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156-596: Communist parties are organised on Leninist lines based on the principles of democratic centralism and unified power . Adolf Dobieszewski , an official of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP), tried to define democratic centralism in 1980. He posited that centralism involves unifying party building and policy to construct a socialist society. To achieve unity in party building and policy, Dobieszewski contended that

312-429: A control commission , responsible for party discipline work, a central military commission , responsible for military affairs, an orgburo , responsible for organisational questions, or other organs. The politburo was the highest political organ of the central committee and directed party work between central committee sessions. While formally accountable to the central committee, and despite reporting on its work to it,

468-453: A federation . In The Question of Nationalities, or 'Autonomisation' (1923), Lenin said: [N]othing holds up the development and strengthening of proletarian class solidarity so much as national injustice; "offended" nationals are not sensitive to anything, so much as to the feeling of equality, and the violation of this equality, if only through negligence or jest – to the violation of that equality by their proletarian comrades. The role of

624-417: A purge . People often failed to get reelected since they lost or voluntarily left their political office. The central committees could be seen as representative organs of various political offices and institutions. Once an individual loses his or her political office, he or she also loses his or her central committee membership. In line with this reasoning, members lost reelection since the party leadership used

780-493: A capitalist stage of development and government. Hence, revolutionary workers should ally politically with peasant political organisations, not capitalist political parties. In contrast, Stalin and his allies proposed that alliances with capitalist political parties were essential to realising a revolution where communists were too few. Said Stalinist practice failed, especially in the Northern Expedition portion of

936-486: A central committee session, work under the central committee's leadership. The LCY Control Commission worked under the central committee's leadership until the 9th LCY Congress , held in 1969, which transformed it into the only statutory review organ of a ruling communist party, the Commission on Statutory Questions . The 9th Extraordinary PUWP Congress , held in 1981, amended the party statute to state explicitly that

1092-668: A counter-revolution in Soviet cultural life which revived patriotic propaganda , the Tsarist programme of Russification and traditional, military ranks which had been criticized by Lenin as expressions of "Great Russian chauvinism". Daniels also regarded Stalinism to represent an abrupt break with the Leninist period in terms of economic policies in which a deliberated, scientific system of economic planning that featured former Menshevik economists at Gosplan had been replaced with

1248-636: A definite action; it rules out all criticism which disrupts or makes difficult the unity of an action decided on by the Party. Before the October Revolution , despite supporting moderate political reform—including Bolsheviks elected to the Duma when opportune—Lenin said that capitalism could only be overthrown with proletarian revolution , not with gradual reforms—from within ( Fabianism ) and from without ( social democracy )—which would fail because

1404-437: A domestic labour aristocracy with a slightly higher standard of living than most workers, ensuring peaceful labour–capital relations in the capitalist homeland. Therefore, a proletarian revolution of workers and peasants could not occur in capitalist countries whilst the imperialist global-finance system remained in place. The first proletarian revolution would have to occur in an underdeveloped country, such as Imperial Russia,

1560-457: A fairly considerable period of time and in fairly varied political situations, their ability to apply this truth in practice have not yet learned to help the revolutionary class in its struggle to emancipate all toiling humanity from the exploiters. And this applies equally to the period before and after the proletariat has won political power. In Chapter II, "Proletarians and Communists", of The Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels present

1716-640: A form of Marxism, revolutionary Leninism was criticised as an undemocratic interpretation of socialism . In The Nationalities Question in the Russian Revolution (1918), Rosa Luxemburg criticised the Bolsheviks for the suppression of the All Russian Constituent Assembly (January 1918); the partitioning of the feudal estates to the peasant communes; and the right of self-determination of every national people of

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1872-600: A hasty version of planning with unrealistic targets, bureaucratic waste, bottlenecks and shortages . Revisionist historians and some post–Cold War and otherwise dissident Soviet historians, including Roy Medvedev , argue that "one could list the various measures carried out by Stalin that were actually a continuation of anti-democratic trends and measures implemented under Lenin", but that "in so many ways, Stalin acted, not in line with Lenin's clear instructions, but in defiance of them." In doing so, some historians have tried to distance Stalinism from Leninism to undermine

2028-529: A member of the CPCZ Presidium , accused the United States of being an anti-Soviet state that refused "to reconcile itself to the fact that it has lost its dominating position in the world policy and economy". The session made clear its support for "The Soviet peace initiatives aim at averting the danger of a world nuclear war" which it argued corresponded "to the vital interests and peace wishes of

2184-514: A party congress usually elects the central committee. These sessions, especially in communist Eastern Europe, seldom lasted more than an hour. The congress closing session usually noted that the election of members and candidates to the central committee was carried out unanimously. However, this was not always the case: Nicolae Ceaușescu , the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP), told

2340-492: A politburo are the highest-standing officials of the given communist party and are, in practice, the country's leading political elite. Members usually have varied political backgrounds and experience from party, executive, legislative, and judicial work. The secretariat is responsible for overseeing the execution of the decisions of the politburo and the central committee, communicating with the nationwide party organisation and being responsible for personnel appointments throughout

