Stalin on the Lenin Enrollment
Iosif Stalin. Thirteenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) May 23-31, 1924
Original Source: Pravda, Nos. 118 and 119, May 27 and 28, 1924
Organisational Report of the Central Committee
The Composition of the Party. The Lenin Enrolment
a) Membership. The Party had upwards of 485,000 members and candidate members at the time of the Twelfth Congress. The number at present is 472,000, without the Lenin Enrolment. Counting the Lenin Enrolment, taking the figures as on May 1 (by which date 128,000 members had been admitted), our membership totals 600,000. Considering that in about a fortnight from now the Lenin Enrolment will have reached at least 200,000, the membership of the Party can be estimated at 670,000-680,000.
b) Social composition of the Party. Last year workers accounted for 44.9 per cent of the total membership; this year, exclusive of the Lenin Enrolment, they account for 45.75 per cent—an increase of 0.8 per cent. The proportion of peasants has declined from 25.7 per cent to 24.6 per cent, or by 1.1 per cent. Office employees and other categories made up just over 29 per cent of the membership; now the percentage is somewhat in excess of 29 per cent, or has slightly increased. The social composition of the R.C.P.(B.), counting members and candidate members, and including the Lenin Enrolment as on May 1, was as follows: workers 55.4 per cent, peasants 23 per cent, office employees and others 21.6 per cent.
c) Composition as regards Party standing. Members who joined the Party prior to 1905 were 0.7 per cent last year, and 0.6 per cent this year. Members who joined in the period 1905-16 were two per cent last year and the figure is the same this year. Those who joined in 1917 accounted for slightly over nine per cent last year, and for slightly under nine per cent this year. The figure for those who joined in 1918 was 16.5 per cent, and is now 15.7 per cent; and the figures for those who joined in 1920 are 31.5 per cent and 30.4 per cent respectively. Members who joined in 1921 made up 10.5 per cent last year, and 10.1 per cent this year. Members who joined in 1922 now make up 3.2 per cent; there are no figures for last year. Members who joined in 1923 make up 2.3 per cent. All these figures are exclusive of the Lenin Enrolment.
d) Composition according to nationality and sex. The Thirteenth Congress finds Great Russians forming 72 per cent of the Party membership; the proportion will evidently increase as a result of the Lenin Enrolment. Second come Ukrainians—5.88 per cent, third Jews 5.2 per cent, next come the Tyurk nationalities—upwards of four per cent, followed by other nationalities, such as Latvians, Georgians, Armenians, etc. The percentage of women members of the Party at the time of the Twelfth Congress was 7.8 and it is now 8.8. The figures for women candidate members are nine per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively. Thirteen per cent of the new members admitted in the Lenin Enrolment are women, and this should somewhat increase the percentages mentioned above.
Lastly, on December 1, 1923, 17 per cent of all Communists (members and candidate members) were workers at the bench, and with the Lenin Enrolment, taking the figure as 128,000, the proportion is 35.3 per cent.
e) Degree of Party organisation of the working class. Taking the number of workers in our Party as on May 1, plus the number we shall have admitted about two weeks hence, when the Lenin Enrolment will reach (and probably exceed) the 200,000 mark, we get a total of 410,000 workers in our Party, out of a membership of 672,000. This makes 10 per cent of the entire industrial and rural proletariat of the Union, numbering 4,100,000.
We have achieved a degree of organisation in which 10 out of every 100 workers are in the Party.