Ninth Party Conference, Party Statutes. December 4, 1919

Original Source: Kommunisticheskaia partiia sovetskogo soiuza v rezoliutsiiakh i resheniiakh s"ezdov, konferentsii i plenumov TsK (Moscow, 1954), Part 1, pp. 461-69.

1. A member of the party is anyone who accepts the party program, works in one of its organizations, subjects himself to the decrees of the party and pays his membership dues.

2. New members are accepted by local party committees from among candidate members and confirmed by the next general assembly of a given organization.

Note: In exceptional circumstances, on the recommendation of two members of the party, who joined before October 1917, it is permitted to accept new members also who are not candidate members. The same exception is permitted during party week, according to the instructions of the CC.

3. Every member of one organization when he moves into a region where another organization works is admitted by the latter organization with the consent of the former organization.

4. The question of expelling someone from the party is decided by the general assembly of the organization of which the person in question is a member. The decree on expulsion takes effect only when it has been confirmed by the guberniia committee, and moreover the person in question is removed from party work from that time till the expulsion is confirmed. The expulsion of party members is made known in the party press together with information on the reasons for expulsion.

5. All person wishing to become members of the party arc to serve a term of probation which is intended to acquaint them, thoroughly with the program and tactics of the party and to check the personal qualities of the candidate.

6. New members are admitted as candidates on the recommendation of two members of the party with six months' party membership after their recommendation has been checked by the local party committee.

7. Workers and peasants must remain candidates for not less than two months, others s for not less than six months.

8. Candidate members are admitted to open general assemblies of the party organization and have a consultative vote.

9. Candidate members pay the usual membership dues to the local party committee.

10. The guiding principle of the organizational structure of the party is democratic centralism.

11. The party is organized, on the principles of democratic centralism, on a territorial basis sis; an organization serving some region or other is accounted superior to all organizations serving parts of that region.

12. All party organizations are autonomous in deciding local questions.

13. The supreme guiding organ of each organization is the general assembly, conference or congress.

14. The general assembly, conference or congress elects the committee which is their executive organ and which guides all the current work of the local organization ...

15. The scheme of organization of the party is as follows:

(a) The territory of the RSFSR, the All-Russian congress, the Central Committee;
(b) Oblasts and Soviet republics, within the RSFSR Oblast conferences, oblast committees;
(c) Guberniias. Guberniia conferences, guberniia committees;
(d) Uyezds. uyezd conferences, uyezd committees;
(e) Volosts. Volost assemblies, volost committees;
(f) Enterprises, villages, Red army units, institutions. General assembly of the cells, bureaus of the cells ...

17. Special sections (national, work among women, among youth, etc.) are marked out for special forms of party work. Sections exist alongside committees and are directly subordinate to them. The procedure for organizing sections is laid down in special instructions, confirmed by the Central Committee.

18. All lower organizations, right down to the uyezd organizations, are confirmed by the uyezd committees with the approval of the guberniia committee; uyezd organizations, by the guberniia committee with the approval of the oblast committee, and where there is none, by the Central Committee; guberniia organizations, by the oblast committee with the approval of the Central Committee, and where there is no oblast committee, directly by the Central Committee ...

19. The supreme organ of the party is the congress. Ordinary congresses are called annually. Extraordinary congresses are called by the Central Committee on its own initiative or at the demand of not less than one-third of the party members, present at the previous party congress. The calling of a party congress and the agenda are to be announced not later than one and a half months before the congress. Extraordinary congresses are called at two months' notice. The congress is regarded as valid if there are represented at it not less than half of all members of the party, who were represented at the previous ordinary congress.

The norms of attendance at a party congress are fixed by the CC and by the ordinary pre-congress conferences.

21. In the case of the Central Committee not calling an extraordinary congress in the period set out above, organizations which have demanded it, have the right to form an Organizational Committee, enjoying all the rights of the CC in calling a congress.

22. A congress:

(a) Hears and confirms the reports of the CC, the revision commission and other central institutions;
(b) Reviews and amends the party program;
(c) Determines the tactical line of the party on current questions;
(d) Elects a CC and a revision commission, etc.

23. The Central Committee is made up of 19 members (12 candidates) In the case of absence of CC members, its numbers are made up from among the candidates elected at the congress, in the order, determined by the congress.

24. The Central Committee represents the party in its relations with other parties and institutions, organizes the various institutions of the party and guides their activity, nominates the editorial board of central organs, working under its supervision, organizes and manages enterprises, which have general party significance, distributes the forces and resources of the party and audits the central accounts.

The Central Committee directs the work of the central soviet and social organizations by means of party factions. The Central Committee meets, in plenary session, not less than twice per month on previously arranged days.

25. The Central Committee sets up for political work, the Political Bureau, for organizational work, the Organizational Bureau, and the Secretariat, headed by a secretary who is a member of the Organizational Bureau of the CC.

26. Once every three months, the Central Committee summons a party conference of representatives of the guberniia and metropolitan party committees.

27. Once a month, the Central Committee dispatches to guberniia and metropolitan party committees a written account of its activities.

28. The Revision Commission is formed of three persons, it audits the accounts periodically and all enterprises of the CC and presents a report to the next party congress ...

29. The basic party organization is the party cell. A cell is confirmed by an uyezd, city or region committee and is composed of not less than three members ...

30. The strictest party discipline is the primary duty of all party members and all party organizations. The decrees of party centers must be carried out quickly and precisely. At the same time within the party the discussion of all controversial questions of party life is totally free until a decision has been taken.

Source: Martin McCauley, ed., Russian Revolution and the Soviet State, 1917-1921: documents (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1975), pp. 200-203.