2496-488: A session of the PUWP Central Committee, held on 4 September 1980, removed Edward Gierek, the incumbent first secretary of the PUWP Central Committee, due to his "health issues". Others were removed due to specific reasons; for instance, Edward Babiuch and Zdzislaw Zandarowski were removed for "allowing distortions in interparty life, for shaping an incorrect style of party work, and for inadequate concern for

2652-605: A symptom of the undemocratic nature of a ruling bureaucracy. During the 1920s and the 1930s, Stalin fought and defeated the political influence of Trotsky and the Trotskyists in Russia using slander, antisemitism , censorship , expulsions, exile (internal and external), and imprisonment. The anti-Trotsky campaign culminated in the executions (official and unofficial) of the Moscow Trials (1936–1938), which were part of

2808-473: A united, working-class proletariat in a predominantly agrarian society. Moreover, because industrialisation was financed chiefly with foreign capital, Imperial Russia did not possess a revolutionary bourgeoisie with political and economic influence upon the workers and the peasants, as had been the case in the French Revolution (1789–1799) in the 18th century. Although Russia's political economy

2964-572: Is "organisational matters", meaning personnel changes in party and state organs. The communiques published by these sessions are usually brief and say little to nothing about the reason for the changes. But this was not abnormal. For instance, the official communique of the 13th Session of the Central Committee of the 7th Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), held on 11–12 December 1980, only notes that two politburo members, Günter Mittag and Gerhard Schürer , spoke at

3120-523: Is based upon The Communist Manifesto (1848), identifying the communist party as "the most advanced and resolute section of the working class parties of every country; that section which pushes forward all others." As the vanguard party, the Bolsheviks viewed history through the theoretical framework of dialectical materialism , which sanctioned political commitment to the successful overthrow of capitalism, and then to instituting socialism ; and, as

3276-748: Is critical of Leninism. Contemporary left-communist organisations, such as the Internationalist Communist Tendency and the International Communist Current , view Lenin as an essential and influential theorist but remain critical of Leninism as political praxis for the proletarian revolution . Nonetheless, the Bordigism of the International Communist Party abides Bordiga's strict Leninism. Ideologically aligned with

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3432-493: Is directed against oppression, and it is this content that we unconditionally support. At the same time, we strictly distinguish it from the tendency towards national exclusiveness. ... Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot. The socialist internationalism of Marxism and Bolshevism is based upon class struggle and a people's transcending nationalism, ethnocentrism , and religion—the intellectual obstacles to progressive class consciousness —which are

3588-404: Is discussed is routine in nature. These sessions are in most cases organised identically, and the key speech is often delivered by a central committee secretary responsible, for example, for economic affairs or international affairs. The discussions at the sessions are very seldom made public, but adopted resolutions are sometimes made public and session communiques are nearly always distributed to

3744-435: Is institutionalised by giving the party two-thirds of the seats in the highest organ of state power , which has complete control over all state activities per the principle of unified power. These members are, in most cases, elected in non-competitive elections and stand as candidates on the approval of the central committee. Many central committee members also serve concurrently as members of the highest organ of state power. In

3900-713: Is nonsense”. Conversely, Trotsky held that socialism in one country would economically constrain the industrial development of the Soviet Union and thus required assistance from the new socialist countries in the developed world—which was essential for maintaining soviet democracy—in 1924, much undermined by the Russian Civil War of White Army counter-revolution. Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution proposed that socialist revolutions in underdeveloped countries would further dismantle feudal régimes and establish socialist democracies that would not pass through

4056-498: Is only the case after a routine [session], when nothing unusual has happened." These communiques were structured similarly throughout the communist world. Such sessions usually dealt with public matters, such as the economic plan and the state budget. For example, the HSWP Central Committee session held on 3 December 1981 transparently informed about which guests participated in the session and specifically stated what

4212-454: Is organised on similar lines as the permanent organs. In some instances, the secretaries head permanent organs in tandem with their supervisory responsibilities. The leading organs of a central committee were elected organs delegated with the central committee's powers when it was not in session. Every ruling communist party had a politburo and secretariat , albeit the name might differ from party to party. Other central committees also elected

4368-646: Is the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the PUWP Central Committee on 9 February 1981 that removed Józef Pińkowski , the sitting head of government, and replaced him with Wojciech Jaruzelski . Ruling central committees normally can convene for three meeting types: sessions (also called plenums), extraordinary sessions, and joint sessions. These three types have two sub-forms: a closed session and an enlarged session in which non-members are invited to participate. Central committee sessions dealing with non-party issues are often enlarged, even if what

4524-601: Is today the basis of party activity. The party follows revolutionary tradition and experiences in this work during these periods of revolutionary reflux and the proliferation of opportunist theories, which had as their violent and inflexible opponents Marx, Engels, Lenin, and the Italian Left." In The Lenin Legend (1935), Paul Mattick said that the council communist tradition, begun by the Dutch-German leftists, also

