republican People’s Commissariats: Food Industry, Fish Industry, Meat and Dairy Industry, Light Industry, Textile Industry, Timber Industry, Agriculture State Grain and Livestock Farms, Finance, Trade, Internal Affairs, State Security, Justice, Public Health, Building Materials Industry, State Control.

CHAPTER VI. THE ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION REPUBLICS

ARTICLE 79. The highest executive and administrative organ of state authority of a Union Republic is the Council of People’s Commissars of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 80. The Council of People’s Commissars of a Union Republic is responsible to the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic and accountable to it; and in the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic it is responsible and accountable to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the respective Union Republic.

ARTICLE 81. The Council of People’s Commissars of a Union Republic issues decisions and orders on the basis and in pursuance of the laws in operation of the USSR and of the Union Republic, and of the decisions and orders of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, and supervises their execution.

ARTICLE 82. The Council of People’s Commissars of a Union Republic has the right to suspend decisions and orders of Councils of People’s Commissars of Autonomous Republics, and to annul decisions and orders of Executive Committees of Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of Territories, Regions and Autonomous Regions.

ARTICLE 83. The Council of People’s Commissars of a Union Republic is appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the Union Republic and consists of:

The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Union Republic;
The Vice-Chairmen;
The Chairman of the State Planning Commission;
The People’s Commissars of:

The Food Industry, Fish Industry, Meat and Dairy Industry, Light Industry, Textile Industry, Timber Industry, Building Materials Industry, Agriculture, State Grain and Livestock Farms, Finance, Trade, Internal Affairs, State Security, Justice, Public Health, State Control, Education, Local Industry, Municipal Economy, Social Maintenance, Automobile Transport, The Chief of the Arts Administration, The Representatives of the All-Union People’s Commissariats.

ARTICLE 84. The People’s Commissars of a Union Republic direct the branches of state administration which come under the jurisdiction of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 85. The People’s Commissars of a Union Republic issue, within the limits of the jurisdiction of their respective People’s Commissariats, orders and instructions on the basis and in pursuance of the laws of the USSR and of the Union Republic, of the decisions and orders of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and that of the Union Republic, and of the orders and instructions of the Union Republican People’s Commissariats of the USSR

ARTICLE 86. The People’s Commissariats of a Union Republic are either Union-Republican or Republican Commissariats.

ARTICLE 87. The Union-Republican People’s Commissariats direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them, and are subordinate both to the Council bf People’s Commissars of the Union Republic and to the corresponding’ Union-Republican People’s Commissariats of the USSR

ARTICLE 88. The Republican People’s Commissariats direct the branches of state administration entrusted to them and are directly subordinate to the Council of People’s Commissars of the Union Republic.

CHAPTER VII. THE HIGHEST ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY OF THE AUTONOMOUS SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

ARTICLE 89. The highest organ of state authority of an Autonomous Republic is the Supreme Soviet of the respective Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

ARTICLE 90. The Supreme Soviet of an Autonomous Republic is elected by the citizens of the Republic for a term of four years on the basis of representation established by the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic.

ARTICLE 91. The Supreme Soviet of an Autonomous Republic is the sole legislative organ of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

ARTICLE 92. Each Autonomous Republic has its own Constitution which takes account of the specific features of the Autonomous Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with the Constitution of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 93. The Supreme Soviet of an Autonomous Republic elects the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Autonomous Republic and appoints the Council of People’s Commissars of the Autonomous Republic, in accordance with its Constitution.

CHAPTER VIII. THE LOCAL ORGANS OF STATE AUTHORITY

ARTICLE 94. The organs of state authority in territories, regions, autonomous regions, areas, districts, cities and rural localities (stations, villages, hamlets, kishlaqs, auls) are the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies.

ARTICLE 95. The Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of territories, regions, autonomous regions, areas, districts, cities and rural localities (stations, villages, hamlets, kishlaqs, auls) are elected by the working People of the respective territories, regions, autonomous regions, areas, districts, cities or rural localities for a term of two years.

ARTICLE 96. The basis of representation for Soviets of Working People’s Deputies is defined by the Constitutions of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 97. The Soviets of Working People’s Deputies direct the work of the organs of administration subordinate to them, ensure the maintenance of public order, the observance of the laws and the protection of the rights of citizens, direct local economic and cultural organization and development and draw up the local budgets.

ARTICLE 98. The Soviets of Working People’s Deputies adopt decisions and issue orders within the limits of the powers vested in them by the laws of the USSR and of the Union Republic.

ARTICLE 99. The executive and administrative organs of the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of territories, regions, autonomous’ regions, areas, districts, cities and rural localities are the Executive Committees elected by them, consisting of a Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, a Secretary and members.

ARTICLE 100. The executive and administrative organ of rural Soviets of Working People’s Deputies in small localities, in accordance with the Constitutions of the Union Republics, is the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman, and the Secretary elected by them.

ARTICLE 101. The executive organs of the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies are directly accountable both to the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies which elected them and to the executive organ of the superior Soviet of Working People’s Deputies.

CHAPTER IX. THE COURTS AND THE PROCURATOR’S OFFICE

ARTICLE 102. In the USSR justice is administered by the Supreme Court of the USSR, the Supreme Courts of the Union Republics, the Territorial and the Regional courts, the courts of the Autonomous Republics and the Autonomous Regions, the Area courts, the special courts of the USSR established by decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and the People’s Courts.

ARTICLE 103. In all courts cases are tried with the participation of people’s assessors, except in cases specially provided for by law.

ARTICLE 104. The Supreme Court of the USSR is the highest judicial organ. The Supreme Court of the USSR is charged with the supervision of the judicial activities of all the judicial organs of the USSR and of the Union Republics.

ARTICLE 105. The Supreme Court of the USSR and the special courts of the USSR are elected by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 106. The Supreme Courts of the Union Republics are elected by the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 107. The Supreme Courts of the Autonomous Republics are elected by the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 108. The Territorial and the Regional courts, the courts of the Autonomous Regions and the Area courts are elected by the Territorial, Regional or Area Soviets of Working People’s Deputies or by the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of the Autonomous Regions for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 109. People’s Courts are elected by the citizens of the district on the basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot for a term of three years.

ARTICLE 110. Judicial proceedings are conducted in the language of the Union Republic, Autonomous Republic or Autonomous Region, persons not knowing this language being guaranteed every opportunity of fully acquainting themselves with the material of the case through an interpreter and likewise the right to use their own language in court.

ARTICLE 111. In all courts of the USSR cases are heard in public, unless otherwise. provided for by law, and the accused is guaranteed the right to be defended by Counsel.

ARTICLE 112. Judges are independent and subject only to the law.

ARTICLE 113. Supreme supervisory power over the strict execution of the laws by all People’s Commissariats and institutions subordinated to them, as well as by public servants and citizens of the USSR, is vested in the Procurator of the USSR

ARTICLE 114. The Procurator of the USSR is appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for a term of seven years.

ARTICLE 115. Procurators of Republics, Territories and Regions, as well as Procurators of Autonomous Republics and Autonomous Regions, are appointed by the Procurator of the USSR for a term of five years.

ARTICLE 116. Area, district and city procurators are appointed for a term of five years by the Procurators of the Union Republics, subject to the approval of the Procurator of the USSR

ARTICLE 117. The organs of the Procurator’s Office perform their functions independently of any local organs whatsoever, being subordinate solely to the Procurator of the USSR

CHAPTER X. FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS

ARTICLE 118. Citizens of the USSR have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance With its quantity and quality.

The right to work is ensured by the socialist organization of the national economy, the steady growth of the productive forces of Soviet society, the elimination of the possibility of economic crises, and the abolition of unemployment.

ARTICLE 119. Citizens of the USSR have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of the workers, the institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people.

ARTICLE 120. Citizens of the USSR have the right to maintenance in old age and also in case of sickness or loss of capacity to work. This right is ensured by the extensive development of social insurance of workers and employees at state expense, free medical service for the working people and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for the use of the working people.

ARTICLE 121. Citizens of the USSR have the right to education. This right is ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges; by instruction in schools being conducted in the native language, and by the organization in the factories, state farms, machine and tractor stations and collective farms of free vocational, technical and agronomic training for the working people.