4680-549: Is typically tasked with directing the work of the communist party in between two congresses. According to scholar Baruch Hazan, the former ruling Eastern European communist parties provided nearly identical descriptions of the functions and powers of their central committees. Their responsibilities included representing the party externally, organising party organs, directing their activities, nominating personnel for internal organs, evaluating party cadres, and administering internal funds. Additionally, they were responsible for overseeing

4836-571: The 11th RCP Congress , held on 25–28 November 1974, that the central committee had been elected "quasi-unanimously". Criteria for membership differs from party to party. For example, Enver Hoxha , the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), stated on 6 November 1981 at the 8th PLA Congress , that members were nominated based on their loyalty to the party and people, fidelity to Marxism–Leninism and their participating in socialist construction. Another criterion

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4992-609: The Communist Party , each ideological faction denied the political legitimacy of the opposing faction. Until shortly before his death, Lenin countered Stalin's disproportionate political influence in the Communist Party and the bureaucracy of the Soviet government, partly because of abuses he had committed against the populace of Georgia and partly because the autocratic Stalin had accumulated administrative power disproportionate to his office of General Secretary of

5148-654: The Control Commission worked independently of the PUWP Central Committee. In some parties, as in the CPCZ and the HSWP, the chairman and ordinary members of the party control commission are barred from holding office in the central committee. In other parties, as in China, the head of the control commission is also a member of its Central Committee, Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee. The second to last session of

5304-486: The Great National Assembly , convened and adopted the central committee's proposals. Moreover, the speakers that spoke at the central committee sessions usually speak at the session of the highest organ of state power. Very few debates take place at the session of the highest organ of state power, and in most cases, these organs adopt the central committee's recommendations unanimously. This was not always

5460-543: The Great Purge of Old Bolsheviks who had led the Revolution. Some historians such as Richard Pipes consider Stalinism as the natural consequence of Leninism, that Stalin "faithfully implemented Lenin's domestic and foreign policy programs". Robert Service notes that "institutionally and ideologically Lenin laid the foundations for a Stalin ... but the passage from Leninism to the worse terrors of Stalinism

5616-692: The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP) "adopted recommendations for filling of jobs in the state apparatus" to the highest organ of state power, the National Assembly , on 29 March 1979. In other instances, the central committee could instruct its members to resign from state offices. The 7th Session of the Central Committee of the 8th PUWP Congress , held on 1–2 December 1980, instructed Edward Babiuch , Jerzy Łukaszewicz , Tadeusz Pyka , Jan Szydlak , Tadeusz Wraszczyk , and Zdzislaw Zandarowski to resign their seats in

5772-539: The KGB , while the Chinese Communist Party has a Publicity Department responsible for supervising party and state media across China. Outside of these departments, central committees usually have other units as well, such as a publishing house, party schools, scholarly institutes and a capital construction section, for example. The leaders of these permanent organs are usually called "heads". The Secretariat

5928-661: The League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) opted to abolish its secretariat in 1966 to divide powers more equally. Later, in 1978, the 11th LCY Congress turned the Presidency , the Yugoslav counterpart to the politburo, into a "political-executive organ" in which no member could concurrently be a member and a secretary. Political work was headed by the president of the LCY Presidency , the party leader, and no member of

6084-777: The Moscow Trials of 1936–1938. According to Rogovin, 80-90% of the members of the Central Committee elected at the Sixth through to the Seventeenth Congresses were physically annihilated. The Right Opposition and Left Opposition have been held by some scholars as representing political alternatives to Stalinism despite their shared beliefs in Leninism due to their policy platforms which were at variance with Stalin. This ranged from areas related to economics , foreign policy and cultural matters. As

6240-519: The Old Bolsheviks and leading figures in the military and scientific fields had "undoubtedly" weakened the nation. Some Marxist theoreticians have disputed the view that the Stalinist dictatorship was a natural outgrowth of the Bolsheviks' actions as most of the original central committee members from 1917 were later eliminated by Stalin. George Novack stressed the initial efforts by

6396-655: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union "on instructions of the Central Committee". Upon his election, Chernenko nominated Nikolai Tikhonov as chairman of the Council of Ministers , the Soviet government, also on the instructions of the Central Committee. Moreover, Chernenko and Gorbachev both stated that the instruction had also been "approved by the party group" of the Supreme Soviet. Marxist constitutional theorist Sylwester Zawadzk , and member of

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6552-544: The Russian Civil War . In March 1921, the New Economic Policy (NEP, 1921–1929) allowed limited local capitalism (private commerce and internal free trade) and replaced grain requisitions with an agricultural tax managed by state banks. The NEP was meant to resolve food-shortage riots by the peasantry and allowed limited private enterprise; the profit motive encouraged farmers to produce the crops required to feed town and country; and to economically re-establish

6708-574: The Russian Civil War : "We stand for organized terror—this should be frankly stated." Some scholars have had a differing view and attributed the establishment of the one-party system in the Soviet Union to the wartime conditions imposed on Lenin's government and others have highlighted the initial attempts to form a coalition government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries . According to historian Marcel Liebman , Lenin's wartime measures such as banning opposition parties

6864-638: The Sejm , the highest organ of state power in the People's Republic of Poland , and instructing its former leader, Edward Gierek , to resign from his seat in the State Council . The central committee could also nominate individuals to state positions. On 11 April 1984, during the 1st Session of the 11th Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union , Mikhail Gorbachev nominated Konstantin Chernenko as chairman of

7020-841: The anarchists and the Mensheviks , factions of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries . The Russian Civil War (1917–1922), which included the fight against the White Army , Entente intervention , left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks and widespread peasant rebellions was an external and internal war which transformed Bolshevik Russia into the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR),

7176-410: The cultural status quo that the capitalist ruling class manipulates in order to divide the working classes and the peasant classes politically. To overcome that barrier to establishing socialism, Lenin said that acknowledging nationalism, as a people's right of self-determination and right of secession, naturally would allow socialist states to transcend the political limitations of nationalism to form

7332-719: The proletariat than the Leninism of the Communist International at their first (1919) and second (1920) congresses. Proponents of left communism include Amadeo Bordiga , Herman Gorter , Paul Mattick , Sylvia Pankhurst , Antonie Pannekoek and Otto Rühle . Historically, the Dutch-German communist left has been most critical of Lenin and Leninism, yet the Italian communist left remained Leninist. Bordiga said: "All this work of demolishing opportunism and 'deviationism' (Lenin: What Is To Be Done? )

7488-538: The totalitarian view that the negative facets of Stalin were inherent in communism from the start. Critics include anti-Stalinist communists such as Leon Trotsky , who pointed out that Lenin attempted to persuade the Russian Communist Party to remove Stalin from his post as its General Secretary . Lenin's Testament , the document which contained this order, was suppressed after Lenin's death. Trotsky also argued that he and Lenin had intended to lift

7644-632: The " Highway Law of the People's Republic of China " in 1999 and the " Property Law of the People's Republic of China " in 2006. In both cases, the proposed legislation was amended and passed at a later date. In some cases, the central committee adopts decisions on behalf of state organs despite it not being in their jurisdiction. This occurred at a session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPCZ) on 13–14 September 1979 when it removed Jan Gregor , Frantisek Hamouz and Bohuslav Vecera from their government posts. Another example

7800-477: The "historic" central committee were kept a secret. For instance, the contents of the BCP Central Committee session on 17 April 1956 that removed Valko Chervenkov as general secretary were deemed too sensitive to be published even thirty years after the event took place. Central committee sessions could also produce transparent communiques and resolutions. Scholar Hazan contends, "As a rule, this

7956-559: The "political campaign" (socialist changes to society), which required the decisive, revolutionary leadership of the Bolshevik vanguard party. Based upon the First International (IWA, International Workingmen's Association, 1864–1876), Lenin organised the Bolsheviks as a democratically centralised vanguard party; wherein free political speech was recognised as legitimate until policy consensus; afterwards, every member of

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8112-563: The Bolsheviks to form a government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and bring other parties such as the Mensheviks into political legality. Tony Cliff argued the Bolshevik-Left Socialist Revolutionary coalition government dissolved the democratically elected Russian Constituent Assembly due to a number of reasons. They cited the outdated voter-rolls which did not acknowledge the split among

8268-432: The CPCZ; the HSWP Central Committee rarely replaced members who died in office. Other times, the removal of certain members was not explained. The RCP Central Committee session, held on 26 November 1981, published a communique that stated Leonte Răutu had been removed but did not disclose why. The same RCP session removed Virgil Trofin and Vasilie Ogherlaci and noted in the session communique that they were "excluded from

8424-650: The Central Committee (until February 1980). In the years 1972–1976 member and in the years 1976–1980 deputy chairman of the Council of State. From February to August 1980 Prime Minister of Poland . From 1969 he held a mandate in the Sejm of the Polish People's Republic of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th term. In the Sejm he was chairman of the National Defense Committee (1971–1972) and chairman of

8580-447: The Central Committee and punished by a vote of censure and warning." According to Hazan, its not certain that the decision to remove these figures was independently decided by central committee. The RCP Political Committee , the party's name for their politburo, had already decided to remove these members, and one can, therefore, construe the central committee's decision instead as a ratification of an already made decision. In some cases,

8736-665: The Chinese Revolution (1926–1928), which resulted in the right-wing Kuomintang 's massacre of the Chinese Communist Party . Despite the failure, Stalin's policy of mixed-ideology political alliances nonetheless became Comintern 's policy. Until exiled from Russia in 1929, Trotsky developed and led the Left Opposition (and the later Joint Opposition) with members of the Workers' Opposition ,