ARTICLE 122. Women in the USSR are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life. The possibility of exercising these rights is ensured to women by granting them an equal right with men to work, payment for work, rest and leisure, social insurance and education, and by state protection of the interests of mother and child, pre-maternity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens.

ARTICLE 123. Equality of rights of citizens of the USSR, irrespective of their nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life, is an indefeasible law. Any direct or indirect restriction of the rights of, or, conversely, any establishment of direct or indirect privileges for, citizens on account of their race or nationality, as well as any advocacy of racial or national exclusiveness or hatred and contempt, is punishable by law.

ARTICLE 124. In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church in the USSR is separated from the state, and the school from the church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of antireligious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.

ARTICLE 125. In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the USSR are guaranteed by law:

freedom of speech;
freedom of the press;
freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings;
freedom of street processions and demonstrations.

These civil rights are ensured by placing at the disposal of the working people and their organizations printing presses, stocks of paper, public buildings, the streets, communications facilities and other material requisites for the exercise of these rights.

ARTICLE 126. In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to develop the organizational initiative and political activity of the masses of the people, citizens of the USSR are ensured the right to unite in public organizations–trade unions, cooperative associations, youth organizations,’ sport and defense organizations, cultural, technical and scientific societies; and the most active and politically most conscious citizens in the ranks of the working class and other sections of the working people unite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system and is the leading core of all organizations of the working people, both public and state.

ARTICLE 127. Citizens of the USSR are guaranteed inviolability of the person. No person may be placed under arrest except by decision of a court or with the sanction of a procurator.

ARTICLE 128. The inviolability of the homes of citizens and privacy of correspondence are protected by law.

ARTICLE 129. The USSR affords the right of asylum to foreign citizens persecuted for defending the interests of the working people, or for their scientific activities, or for their struggle for national liberation.

ARTICLE 130. It is the duty of every citizen of the USSR to abide by the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, to observe the laws, to maintain labor discipline, honestly to perform public duties, and to respect the rules of socialist intercourse.

ARTICLE 131. It is the duty of every citizen of the USSR to safeguard and strengthen public, socialist property as the sacred and inviolable foundation of the Soviet system, as the source of the wealth and might of the country, as the source of the prosperous and cultured life of all the working people.

Persons committing offenses against public, socialist property are enemies of the people.

ARTICLE 132. Universal military service is law. Military service in the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army is an honorable duty of the citizens of the USSR

ARTICLE 133. To defend the fatherland is the sacred duty of every citizen of the USSR Treason to the country–violation of the oath of allegiance, desertion to the enemy, impairing the military power of the state, espionage is punishable with all the severity of the law as the most heinous of crimes.

CHAPTER XI. THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM

ARTICLE 134. Members of all Soviets of Working People’s Deputies–of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics, the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of the Territories and Regions, the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics, and Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of Autonomous Regions, area, district, city and rural (station, village, hamlet, kishlaq, aul) Soviets of Working People’s Deputies–are chosen by the electors on the basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot.

ARTICLE 135. Elections of deputies are universal: all citizens of the USSR who have reached the age of eighteen, irrespective of race or nationality, religion, educational and residential qualifications, social origin, property status or past activities, have the right to vote in the election of deputies and to be elected, with the exception of insane persons and persons who have been convicted by a court of law and whose sentences include deprivation of electoral rights.

ARTICLE 136. Elections of deputies are equal: each citizen has one vote; all citizens participate in elections on an equal footing.

ARTICLE 137. Women have the right to elect and be elected on equal terms with men.

ARTICLE 138. Citizens serving in the Red Army have the right to elect and be elected on equal terms with all other citizens.

ARTICLE 139. Elections of deputies are direct: all Soviets of Working People’s Deputies, from rural and city Soviets of Working People’s Deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, inclusive, are elected by the citizens by direct vote.

ARTICLE 140. Voting at elections of deputies is secret.

ARTICLE 141. Candidates for election are nominated according to electoral areas. The right to nominate candidates is secured to public organizations and societies of the working people: Communist Party organizations, trade unions, cooperatives, youth organizations and cultural societies.

ARTICLE 142. It is the duty of every deputy to report to his electors on his work and on the work of the Soviet of Working People’s Deputies, and he is liable to be recalled at any time in the manner established by law upon decision of a majority of the electors.

CHAPTER XII. ARMS, FLAG, CAPITAL

ARTICLE 143. The arms of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics consist of a sickle and hammer against a globe depicted in the rays of the sun and surrounded by ears of grain with the inscription “Workers of All Countries, Unite!” in the languages of the Union Republics. At the top of the arms is a five-pointed star. Socialist Republics is of red cloth with the sickle and hammer depicted in gold in the upper corner near the staff and above them a five-pointed red star bordered in gold. The ratio of the width to the length is 1: 2.

ARTICLE 145. The capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is the City of Moscow.

CHAPTER XIII. PROCEDURE FOR AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE 146. The Constitution of the USSR may be amended only by decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the votes cast in each of its Chambers.

This is Radio Leningrad!

Olga Berggolts, This is Radio Leningrad!. 1942

 

On one very cold January night in 1942, some three days after the radio had become silent in nearly all districts of Leningrad, an idea was conceived at the Radio Committee, in the hostel of the literary department, of writing a book entitled “This Is Radio Leningrad!”

The Art Director of the Radio Committee Babushkin, Makogonenko, editor of the Literary Department and myself drew up a detailed plan, toiling over it practically all through the night by the light of our only dim electric bulb with a newspaper for a shade.

While outside, in the thick, icy darkness racking explosions roared, in the big long room members of the department staff lay sleeping on camp-beds, armchairs and sofas ranged along the walls, making the room rather like a railroad carriage. Wearing their coats, felt boots and gloves, they were sunk in heavy, oppressive slumber, moaning and muttering, either dried up or bloated from hunger. One of them, the journalist Pravdich no longer moaned or muttered. It crossed my mind that he was probably dead. In the morning we discovered that he was.

Both for me and my companions that night of January 10, 1942 was one of the happiest and most sublime nights in our lives: once we had started planning our book, we suddenly found ourselves, for the first time since the war had begun, looking back over the path trodden by our city, its people and its art (including our Radio Committee) and, full of wonder to find it so appalling and so glorious, we were overwhelmed by a thrilling realization, which was almost physical that, however horrible the reality, the wonderful, natural, wise mode of human existence referred to as “peace” was bound to return, and we felt that both victory and peace would conic very shortly-why, it was only a matter of days!

And therefore the three of us, hungry and weak as we were, were proud and happy, and felt a magic influx of strength.

“All the same, we are going to live to see it, don’t you think?” Yasha Babushkin exclaimed happily. “I so want to live to see how it’ll all be, don’t you?”

He laughed shyly, cast us a quick glance and there was Such avid, impatient pleading in his large shining eyes, that we hastened to agree.

“Of course, we’ll live to see it, Yasha. We all shall!”

We could see perfectly well that he was in a very bad way, almost at death’s door. He was bloated all over, his skin had a greenish tinge and it cost him a tremendous effort to climb the stairs. Yet he slept little and worked hard, and we understood that it could not be otherwise (for he shouldered such a weight of responsibilities: the orchestra alone was a full-time job), that he could not and would not spare himself. We were powerless to help him in any way, and so we hastened to assure him that we would definitely live to see victory, all of us.

He smiled happily, and said nothing, as if pondering over our answer, and then lowered his eyelids slowly. They were inflamed, dark and heavy. As always, when Babushkin closed his eyes, his youthful face immediately grew older, he looked exhausted and terribly ill. We exchanged glances and were silent too. Suddenly, without opening his eyes he said slowly and softly,

Here he is, the chemist, silent, lofty-browed,

Wrinkling his forehead, new experiments contriving.

Through the World Who’s Who he leafs and thinks aloud:

“Twentieth century.

Let’s look who’s worth reviving?”

He paused and then went on, his voice gradually rising louder:

“Here’s Maiakovskii not among the brightest.

No, the poet isn’t nice enough to see.”

From Today

I’ll holler to the scientist,

“Leave off turning pages!

Revive me!”