8892-445: The Communist Party . The counter-action against Stalin aligned with Lenin's advocacy of the right of self-determination for the national and ethnic groups of the deposed Tsarist Empire . Lenin warned the Party that Stalin had "unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution" and formed a faction with Leon Trotsky to remove Stalin as

9048-514: The Communist Party and the bureaucracy of the Soviet government. In 1922, Lenin allied with Leon Trotsky against the party's growing bureaucratisation and the influence of Joseph Stalin . Lenin himself never mentioned the concept of "Trotskyism" after Trotsky became a member of the Bolshevik party but the term was employed by Stalin and the troika to present Trotsky's views as factional and anathematical to Leninist thought. After Lenin's death (21 January 1924), Trotsky ideologically battled

9204-553: The Communist Party were key arguments of Trotsky's Left Opposition and the later Joint Opposition . In instituting government policy, Stalin promoted the doctrine of socialism in one country (adopted 1925), wherein the Soviet Union would establish socialism upon Russia's economic foundations (and support socialist revolutions elsewhere). In a 1936 interview with journalist Roy W. Howard , Stalin articulated his rejection of world revolution and stated that “We never had such plans and intentions” and that “The export of revolution

9360-745: The Czechoslovak people." A central committee, not always the case in non-ruling parties, has two components: one composed of elected officials and another composed of non-elected officials. The non-elected officials compose the permanent organs of the central committee, which makes up the central committee apparatus. The activity of a central committee is constant and does not cease in between its sessions. The central committee usually has several internal departments, commissions, committees, newspapers and other organs working continuously when not in session. These organisational sub-units do everything from greeting foreign delegations, issuing regulations, monitoring

9516-540: The Decembrists and (later) the Zinovievists. Trotskyism predominated the politics of the Left Opposition, which demanded the restoration of soviet democracy , the expansion of democratic centralism in the Communist Party, national industrialisation, international permanent revolution and socialist internationalism. According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick , the scholarly consensus was that Stalin appropriated

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9672-422: The Dutch-German left, among the ideologists of contemporary communisation , the theorist Gilles Dauvé criticised Leninism as a "by-product of Kautskyism ". In The Soviet Union Versus Socialism (1986), Noam Chomsky said that Stalinism was the logical development of Leninism and not an ideological deviation from Lenin's policies, which resulted in collectivisation enforced with a police state . In light of

9828-618: The General Secretary of the Communist Party. To that end followed proposals reducing the administrative powers of party posts to reduce bureaucratic influence upon the policies of the Communist Party. Lenin advised Trotsky to emphasise Stalin's recent bureaucratic alignment in such matters (e.g. undermining the anti-bureaucratic workers' and peasants' Inspection) and argued to depose Stalin as General Secretary. Despite advice to refuse "any rotten compromise", he did not heed Lenin's advice and General Secretary Stalin retained power over

9984-480: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), Lenin's economic analyses indicated that capitalism would transform into a global financial system , by which industrialised countries exported financial capital to their colonies and so realise the exploitation of the labour of the natives and the exploitation of the natural resources of their countries. Such superexploitation allows wealthy countries to maintain

10140-476: The Leninist vanguard party was to politically educate the workers and peasants to dispel the societal false consciousness of religion and nationalism that constitute the cultural status quo taught by the bourgeoisie to the proletariat to facilitate their economic exploitation of peasants and workers. Influenced by Lenin, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party stated that the development of

10296-526: The Leninist vanguard party would be one of many political parties competing for election to government power. Nevertheless, because of the Russian Civil War (1917–1924) and the anti-Bolshevik terrorism of opposing political parties aiding the White Armies' counter-revolution, the Bolshevik government banned all other political parties, which left the Leninist vanguard party as the only political party in Russia. Lenin said that such political suppression

10452-602: The Organizational Department of this committee. Member of the Central Committee since 1964. In the years 1963-1965 he was a deputy head of the Organizational Department of the Central Committee, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Życie Partii" (Party Life). In the years 1965–1970 head of the Organizational Department of the Central Committee. From December 1970 member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee (until August 1980) and secretary of

10608-603: The PUWP Central Committee, but provincial delegations from the floor nominated a further 79 candidates. The congress delegates then elected the central committee by secret vote by crossing of 79 candidates. The result was that eleven out of fifteen incumbent members of the Politburo and the Secretariat were voted out of office. Normally, up to two-thirds of central committee members are reelected at party congresses. Those who fail to get reelected are usually not victims of

10764-414: The PZPR MPs' Club (1972–1980). In the years 1971–1981 he was also a member of the presidium of the National Committee of the National Unity Front. As a close associate of Edward Gierek, he was forced to resign from state and party positions in August 1980, dismissed from the Central Committee in October 1980, and expelled from the party by the 9th Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party in July 1981. At

10920-434: The Polish Workers' Party and then the Polish United Workers' Party. In the years 1949-1955 he worked in the Union of Polish Youth , then in the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (from 1955 to 1959 he was an instructor in the Organizational Department, including a senior instructor from 1958). In the years 1959-1963 secretary of the Warsaw Voivodeship Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and head of

11076-425: The RCP Central Committee session of 25 March 1981 clarified the party's foreign affairs policy and how it differed from other Eastern European communist parties. In other situations, as was a normal occurrence in former communist Europe (bar Yugoslavia), the central committee convened to express support for Soviet foreign policy . This occurred at the CPCZ Central Committee session on 21 April 1982, where Vasiľ Biľak ,

11232-542: The Russias. That the strategic (geopolitical) mistakes of the Bolsheviks would create significant dangers for the Russian Revolution , such as the bureaucratisation that would arise to administrate the large country that was Bolshevik Russia. In defence of the expedient revolutionary practice, in "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920), Lenin dismissed the political and ideological complaints of

11388-640: The Socialist Revolutionary party and the assemblies conflict with the Russian Congress of the Soviets as an alternative democratic structure. A similar analysis is present in more recent works such as those of Graeme Gill, who argues that "[Stalinism was] not a natural flow-on of earlier developments; [it formed a] sharp break resulting from conscious decisions by leading political actors." However, Gill notes that "difficulties with

11544-592: The Soviet Union (CPSU) as an example, since "each secretary has responsibility for one or more departments, and hence the departmental officials work as the staff assistants of the secretaries." The permanent organs are often organised on branch lines. For example, the CPSU Central Committee had the Administrative Organs Department responsible for supervising the works of the ministries of Civil Aviation , Defence and

11700-506: The Soviet Union, 227 out of 241 members of the Central Committee of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) concurrently served in the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union . They tended to dominate the Supreme Soviet and occupied leading political positions within it. In 1971–1973, forty per cent of debate participants were either members or alternates of the central committee. Party members who serve in

11856-492: The anti-Bolshevik critics, who claimed ideologically correct stances that were to the political left of Lenin. In Marxist philosophy, left communism is a range of left-wing political perspectives among communists. Left communism criticizes the Bolshevik Party 's ideology as the revolutionary vanguard. Ideologically, left communists present their perspectives and approaches as authentic Marxism and thus more oriented to

12012-406: The application of this principle in practice will sometimes give rise to disputes and misunderstandings; but only on the basis of this principle can all disputes and all misunderstandings be settled honourably for the Party. ... The principle of democratic centralism and autonomy for local Party organisations implies universal and full freedom to criticise, so long as this does not disturb the unity of

12168-467: The ban on the opposition parties such as the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries as soon as the economic and social conditions of Soviet Russia had improved. Various historians have cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky as a Vice-chairman of the Soviet Union as evidence that he intended Trotsky to be his successor as head of government. In his biography of Trotsky, Polish-British historian Isaac Deutscher says that, on being faced with

12324-491: The bourgeoisie of the various countries and among the various groups or types of bourgeoisie within the various countries, and also by taking advantage of any, even the smallest, opportunity of winning a mass ally, even though this ally is temporary, vacillating, unstable, unreliable and conditional. Those who do not understand this reveal a failure to understand even the smallest grain of Marxism, of modern scientific socialism in general. Those who have not proved in practice, over

12480-491: The bourgeoisie's control of the means of production determined the nature of political power in Russia. As epitomised in the slogan "For a Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Peasantry", a proletarian revolution in underdeveloped Russia required a united proletariat (peasants and industrial workers) to assume government power in the cities successfully. Moreover, owing to the middle-class aspirations of much of

12636-833: The call of the Central Committee plenum in December 1980, he also resigned from his parliamentary mandate. In July 1981, he was stripped of his two highest state decorations, the Order of the Builders of People's Poland and the Order of the Banner of Labour , 1st Class, by the State Council of the Polish People's Republic. From December 1981 to December 1982, during martial law , he was interned. He died in February 2021 at

12792-501: The capitalist interests of the kulak in the countryside and destroying them as a social class. Initially, the Stalinists also rejected the national industrialisation of Russia but then pursued it in full, sometimes brutally. In both cases, the Left Opposition denounced the regressive nature of Stalin's policy towards the wealthy kulak social class and the brutality of forced industrialisation. Trotsky described Stalinist vacillation as

12948-440: The capitalists and organised its own socialist production, would stand up against the rest of the world, the capitalist world. In "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920), Lenin wrote: The more powerful enemy can be vanquished only by exerting the utmost effort, and by the most thorough, careful, attentive, skillful and obligatory use of any, even the smallest, rift between the enemies, any conflict of interests among

13104-692: The case. The Assembly of the Yugoslavia rejected bills, the Polish Sejm voted against government appointments and, under Gorbachev's leadership, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet regularly voted contrary to the wishes of the Soviet government and party leaders. There have been several attempts to reform the relationship between the central committee and the highest organ of state power. In China, according to scholar Anthony Saich, "the party cannot guarantee absolute support [in