“We shall include broadcasts of his poems in our book,” Babushkin said enthusiastically, opening his eyes and immediately growing young again. “They acquire a special meaning in our conditions. Why, Leningrad speaks with his voice too!”

The book we planned that night was to include poems, short stories, articles, satirical prose, documents, whole programs broadcast by Radio Leningrad and, most important of all, the voices of Leningraders-soldiers and sailors, workers and scientists, actors and writers.

We intended to arrange it all in chronological order, beginning with the first days of the war and ending with the breach of the blockade which, on that sublime night, seemed quite imminent. The breach of the blockade was somehow identified in our minds with total victory. Yet a whole year was to pass before the blockade was broken, over two until the city was completely relieved, and more than three till final victory…. But although firmly believing that victory was nigh and with no idea of the truly inconceivable calamities that were in store for us, we were neither blind nor naive, nor flippant: I repeat, that night, as we looked back on the short and tragic but inherently victorious and valiant path trodden by our city, we felt with every fiber of our beings the invincibility of our people and, consequently, of our city, Leningrad. Rare, precious moments like that night should be treasured and revered.

Nowhere had radio broadcasts played such a big role as in our besieged city.

In August of 1941, when the last roads leading from Leningrad had been cut and the noose of the blockade tightened on the city’s throat, the radio remained practically the only means of communication with the rest of the country.

From the radio the Leningraders learned about what happened at the fronts (newspapers from the “mainland” reached us with great difficulty), it was only over the radio that Russia learned about what was happening in Leningrad. And it had to know the truth about it, for the Germans who were making frantic efforts to capture the city, declared every day for all the world to know, that Leningrad’s fall was a matter of hours. Actually, German newspapers in occupied parts of the Leningrad region announced the capture of the city and carried faked photographs of an SS man standing on guard outside a building on Nevskii Prospect. The German command set the date for a ceremonious parade in Palace Square and an officers’ banquet at the Astoria Hotel, and even printed invitations for the banquet.

On the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Leningrad began its radio broadcasts-at a different time every day in order to confuse the Germans who did their best to jam our broadcasts. Leningrad put on the air its defenders: soldiers and sailors, workers and party officials, poets, composers and scientists.

Our broadcasts were relayed from Moscow to all parts of the country so that our whole people knew: Leningrad was still holding out, Leningrad had not surrendered. This was during the most desperate period of the war when the German armies were crashing forwards and we were forced to abandon one town after another. And there was Leningrad bringing the Germans to a halt! Leningrad held out, live voices of Leningraders vowed that it would not surrender either today or tomorrow or ever, and the next day the city spoke again. Leningrad stood its ground and fought back, full of strength, wrath and resolution.

These broadcasts continued despite bombing raids and shellings. They always began with the same words: “This is Radio Leningrad, the city of Lenin calling the Country!”

The composer Dmitrii Shostakovich spoke in this program on the day when Leningradskaia Pravda carried a huge headline: “The Enemy Is at Our Gates.” “Our city is facing an immediate danger of invasion by a base and ruthless enemy,” the editorial ran. “Leningrad has become the front line.” The appeals of the Military Council pasted on the walls bore the same message: “The Enemy Is at Our Gates!” While the composer was driving to the Radio Committee, an air-raid warning sounded. But the country which was avidly listening to Leningrad’s voice did not know that Shostakovich was speaking to the coughing of AA guns and the roar of explosions.

Luckily no bombs dropped near the Committee. The composer spoke with great emotion, and his voice, though somewhat hollow, was clear and outwardly calm.

“An hour ago I completed the second part of my new work,” Shostakovich began. “If I manage to complete the third and fourth parts of this composition and if it turns out well, I shall be able to call it the Seventh Symphony…. Despite the war-time conditions, despite the danger which is threatening Leningrad, I have written the first two parts in a comparatively short time. Why am I telling you this? I am telling you so that listeners tuned in to me now should know that life in our city is normal. All of us are soldiers today, and those who work in the field of culture and the arts are doing their duty on a par with all the other citizens of Leningrad.”

… Twenty-two years have passed since I first held in my hands these two pages torn from a note-book and covered with nervous minute handwriting, almost without corrections. Today, as then, they pierce my heart with their ineffable civic dignity and chaste modesty. The editor gave me these pages and asked my opinion: did I not think that the speech sounded “too calm”?

“No,” I said. “We must make no changes here and mustn’t add a single elevated sentence. Only, please, can I keep this rough copy?”

“By all means,” he said laughing, “only let me copy some of the things I jotted down on the back. It’s a plan of current broadcasts for the city.”

And I still hold on to this rough copy of Shostakovich’s speech. On the back, in a different but also hurried handwriting, is the following plan of current broadcasts for the city:

1. Organization of detachments.

2. Street communications.

3. The building of barricades.

4. Fighting with incendiary bottles.

5. Defense of a house.

6. Stress that fighting is now going on the near approaches….

These instructions were to be broadcast within the next day or two. Meanwhile Shostakovich was speaking on in his subdued voice:

“Soviet musicians, my dear, numerous comrades-in-arms, my friends! Remember that grave danger faces our art. Let us defend our music, let us work honestly and selflessly … ”

And they certainty did work for the defense, the musicians of the only orchestra which remained in Leningrad, the orchestra of the Radio Committee. True, in those days, not a single song or melody sounded over the radio-somebody had decided that “this was no time for music”. But the orchestra was alive, it broadcast concerts for England and Sweden, for it was important that they, too, should know that we were riot only fighting and resisting the enemy, but even performing Chaikovskii and Beethoven. Besides, nearly all members of the orchestra did air defense duty and helped to build fortifications. The violinist A. Presser was head of the Radio Committee’s fire-watching team; the very first incendiary bomb which fell on our roof was put out by our first viola I. Iasiniavskii; Iu. Shakh and A. Safonov helped to dig trenches round the city on the very day when Shostakovich spoke over the radio. Little did they imagine then that one day they would play that same symphony the composer was speaking about.

“Goodbye, comrades,” he said in conclusion. “I shall soon be completing my Seventh Symphony. My mind is clear and the drive to create urges me on to conclude my composition. And then I shall come on the air again, with my new work and shall nervously await your stern, friendly judgment. I assure you in the name of all Leningraders, in the name of all those working in the field of culture and the arts, that we are invincible and that we are ever at our posts … ”

“I assure you that we arc invincible … ” Thus spoke Shostakovich, one of the famous sons of Leningrad, its pride: and he spoke for all Leningraders. And the whole country, listening to Leningrad’s every word with pride, pain and anxiety, believed him.

Late that autumn, when the first partisans of Leningrad region crossed the front line into the city and visited the Radio Committee in order to speak to the citizens-under an assumed name or just one letter we learned just how much broadcasts from Leningrad meant to them.

“Day after day the Germans wrote in their newspapers that Leningrad had been captured and the Baltic Fleet destroyed,” the commander of the Luga detachment N. A. Panov (then Comrade P.) told us. “The people were depressed by the news and morale in our detachment was low too. What were we to do? We held a party meeting, with only one question on the agenda: has Leningrad been surrendered or not. We passed the decision that it hadn’t. Yes, we wrote it down in these very words: to consider Leningrad not surrendered. But we had a gnawing feeling in our heart of hearts. Then one day we met some partisans from Oredczha. Our first question was, of course, ‘How are things in Leningrad?’ They had a radio receiver. Let’s try and tune in, they said. And can you imagine such luck, within the hour we heard: ‘This is Radio -Leningrad. The cruiser Kirov calling.’ You can’t imagine what it meant for us! So Leningrad was alive and kicking, and so was the Baltic Fleet! Our party meeting had adopted the right decision after all. Immediately we dispatched our men into the villages to let the people know that Leningrad had not surrendered and was not going to surrender. It helped us no end.”

The voice of Leningrad reached the furthermost corners of our country. In 1944, housewives in Sevastopol and the curator of the Kherson museum Alexander Takhtai told us about the impact of the Leningrad broadcasts. In the autumn of 1941, the besieged cities of Sevastopol, Kiev and Odessa started exchanges of broadcasts with blockaded Leningrad. It was a bitter and heroic time and, sadly, the exchanges did not continue for very long. The longest of all was the series of exchanges with Sevastopol, which lasted right up until the Germans captured the city.