13260-571: The central committee and that the president of the LCY Central Committee served as an ex officio central committee member. However, unlike the other ruling communist parties, the party congress did not elect the LCY Central Committee from 1974 onwards. The congresses and conferences of the LCY branches nominated individuals to serve in the LCY Central Committee, and the LCY congress decided on

13416-429: The central committee. The party leader, most often known as general secretary of the central committee , led the secretariat's work. As such, several scholars, like Darrell P. Hammer , Archie Brown and Wu Guoguang , have referred to the general secretary as the central committee's chief executive officer . While all ruling central committees have had secretariats at some points, some opted to abolish them. For example,

13572-418: The communist party as the political vanguard solely qualified to lead the proletariat in revolution: The Communists, therefore, are, on the one hand, practically the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding

13728-481: The congress as an occasion to rearrange which institutions were to be represented in the central committee. In this way, the party leadership could guarantee that certain sectors were represented in the central committee. Despite this, many ruling central committees had elders in their ranks who had been members their whole careers. For example, in the HSWP, Antal Apró , Sándor Gáspár , Károly Kiss , István Szabó and Rezső Nyers had been central committee members since

13884-496: The core and largest republic that founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). As revolutionary praxis , Leninism originally was neither a proper philosophy nor a discrete political theory. Leninism comprises politico-economic developments of orthodox Marxism and Lenin's interpretations of Marxism, which function as a pragmatic synthesis for practical application to the actual conditions (political, social, economic) of

14040-410: The democratisation of the Central Committee and recruitment of 50–100 ordinary workers into the lower organs of the party. Nikita Khrushchev , Stalin's successor, argued that Stalin's regime differed profusely from the leadership of Lenin in his " Secret Speech ", delivered in 1956. He was critical of the cult of the individual which was constructed around Stalin whereas Lenin stressed “the role of

14196-496: The early 1950s. For example, the 3rd Extraordinary Session of the Central Committee of the 6th LCY Congress , held on 16–17 January 1954, was both publicly broadcast and made public in written form in the LCY Central Committee's theoretical journal, Komunist . This is against the norm in most communist parties as the majority of them did, and still do, keep proceedings secret. Sessions have, on several occasions, produced documents of an authoritative ideological nature. For instance,

14352-618: The electoral procedure varies. For instance, the Communist Party of Vietnam 's control organ, the Central Inspection Commission , is elected by a session of the central committee. In contrast, the CCP counterpart, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection , is elected by the party congress . Control commissions in all these parties, whether elected by the central committee or congress, bear more or less

14508-696: The eligibility of the candidates proposed. The sitting party leadership usually controls congress proceedings, nominating candidates close to them and trying to remove opponents. Moreover, in some parties, as in the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), the central committee was empowered to elect additional members between congresses, which the Central Committee of the 11th BCP Congress did do on two occasions. While most personnel changes did occur at congresses, removing or adding new central committee members between congresses occurred semi-regularly. The reasons for removing members varied. For instance,

14664-599: The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishment of communism . Lenin's ideological contributions to the Marxist ideology relate to his theories on the party , imperialism , the state , and revolution. The function of the Leninist vanguard party is to provide the working classes with the political consciousness (education and organisation) and revolutionary leadership necessary to depose capitalism . Leninist revolutionary leadership

14820-479: The evidence, "only the blind and the deaf could be unaware of the contrast between Stalinism and Leninism." According to Stalin's secretary, Boris Bazhanov , Stalin was jubilant over Lenin's death while “publicly putting on the mask of grief”. French historian Pierre Broue disputed the historical assessments of the early Soviet Union by modern historians such as Dmitri Volkogonov in which he argued had falsely equated Leninism, Stalinism and Trotskyism to present

14976-427: The exploiters will be, in one or another form, restricted ...is a question of the specific national features of this or that capitalism." In chapter five of The State and Revolution (1917), Lenin describes the dictatorship of the proletariat as: the organisation of the vanguard of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of crushing the oppressors. ... An immense expansion of democracy, which, for

15132-533: The factories and the trade unions but excluded the capitalist social class to establish a proletarian government by and for the working class and the peasants. Concerning the political disenfranchisement of the capitalist social class in Bolshevik Russia, Lenin said that "depriving the exploiters of the franchise is a purely Russian question, and not a question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in general. ... In which countries ...democracy for

15288-427: The first time, becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the rich ... and suppression by force, i.e. exclusion from democracy, for the exploiters and oppressors of the people—this is the change which democracy undergoes during the 'transition' from capitalism to communism. Concerning the disenfranchisement from democracy of the capitalist social class, Lenin said: "Democracy for

15444-477: The freedom to express a real variety of opinions existed in the party, and in carrying out political decisions, consideration was given to the positions of not only the majority, but a minority in the party". He compared this practice with subsequent leadership blocs which violated party tradition, ignored proposals of opponents and expelled the Opposition from the party on falsified charges which culminated with