“We tuned in to Leningrad with a particular kind of trepidation,” Takhtai told us, “for it was the voice of a comrade-in-arms, the voice of our elder brother. The calm and determination of the Leningraders’ voices amazed and inspired us. We knew from our own experience what lay behind those simple words: “despite fierce enemy attacks both on land and in the air … “. But we were to be still more impressed later, when we learned what you lived through in the winter and spring of 1942 besides those “fierce attacks”.

No, we never concealed anything or tried to deceive anybody: we simply spoke about the main truth which mattered most for everybody-we were holding out and would continue to hold out.

In broadcasts to the city we were more outspoken.

I remember how on September 19, 1941, the day of a particularly savage air-raid that will be remembered by all Leningraders, a woman who lived in Stremiannaia Street came to the studio. Her name was Moskovskaia and she had just lost two children under the ruins of their house. She had never spoken over the radio before, but she came to us and said: “Let me speak over the radio…. Please, I want to speak!”

She told the listeners what had happened to her children an hour before. What I remember most is not so much her words as her breathing. The heavy, labored breathing of a person who is all the time keeping down a scream, suppressing a fit of violent sobbing. This breathing amplified by the loudspeakers came into the houses of Leningrad and into the trenches on the approaches to the city, and soldiers listened to a mother’s story of how her little boy and girl had died in Stremiannaia Street, listened to her breathing, tile breathing of boundless grief and boundless courage. They all remembered this breathing and it helped them to bold out.

Speaking from the rostrum provided by the radio the people of the city where personal and public had merged into one, supported and encouraged one another and rallied closer together.

As a writer I am proud to be able to say that the voices of Leningrad writers sounded loud and clear in those days. Art had mounted this huge, unprecedented rostrum not only to make speeches, agitate and appeal: no, it also conducted heart-to-heart talks with fellow citizens, it pondered aloud on the most vital issues, it counseled and comforted, and shared in the joys and sorrows of all who listened, reaching their hearts by the route that is open to art alone.

As regards speeches and appeals, we had our aces too. No Leningrader who lived through the blockade will ever forget the passionate addresses of Vsevolod Vishnevskii. The radio, whose instruments are sound, voice and timbre, was an ideal medium for communicating to listeners the inimitable tone of this author who was a Baltic sailor serving on the cruiser Aurora when it fired its historic shot during the storming of the Winter Palace. His tone and manner were in themselves a live bond with the revolutionary history of Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad. This devil-may-care manner of the Baltic sailor, this familiar fo’c’sle note, that had been vindicated so splendidly during the October Revolution and the Civil War, now made a come-back, so alive, so authentic, so dear to everybody’s heart. True, the Baltic sailor had grown older and sterner, but in that terrible autumn of 1941, in those desperate days of the assault, his passionate, at times rather disjointed speeches were so encouraging and so necessary for this city which not only cherished its traditions but lived by them.

Every appeal of old Petersburg workers to their fellow-citizens, to the volunteers and the soldiers ended with the oath: “We shall die rather than surrender our beloved Leningrad!”

The oath repeated almost word for word the slogans written on the banners of soldiers and Red Guards who went out in 1917-1919 to defend the city against Kornilov, Kerenskii or Iudenich: “We shall Die Rather than Surrender Red Peter (Petrograd)!”

Nor was it a quotation either, it was a live cri du coeur, as alive and urgent as were the speeches of Vsevolod Vishnevskii with his inimitable manner of a revolutionary sailor of the Baltic Fleet.

On several occasions I had the good luck to hear him speak to army units, at factories or over the radio. It was a sheer delight to listen to him, delight and hard work. Yes, work, because at such moments your heart and brain began to work strenuously and you found yourself automatically clenching your fists. Take, for example, his radio speech on the occasion of the twenty-fourth anniversary of the October Revolution:

“… The night before the October anniversary: the evening dusk has fallen over the city on the frozen Neva which is ready for anything … The front-city is alive, and the heartbeats of the revolution are as strong in it as ever. It is calm and confident, like a true Russian, like Lenin. The loudspeakers arc broadcasting Lev Tolstoy’s story ‘Sevastopol. Winter, 1854′. The crowd listens spellbound. They recognize themselves. Tolstoy’s Fourth Bastion is Leningrad today. Everything in Tolstoy’s account is accurate, everything is as it is now. The matter-of fact Russian heroism, modest and pure. A blacked-out tram goes out to the front-line, to the Fourth Bastion…. This great city is faithful to October, it is fully aware of its destiny and of itself. It knows what awaits it-work, sacrifices, loyalty, courage and victory … ”

Or take his famous speech “Listen, beloved Moscow!” made in the hardest days of the war, when the enemy was on the approaches to the capital, when we Leningraders used to say: “Moscow’s defense line passes through the heart of every Leningrader.”

“Moscow! We, Leningraders and Baltic sailors, are with you, shoulder to shoulder with you, our beloved capital! You have fought many battles, Moscow, and the whole world listens to your voice; your labors and holidays are a revelation and the morrow of mankind…. Moscow, throw into battle everything that is alive, militant and honest. Do it without delay. Allow no hesitation, no fear, no failures…. The dying Baltic sailors can show you an example…. Even on the brink of death these men were able to see, indeed did see victory: our future victory. It will come! It is beyond the winter blizzards, ahead yonder!”

No, this speech cannot be quoted in parts. How fortunate that it has been preserved almost in full in a recording.

I recollect another talk in the series “This Is Radio Leningrad!”, at the end of September 1941, when the city was subjected to the most ferocious artillery bombardments and air-raids. This talk was made by the poetess Anna Akhmatova. We recorded it not in the studio, but at the Writers’ House, a building which was jokingly called the “sky-scriber”, in the flat of Mikhail Zoshchenko. As luck would have it, there was a terrific artillery bombardment going on, we were all terribly nervous and the recording was going badly. To Anna Akhmatova’s dictation I wrote down her short speech, which she subsequently corrected, and this yellowed sheet of paper is as precious to me as is the draft of Shostakovich’s speech. And just as clearly as I remember today, after the lapse of twenty years, the subdued, wise, calm voice of Shostakovich and the effervescent voice of Vishnevskii, now high, now low and intense, so I preserve in my memory the deep, tragic and proud voice of the “Muse of Sobbing” as it floated over evening Leningrad, dark gold and hushed for a short while. But in those days she wrote and spoke not at all as a “Muse of Sobbing” but as a true and valiant daughter of Russia and Leningrad.

“My dear fellow-citizens,” she said. “Mothers, wives and sisters of Leningrad. For more than a month now the enemy has been threatening our city with capture and inflicting severe wounds on it. The city of Peter the Great, the city of Lenin, the city of Pushkin, Dostoevskii and Blok, the city of a great culture and labor is threatened with disgrace and destruction. Like all Leningraders, I go numb with horror at the very thought that our city, my city may be trampled under. My whole life has been bound up with Leningrad; I became a poet in Leningrad; Leningrad is the very air my verse breathes…. Like all of you, I only live by my unshakable faith that Leningrad will never bow down to the Nazis. This faith is made stronger when I see the women of Leningrad defending the city with such simple velour and enabling ordinary human existence to continue. Our descendants will pay tribute to every mother of the time of the Patriotic War, but particularly so to the woman of Leningrad who stands on the roof during an air raid, watching for the incendiaries; to a Leningrad volunteer-nurse helping the wounded among the ruins of a burning house…. No, a city which has raised such women cannot be vanquished. We Leningraders are living through very hard times, but we know that our country and all our fellow countrymen are with us. We can feet their anxiety for us, their love and their help. We arc grateful to them and we promise that we shall remain staunch and brave … ”

I forgot to mention that the broadcasts for the country at large were listened to by Leningraders as well, and that was why Anna Akhmatova was addressing the women of Leningrad. But, first and foremost, these were broadcasts for the country at large and the whole world, and it was very important that alongside with rank-and-file defenders of the city, people whose names were known all over the globe should appear on the air. The Nazis listened to our broadcasts, too, of course. They listened to them and, as we found out later, wrote down the names of the speakers, longing for a “day of reckoning”. As we all know, these paranoid ambitions were not to be realized. It makes me proud to think that not one Leningrad author ever refused to take part in those broadcasts-on the contrary, it was regarded as a great honor to be invited. Nikolai Tikhonov, Alexander Prokofiev and Vissarion Saianov made many appearances on Radio Leningrad with their courageous verse, poems and sketches. Alexander Fadeev who came to Leningrad by plane in the spring of 1942 spoke over the radio twice. I still have the text of the warm address by Mikhail Sholokhov:

“Dear Comrade Leningraders!

“We know how hard it is for you to live, work and fight in a city encircled by the enemy. At all the fighting fronts and in the rear we are always thinking of you. The steel-founder in the faraway Urals thinks of you as he watches the stream of molten metal, and he works furiously in order to hasten the hour of your liberation. The soldier fighting the German invaders in the Donbass avenges not only his raped Ukraine, but also the cruel sufferings inflicted on you, Leningraders, by our enemies.

“We long for the hour when the ring of the blockade will be broken and the great Soviet land will press to its breast the heroic sons and daughters of eternally glorious Leningrad who have gone through so much suffering and privation.”

Almost all Leningrad writers spoke over the radio. One of our best contributors was Vladimir Volzhenin, who worked with real inspiration and supplied us with material which was in the greatest demand-satirical verse, couplets and fables deriding the Hitlerites, and short sketches. This went into our special daily program which was called Radio News. It always contained reports from the Leningrad Front and about the life of the city, a poem and, strange as it may appear to one today, a lot of humorous and satirical stuff. Oh yes, we could still laugh at that terrible time. Nor was it sick humor. It was rather in the style of Maiakovskii’s “Terrible Laughter”. We ridiculed panic-mongers, windbags, loafers, all those rare but disgusting foreign bodies which occasionally appeared in the stern and clean Leningrad organism. And, of course, we vented on the Nazis whole Niagaras of sarcasm, irony, mockery and derision, everything they deserved, not to mention, Of Course, our sacred and burning hatred, repugnance and contempt.

Other excellent regular contributors to Radio News were Zoshchenko, Evgenii Shvarts and I. Metter. Radio News was very popular both with civilians and soldiers and we often received delegations from army units who wanted to obtain material from a broadcast for use by propaganda teams. In December when the Political Administration of the Baltic Fleet commissioned me to compile a small collection “The Baltic Fleet Laughs” I used some of the material from our Radio News, in particular Eugene Schwarz’s charming “Tales about the Devil”. And this was in December 1941, in a starving city deprived of light and warmth.

Now we intended to take all this -Shostakovich’s speech of September 1941, the voice of the mother who had lost her children in the ruins, the passionate addresses by Vishnevskii, the stern war poems of Tikhonov, the audacious couplets of Volzhenin and even some whole programs for the country and from Radio News, as well as the partisans’ stories about the encouragement they gained from the voice of Leningrad-and include it in the first part of the book “This Is Radio Leningrad!”

We also included in our plan for the book out winter broadcasts (“This Is Radio Leningrad” and Radio News survived even in those incredibly hard days)-a report from an arms works where starving Komsomols repaired tanks and wrote on them “Death to Hitler!” and “Victory”, speeches, poems and talks by Leningrad writers, “Theatre by the Microphone” programs, letters from listeners and descriptions of the fantastic mode of life of the Radio Committee staff (the celebrations of the fiftieth and hundredth programs of Radio News were unforgettable).

Here I would like to add a small but very important explanation. When we drew up our plan on that feverishly inspired night of 10th January 1942 there was much we did not know and were unable to foresee. For instance, we included a talk by Shostakovich about the symphony he was composing, but little did we imagine that the symphony would be performed in Moscow in March that same year, and that the composer and all the world were to name it the Leningrad Symphony, or that later in that same year it was to be performed in our besieged city by our own orchestra, the orchestra of the Radio Committee! That winter the orchestra practically ceased to give performances, for its members did not have the strength. This was particularly so in the case of the wind instruments, for the performers “had nothing to strain their diaphragms against”. The orchestra kept dwindling. Some went away to the front, others died of starvation. I shall always remember those gray winter mornings when Yasha Babushkin, now completely dropsical and leaden in color, dictated to the typist his current reports on the state of the orchestra.

“The first violin is dying, the drum died on his way to work, the French horn is at death’s door,” he dictated in an outwardly dispassionate voice, hollow with despair.

Yet the members who were alive-mostly those quartered on the premises of the Radio Committee-did not abandon their jobs, and went on doing their air-defense duty. Karl Eliasberg heroically conducted rehearsals in the icy cold studio premises, choosing works that would be within the musicians’ physical capacity. When news came that the Seventh Symphony had been performed in Moscow and some time later its score was brought in by plane, the orchestra became inflamed with the practically unattainable desire to perform the symphony here, where it was born, in the besieged, starving but defiant city. From his first glance at the score Eliasberg realized that the dream was totally impracticable the monumental, forceful score required a doubled orchestra, nearly a hundred people, while the Radio Committee orchestra had dwindled by spring to fifteen musicians. Nevertheless, he decided, together with the then acting chairman of the Radio Committee Viktor Khodorenko and the art director of the Committee Babushkin, to perform the Seventh Symphony in Leningrad.

The city Party Committee came to their aid, allocating the musicians an extra daily ration of porridge by that time it amounted, I believe, to all of forty grams of cereals or beans. An appeal was broadcast for all musicians in the city to report for duty to the Radio orchestra. The response was quite impressive. Among those who came was the first violin of the Philharmonic Society Zavetnovskii, emaciated, but trim and collected as ever, and Leningrad’s oldest musician, seventy-year-old Nagornyuk, who had played the French horn in orchestras conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov, Napravnik and Glazunov. Nagornyuk’s son, a soldier demobilized after a severe wound, had been evacuated from Leningrad and had pleaded with his father to go with him. But the old musician had refused: he just had to play the Seventh Symphony!

There were still not enough, and the Political Administrations of the Front and the Baltic Fleet issued an order that the best musicians from army and navy orchestras should be transferred to a combined city orchestra. Thus the defenders of Leningrad grappled with their own symphony.

And then the day came, August 9, 1942, when the white-columned hall of the Philharmonic Society, after months of desolation, was bright with festive lights and thronged with Leningraders. They came from the front line and from wherever it was possible to walk or come by tram (trams had started running again in the spring). The audience was composed of workers who forged the weapons of defense, architects already planning the resurrection of the city, teachers who gave dictations to children in air raid shelters, writers and poets who had not laid down their pens in the appalling months of the past winter, soldiers, officers, party functionaries and representatives of the city administration.

The musicians of the combined orchestra came out onto the huge platform of the Philharmonic Society packing it to capacity. We could see its nucleus: the musicians of the Radio Orchestra-1. Iasiniavskii, who put out the first incendiary on the studio roof, the commander of the fire-watching squad violinist A. Presser, A. Safonov and Iu. Shakh, who had helped to dig trenches near Pulkovo. We could see musicians in army tunics and pea jackets, we could see before us defenders of Leningrad prepared as ever, at any moment, to give their lives for their native city, their country and their people.

Karl Eliasberg mounted the conductor’s rostrum. He was wearing a tail-coat, a real tail-coat, as befits a conductor, though it hung down from his emaciated frame as from a coat hanger. There were a few moments of complete silence and then the Symphony began. From its very first bars we recognized ourselves and the path we had trodden, the epic of Leningrad which had already become legendary: the ruthless enemy bearing down on us, our defiant resistance, our grief, our dream of a bright world, our undoubted forthcoming victory. And we who had not cried over the dead bodies of our dear ones in winter were now unable to hold back soundless, bitter and relieving tears and were not ashamed of them. Those of us who worked on the radio heard through that wonderful music the subdued, calm and wise voice of its creator, Dmitrii Shostakovich, coming from besieged Leningrad in September 1941, when the enemy was making frantic efforts to seize the city:

“I assure you, comrades, in the name of all Leningraders, that we are invincible and that we are ever at our posts … ”

On that memorable night of January 10 we put down in our plan “the breach of the blockade’, although we had no idea how it would come. It seemed to us, I repeat once again, that it would happen very soon: we were not to know that the whole unbearably difficult year of 1942 was to pass before the blockade was broken.

All that was happening at the Radio Committee the night the blockade was broken was spontaneous, unprepared and unplanned the music, the poems written there and then, the speeches-it was a solid, unbroken current of rejoicing, heard by the Volkhov Front, the whole country, the entire world. And the greatest reward for us at the studio was that on that happy festive night Leningraders came flocking to us, to their beloved, truly popular rostrum.

One old woman walked all night from the other side of the city and when accosted by militiamen, answered: “I’m going to the radio, sonny, to congratulate the Leningraders.”

And the militiamen let her through though she had no night pass. She reached us in the morning and did her congratulation bit.

Another woman, a housewife, told us:

“When I heard in the news that the blockade had been broken, I burst into tears and ran back and forth around the flat, looking for somebody to hug, but I was all alone. Then I thought I must run over here to the radio, but I was afraid to leave the flat. So I just stood by the loudspeaker all night long, listening, and I did not feel alone.”

And although the blockade lasted another year after the breach had been made, with more exhausting shellings, bombings and new trials for the people, although the happy day of the final relief of the city only came a year later, the Leningraders remember the night of the 18th of January, 1943, as the summit of joy, a night when all hearts opened to one another. And an indispensable part of that night was the voice of the radio which, for the first time in many long months, sang and spoke night through to the dawn, for all the world to hear Leningrad’s jubilation.

The book “This Is Radio Leningrad!” never materialized. Instead, a radio recording entitled “Nine Hundred Days” was made in 1945 for the anniversary of the German defeat at Leningrad. Although it was only sound without pictures, here sound often attains an almost visual force. “Nine Hundred Days” was made up of documentary recordings, beginning with the first days of the war and ending with the German defeat at Leningrad. You hear in it live voices of Leningraders, the whistling of shells and the roar of explosions, the weeping of a mother over her wounded child at 26, Rubinstein Street, and the hooting of the first train to arrive from the “Mainland” in February 1943, a speech by Vishnevskii and a lot of other things belonging to the tragic and glorious past.

This film was made by workers of the Radio Committee who were in Leningrad throughout the blockade: the chief engineer N. Sviridov, war correspondents L. Magrachov and G. Makogonenko, recording technician Liubov Spektor, sound director N. Rogov. If Babushkin had been alive, he would have certainly taken part in the making of this film. But Yasha Babushkin was dead. We had been afraid that he would not be able to stand the rigors of the blockade and would starve to death, but he held out, and the blockade was unable to break him. He fell in battle near Narva, in February 1944, in the fighting for the final relief of Leningrad.

Source: Moscow – Stalingrad, 1941-1942 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1970), pp. 163-177.

 

Lenin on How to Organise Competition

Vladimir Lenin, How to Organize Competition? January 9, 1918

 

Original Source: First published in Pravda, 29 January 1929.

Bourgeois authors have been using up reams of paper praising competition, private enterprise, and all the other magnificent virtues and blessings of the capitalists and the capitalist system. Socialists have been accused of refusing to understand the importance of these virtues, and of ignoring “human nature”. As a matter of fact, however, capitalism long ago replaced small, independent commodity production, under which competition could develop enterprise, energy and bold initiative to any considerable extent, by large- and very large-scale factory production, joint-stock companies, syndicates and other monopolies. Under such capitalism, competition means the incredibly brutal suppression of the enterprise, energy and bold initiative of the mass of the population, of its overwhelming majority, of ninety-nine out of every hundred toilers; it also means that competition is replaced by financial fraud, nepotism, servility on the upper rungs of the social ladder.

Far from extinguishing competition, socialism, on the contrary, for the first time creates the opportunity for employing it on a really wide and on a really mass scale, for actually drawing the majority of working people into a field of labor in which they can display their abilities, develop the capacities, and reveal those talents, so abundant among the people whom capitalism crushed, suppressed and strangled in thousands and millions.

Now that a socialist government is in power our task is to organize competition.

The hangers-on and spongers on the bourgeoisie described socialism as a uniform, routine, monotonous and drab barrack system. The lackeys of the money-bags, the lickspittles of the exploiters, the bourgeois intellectual gentlemen used socialism as a bogey to “frighten” the people, who, under capitalism, were doomed to the penal servitude and the barrack-like discipline of arduous, monotonous toil, to a life of dire poverty and semi-starvation. The first step towards the emancipation of the people from this penal servitude is the confiscation of the landed estates, the introduction of workers’ control and the nationalization of the banks. The next steps will be the nationalization of the factories, the compulsory organization of the whole population in consumers’ societies, which are at the same time societies for the sale of products, and the state monopoly of the trade in grain and other necessities.

Only now is the opportunity created for the truly mass display of enterprise, competition and bold initiative. Every factory from which the capitalist has been ejected, or in which he has at least been curbed by genuine workers’ control, every village from which the landowning exploiter has been smoked out and his land confiscated has only now become a field in which the working man can reveal his talents, unbend his back a little, rise to his full height, and feel that he is a human being. For the first time after centuries of working for others, of forced labor for the exploiter, it has become possible to work for oneself and moreover to employ all the achievements of modern technology and culture in one’s work.

Of course, this greatest change in human history from working under compulsion to working for oneself cannot take place without friction, difficulties, conflicts and violence against the inveterate parasites and their hangers-on. No worker has any illusions on that score. The workers and poor peasants, hardened by dire want and by many long years of slave labor for the exploiters, by their countless insults and acts of violence, realize that it will take time to break the resistance of those exploiters. The workers and peasants are not in the least infected with the sentimental illusions of the intellectual gentlemen, of the Novaia Zhizn crowd and other slush, who “shouted” themselves hoarse “denouncing” the capitalists and “gesticulated” against them, only to burst into tears and to behave like whipped puppies when it came to deeds, to putting threats into action, to carrying out in practice the work of removing the capitalists.

The great change from working under compulsion to working for oneself, to labor planned and organized on a gigantic, national (and to a certain extent international, world) scale, also requires-in addition to “military” measures for the suppression of the exploiters’ resistance-tremendous organizational, organizing effort on the part of the proletariat and the poor peasants. The organizational task is interwoven to form a single whole with the task of ruthlessly suppressing by military methods yesterday’s slave-owners (capitalists) and their packs of lackeys-the bourgeois intellectual gentlemen. Yesterday’s slave-owners and their “intellectual” stooges say and think, “We have always been organizers and chiefs. We have commanded, and we want to continue doing so. We shall refuse to obey the ‘common people’, the workers and peasants. We shall not submit to them. We shall convert knowledge into a weapon for the defense of the privileges of the money-bags and of the rule of capital over the people.”

That is what the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intellectuals say, think, and do. From the point of view of self-interest their behavior is comprehensible. The hangers-on and spongers on the feudal landowners, the priests, the scribes, the bureaucrats as Gogol depicted them, and the “intellectuals” who hated Belinsky,149 also found it “hard” to part with serfdom. But the cause of the exploiters and of their “intellectual” menials is hopeless. The workers and peasants are beginning to break down their resistance- unfortunately, not yet firmly, resolutely and ruthlessly enough-and break it down they will.

“They” think that the “common people”, the “common” workers and poor peasants, will be unable to cope with the great, truly heroic, in the world-historic sense of the word, organizational tasks which the socialist revolution has imposed upon the working people. The intellectuals who are accustomed to serving the capitalists and the capitalist state say in order to console themselves: “You cannot do without us.” But their insolent assumption has no truth in if, educated men are already making their appearance on the side of the people, on the side of the working people, and are helping to break the resistance of the servants of capital. There are a great many talented organizers among the peasants and the working class, and they are only just beginning to become aware of themselves, to awaken, to stretch out towards great, vital, creative work, to tackle with their own forces the task of building socialist society. One of the most important tasks today, if not the most important, is to develop this independent initiative of the workers, and of all the working and exploited people generally, develop it as widely as possible in creative organizational work. At all costs we must break the old, absurd, savage, despicable and disgusting prejudice that only the so-called “upper classes”, only the rich, and those who have gone through the school of the rich, are capable of administering the state and directing the organizational development of socialist society.

This is a prejudice fostered by rotten routine, by petrified views, slavish habits, and still more by the sordid selfishness of the capitalists, in whose interest it is to administer while plundering and to plunder while administering. The workers will not forget for a moment that they need the power of knowledge. The extraordinary striving after knowledge which the workers reveal, particularly now, shows that mistaken ideas about this do not and cannot exist among the proletariat. But every rank-and-file worker and peasant who can read and write, who can judge people and has practical experience, is capable of organizational work. Among the “common people”, of whom the bourgeois intellectuals speak with such haughtiness and contempt, there are many such men and women. This sort of talent among the working class and the peasants is a rich and still untapped source.

The workers and peasants are still “timid”, they have not yet become accustomed to the idea that they are now the ruling class; they are not yet resolute enough. The revolution could not at one stroke instill these qualities into millions and millions of people who all their lives had been compelled by want and hunger to work under the threat of the stick. But the Revolution of October 1917 is strong, viable and invincible because it awakens these qualities, breaks down the old impediments, removes the worn-out shackles, and leads the working people on to the road of the independent creation of a new life.

Accounting and control-this is the main economic task of every Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, of every consumers’ society, of every union or committee of supplies, of every factory committee or organ of workers’ control in general.

We must fight against the old habit of regarding the measure of labor and the means of production, from the point of view of the slave whose sole aim is to lighten the burden of labor or to obtain at least some little bit from the bourgeoisie. The advanced, class-conscious workers have already started this fight, and they are offering determined resistance to the newcomers who flocked to the factory world in particularly large numbers during the war and who now would like to treat the people’s factory, the factory that has come into the possession of the people, in the old way, with the sole aim of “snatching the biggest possible piece of the pie and clearing out”. All the class-conscious, honest and thinking peasants and working people will take their place in this fight by the side of the advanced workers.

Accounting and control, if carried on by the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies as the supreme state power, or on the instructions, on the authority, of this power-widespread, general, universal accounting and control, the accounting and control of the amount of labor performed and of the distribution of products-is the essence of socialist transformation, once the political rule of the proletariat has been established and secured.

The accounting and control essential for the transition to socialism can be exercised only by the people. Only the voluntary and conscientious co-operation of the mass of the workers and peasants in accounting and controlling the rich, the rogues, the idlers and the rowdies, a co-operation marked by revolutionary enthusiasm, can conquer these survivals of accursed capitalist society, these dregs of humanity, these hopelessly decayed and atrophied limbs, this contagion, this plague, this ulcer that socialism has inherited from capitalism.

Workers and peasants, working and exploited people! The land, the banks and the factories have now become the

property of the entire people! You yourselves must set to work to take account of and control the production and distribution of products-this, and this alone is the road, to the victory of socialism, the only guarantee of its victory, the guarantee of victory over all exploitation, over all poverty and want! For there is enough bread, iron, timber, wool, cotton and flax in Russia to satisfy the needs of everyone, if only labor and its products are properly distributed, if only a business-like, practical control over this distribution by the entire people is established, provided only we can defeat the enemies of the people: the rich and their hangers-on, and the rogues, the idlers and the rowdies, not only in politics, but also in everyday economic life.

No mercy for these enemies of the people, the enemies of socialism, the enemies of the working people! War to the death against the rich and their hangers-on, the bourgeois intellectuals; war on the rogues, the idlers and the rowdies! All of them are of the same brood-the spawn of capitalism, the offspring of aristocratic and bourgeois society; the society in which a handful of men robbed and insulted the people; the society in which poverty and want forced thousands and thousands on to the path of rowdyism, corruption and roguery, and caused them to lose all human semblance; the society which inevitably cultivated in the working man the desire to escape exploitation even by means of deception, to wriggle out of it, to escape, if only for a moment, from loathsome labor, to procure at least a crust of bread by any possible means, at any cost, so as not to starve, so as to subdue the pangs of hunger suffered by himself and by his near ones.

The rich and the rogues are two sides of the same coin, they are the two principal categories of parasites which capitalism fostered; they are the principal enemies of socialism. These enemies must be placed under the special surveillance of the entire people; they must be ruthlessly punished for the slightest violation of the laws and regulations of socialist society. Any display of weakness, hesitation or sentimentality in this respect would be an immense crime against socialism.

In order to render these parasites harmless to socialist society we must organize the accounting and control of the amount of work done and of production and distribution by the entire people, by millions and millions of workers and peasants, participating voluntarily, energetically and with revolutionary enthusiasm. And in order to organize this accounting and control, which is fully within the ability of every honest, intelligent and efficient worker and peasant, we must rouse their organizing talent, the talent that is to be found in their midst; we must rouse among them-and organize on a national scale-competition in the sphere of organizational achievement; the workers and peasants must be brought to see clearly the difference between the necessary advice of an educated man and the necessary control by the “common” worker and peasant of the slovenliness that is so usual among the “educated”.

This slovenliness, this carelessness, untidiness, unpunctuality, nervous haste, the inclination to substitute discussion for action, talk for work, the inclination to undertake everything under the sun without finishing anything, are characteristics of the “educated”; and this is not due to the fact that they are bad by nature, still less is it due to their evil will; it is due to all their habits of life, the conditions of their work, to fatigue, to the abnormal separation of mental from manual labor, and so on, and so forth.

Among the mistakes, shortcomings and defects of our revolution a by no means unimportant place is occupied by the mistakes, etc., which are due to these deplorable-but at present inevitable-characteristics of the intellectuals in our midst, and to the lack of sufficient supervision by the workers over the organizational work of the intellectuals.

The workers and peasants are still “timid”; they must get rid of this timidity, and they certainly will get rid of it. We cannot dispense with the advice, the instruction of educated people, of intellectuals and specialists. Every sensible worker and peasant understands this perfectly well, and the intellectuals in our midst cannot complain of a lack of attention and comradely respect on the part of the workers and peasants. Advice and instruction, however, is one thing, and the organization of practical accounting and control is another. Very often the intellectuals give excellent advice and instruction, but they prove to be ridiculously, absurdly, shamefully “unhandy” and incapable of carrying out this

advice and instruction, of exercising practical control over the translation of words into deeds.

In this very respect it is utterly impossible to dispense with the help and the leading role of the practical organizers from among the “people”, from among the factory workers and working peasants. “It is not the gods who make pots”- this is the truth that the workers and peasants should get well drilled into their minds. They must understand that the whole thing now is practical work; that the historical moment has arrived when theory is being transformed into practice, vitalized by practice, corrected by practice, tested by practice; when the words of Marx, “Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programs”, become particularly true-every step in really curbing in practice, restricting, fully registering the rich and the rogues and keeping them under control is worth more than a dozen excellent arguments about socialism. For, “theory, my friend, is gray, but green is the eternal tree of life”.

Competition must be arranged between practical organizers from among the workers and peasants. Every attempt to establish stereotyped forms and to impose uniformity from above, as intellectuals are so inclined to do, must be combated. Stereotyped forms and uniformity imposed from above have nothing in common with democratic and socialist centralism. The unity of essentials, of fundamentals, of the substance, is not disturbed but ensured by variety in details, in specific local features, in methods of approach, in methods of exercising control, in ways of exterminating and rendering harmless the parasites (the rich and the rogues, slovenly and hysterical intellectuals, etc., etc.).

The Paris Commune gave a great example of how to combine initiative, independence, freedom of action and vigor from below with voluntary centralism free from stereotyped forms. Our Soviets are following the same road. But they are still “timid”; they have not yet got into their stride, have not yet “bitten into” their new, great, creative task of building the socialist system. The Soviets must set to work more boldly and display greater initiative. All “communes”-factories, villages, consumers’ societies, and committees of supplies-must compete with each other as practical organizers of accounting and control of labor and distribution of products. The program of this accounting and control is simple, clear and intelligible to all-everyone to have bread; everyone to have sound footwear and good clothing; everyone to have warm dwellings; everyone to work conscientiously; not a single rogue (including those who shirk their work) to be allowed to be at liberty, but kept in prison, or serve his sentence of compulsory labor of the hardest kind; not a single rich man who violates the laws and regulations of socialism to be allowed to escape the fate of the rogue, which should, in justice, be the fate of the rich man. “He who does not work, neither shall he eat”-this is the practical commandment of socialism. This is how things should be organized practically. These are the practical successes our “communes” and our worker and peasant organizers should be proud of. And this applies particularly to the organizers among the intellectuals (particularly, because they are too much, far too much in the habit of being proud of their general instructions and resolutions).

Thousands of practical forms and methods of accounting and controlling the rich, the rogues and the idlers must be devised and put to a practical test by the communes themselves, by small units in town and country. Variety is a guarantee of effectiveness here, a pledge of success in achieving the single common aim-to clean the land of Russia of all vermin, of fleas-the rogues, of bugs-the rich, and so on and so forth. In one place half a score of rich, a dozen rogues, half a dozen workers who shirk their work (in the manner of rowdies, the manner in which many compositors in Petrograd, particularly in the Party printing-shops, shirk their work) will be put in prison. In another place they will be put to cleaning latrines. In a third place they will be provided with “yellow tickets” after they have served their time, so that everyone shall keep an eye on them, as harmful persons, until they reform. In a fourth place, one out of every ten idlers will be shot on the spot. In a fifth place mixed methods may be adopted, and by probation release, for example, the rich, the bourgeois intellectuals, the rogues and rowdies who are corrigible will be given an opportunity to reform quickly. The more variety there will be, the better and richer will be our general experience, the more certain and rapid will be the success of socialism, and the easier will it be for practice to devise-for only practice can devise-the best methods and means of struggle.

In what commune, in what district of a large town, in what factory and in what village are there no starving people, no unemployed, no idle rich, no despicable lackeys of the bourgeoisie, saboteurs who call themselves intellectuals? Where has most been done to raise the productivity of labor, to build good new houses for the poor, to put the poor in the houses of the rich, to regularly provide a bottle of milk for every child of every poor family? It is on these points that competition should develop between the communes, communities, producer-consumers’ societies and associations, and Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. This is the work in which talented organizers should come to the fore in practice and be promoted to work in state administration. There is a great deal of talent among the people. It is merely suppressed. It must be given an opportunity to display itself. It and it alone, with the support of the people, can save Russia and save the cause of socialism.

Source: V. I. Lenin, Collected Works (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964), Vol. XXVI, pp. 404-415.

Russian Presidential Inauguration (1991)


Description: Sergei Shakhrai, soon to be Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and co-author of its Constitution, explains the role of the Russian Federation President to the Parliament. Conservative delegates warn of the spectre of capitalism. The inauguration of the President of the Russian Republic (RSFSR). Boris El’tsin pronounces the oath of office.
Source: Russian State Film & Photo Archive at Krasnogorsk (2000)

Freedom of Religious Conscience

Council of People’s Commissars, Decree on the Freedom of Conscience, and on Clerical and Religious Societies. February 2, 1918

 

Original Source: Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii raboche-krestian’skogo pravitel’stva, 1918, No. 18, pp. 272-73.

1. The church is hereby separated from the state.

2. It is forbidden on the territory of the republic to issue any local laws or ordinances which would hamper or restrict freedom of conscience or would establish any advantages or privileges on account of the religion of citizens.

3. Every citizen is free to profess any religion or profess none. All deprivations of rights connected with the profession or non-profession of any religion are hereby abolished.

NOTE. Any indication of religious affiliation or non-affiliation of citizens shall be removed from all official acts.

4. The actions of state and other public-law social institutions shall not be accompanied by any religious rites or ceremonies.

5. Free performance of religious rites is guaranteed in so far as these do not violate public order and are not accompanied by violation of the rights of citizens or of the Soviet Republic.

The local authorities have the right to take all necessary measures to ensure, in such cases, public order and security.

6. No one can evade, on the plea of his religious views, performance of his civic duties.

In particular instances exceptions to this rule are allowed by decision of a people’s court, on the condition of substitution of one civic duty for another.

7. The religious oath is abolished.

A solemn oath is given when necessary.

8. Civil registers are kept exclusively by the civil authority, namely, by marriage and birth registration departments.

9. The school is hereby separated from the church.

Religious instruction in all state, public and private educational establishments where general educational subjects are taught, is not allowed.

Citizens can teach and be taught religion privately.

10. All clerical and religious societies abide by the general regulations concerning private societies and unions, enjoy no privileges and receive no subsidies from the state or from its local autonomous and self-governing institutions.

11. Compulsory subscriptions and levies in favor of clerical or religious societies, as well as measures of compulsion or punishment on the part of these societies with regard to their members, are not allowed.

12. No clerical or religious societies have the right to own property.

They have no rights of a juridical person.

13. All property of the clerical and religious societies existing in Russia is declared the property of the people.

Buildings and objects designed specifically for worship are handed over, by special decisions of the local or central state authority, to the religious societies concerned for free use.

Ul’ianov (Lenin)
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars

N. Podvoiskii, V. Algasov, V. Trutovskii, A. Schlichter, P. Proshian, V. Menzhinskii, A. Shliapnikov, G. Petrovskii
People’s Commissars

Vl. Bonch-Bruevich
Business Manager

Secretary, N. Gorbunov

Source: Decrees of the Soviet Government (Moscow: Institute of Marxism-Leninism, 1957), Vol. I, pp. 373-374.

Abdication Manifesto

Nikolai II, Abdication Manifesto. March 2, 1917

 

Original Source: Izvestiia komiteta petrogradskikh zhurnalistov, 3 March 1917.

In the midst of the great struggle against a foreign foe, who has been striving for three years to enslave our country, it has pleased God to lay on Russia a new and painful trial. Newly arisen popular disturbances in the interior imperil the successful continuation of the stubborn fight. The fate of Russia, the honor of our heroic army, the welfare of our people, the entire future of our dear land, call for the prosecution of the conflict, regardless of the sacrifices, to a triumphant end. The cruel foe is making his last effort and the hour is near when our brave army, together with our glorious Allies, will crush him.

In these decisive days in the life of Russia, we deem it our duty to do what we can to help our people to draw together and unite all their forces for the speedier attainment of victory. For this reason we, in agreement with the State Duma, think it best to abdicate the throne of the Russian State and to lay down the Supreme Power.

Not wishing to be separated from our beloved son, we hand down our inheritance to our brother, Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich, and give him our blessing on mounting the throne of the Russian Empire.

We enjoin our brother to govern in union and harmony with the representatives of the people on such principles as they shall see fit to establish. He should bind himself to do so by an oath in the name of our beloved country.

We call on all faithful sons of the Fatherland to fulfill their sacred obligations to their country by obeying the Tsar at this hour of national distress, and to help him and the representatives of the people to take Russia out of the position in which she finds herself, and to lead her into the path of victory, well-being, and glory.

May the Lord God help Russia!

NIKOLAI
March 2, 1917, 3 P.M. City of Pskov.
Countersigned by the Minister of the Imperial Court, Adjutant-General, Count Fredericks

Source: Frank Golder, ed., Documents of Russian History, 1914-1917 (New York: The Century Co., 1927), pp. 297-98.

Red Guard into Army Texts

Texts

Red Army Oath

Statute of the Red Workers’ Guard

Trotsky on the Role of Military Commissars

Formation of the Worker-Peasant Red Army

Democratization of the Army

Abolition of Rank in the Army

Krylenko Calls Workers and Peasants to Arms

Trotsky on Labor, Discipline, Order

Trotsky on Employment of Former Generals

Compulsory Military Training

Reinstitution of the Draft

Related Texts

Reduction of the Army

Dissolution of the Old Army

Soviet Resolution on Military Matters

Holding Families of Officers Hostage

Anarchists on the Red Army

Eltsin and Russian Sovereignty Video

Rally Before the Congress of People’s Deputies (1989)
Description: Boris Eltsin, representative of the Democratic Platform, speaks outside Luzhniki Stadium and demands that activists of the Armenian national movement be released from prison.

Russian Presidential Inauguration (1991)
Description: Sergei Shakhrai, soon to be Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and co-author of its Constitution, explains the role of the Russian Federation President to the Parliament. Conservative delegates warn of the spectre of capitalism. The inauguration of the President of the Russian Republic (RSFSR). Boris El’tsin pronounces the oath of office.