15600-490: The government and politics of Singapore. In the event, the practical application of Maoism to the socio-economic conditions of Third World countries produced revolutionary vanguard parties, such as the Communist Party of Peru – Red Fatherland . Selected works by Vladimir Lenin Edward Babiuch Edward Mikołaj Babiuch ( ['edvard ˈbabʲux] ; 28 December 1927 – 1 February 2021 )

15756-405: The highest organ of state power are also bound by party discipline and have to enact policies approved by the central committee. The leading role principle entails that the central committee adopts recommendations on state policy on behalf of the party to, most commonly, the highest organ of state power , but also to other state organs if deemed necessary. For instance, the Central Committee of

15912-461: The highest organ of state power of Poland, defined the relationship between the party and state as follows, "The Marxist-Leninist party gives political direction to the work of both the [Highest organ of state power] and the Government. [Highest organ of state power] and Government both work to carry out a common program for building socialism. It does not mean, however, that under these conditions

16068-476: The highest organ of state power] and has accepted a looser form of control than during the Maoist days when the [National People's Congress] (NPC) was simply stocked with model workers and peasants, pliant intellectuals and senior party leaders." The first reforms were instituted in 1991, when the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) adopted a regulation that limited the party's interference in

16224-545: The importance of the [highest organ of state power's] constitutional functions is reduced." In practice, the party's central committee normally discusses and adopts the state plan and budget before the highest organ of state power does. On 25 November 1981, the RCP Central Committee convened to discuss and adopt the state plan and budget. Two days later, on 27 November, the Romanian highest organ of state power,

16380-486: The industrialised countries. In Germany, Marxist social democracy was the political perspective of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , inspiring Russian Marxists, such as Lenin. In the early 20th century, the socio-economic backwardness of Imperial Russia (1721–1917) — characterized by combined and uneven economic development — facilitated rapid and intensive industrialisation, which produced

16536-532: The infamous Article 58 and who established the autocratic system within the Russian Communist Party . Proponents also note that Lenin put a ban on factions within the party and introduced the one-party state in 1921, a move that enabled Stalin to get rid of his rivals easily after Lenin's death and cite Felix Dzerzhinsky , who exclaimed during the Bolshevik struggle against opponents in

16692-434: The influence of Stalin, who formed ruling blocs within the Russian Communist Party (with Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev , then with Nikolai Bukharin and then by himself) and so determined soviet government policy from 1924 onwards. The ruling blocs continually denied Stalin's opponents the right to organise as an opposition faction within the party—thus, the reinstatement of democratic centralism and free speech within

16848-434: The international policy stance of the HSWP and outlined the basic features of the 1982 plan and budget. However, in other instances, the session makes public the resolutions adopted. For instance, the RCP Central Committee session on 9 February 1982 made public the resolution on "Resetting of Prices and Augmentation of Remuneration of Working Personnel". According to Hazan, the RCP Central Committee took this move to help justify

17004-472: The lines of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement. The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: Formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat. The revolutionary purpose of the Leninist vanguard party is to establish the dictatorship of

17160-400: The minority had to be subordinate to the majority. Secondly, he posited that lower-level organs were subservient to higher-level organs. Third, members willingly acquiesced to discipline, and political discipline was equally obligatory for all party members. Democracy, on the other hand, meant, according to Dobieszewski, that every member had equal opportunity to participate in the formulation of

17316-498: The notion of ideological continuity and reinforce the position of counter-communism . Other revisionist historians, such as Orlando Figes , whilst critical of the Soviet era, acknowledge that Lenin had actively sought to counter the growing influence of Stalin through a number of actions such as his alliance with Trotsky in 1922–23, opposition to Stalin on foreign trade , the Georgian affair and proposed party reforms which included

17472-773: The party as a whole and preparing agenda items and dossiers for politburo meetings. Because of the central committee's role in the political system of communist states, foreign observers often state that it has functions resembling parliaments in liberal democracies . For example, the central committee apparatus of the former communist ruling parties of Europe had twenty to thirty organisational subunits that covered everything from foreign relations and trade to sports and science, similar to parliamentary special committees . Some organisational units are deemed party secrets and not publicly acknowledged. Many organisational units are shared by all communist parties, such as having organisational units for agitation and propaganda and organisation. At

17628-531: The party leadership lost control or chose to democratise congress proceedings. For instance, the 9th Extraordinary Congress of the Polish United Workers' Party , held on 14–20 July 1981, was, according to Hazan, "the only time that the election of an East European Central Committee was subjected to democratic procedures", in the liberal democratic sense. The Electoral Commission of the 9th PUWP Congress originally proposed 200 nominees for 200 seats in

17784-412: The party was expected to abide by the agreed policy. Democratic debate was Bolshevik practice, even after Lenin banned factions among the Party in 1921. Despite being a guiding political influence, Lenin did not exercise absolute power and continually debated to have his points of view accepted as a course of revolutionary action. In Freedom to Criticise and Unity of Action (1905), Lenin said: Of course,

17940-470: The party", "had worked with Lenin during his life”. He also contrasted the “severe methods” used by Lenin in the “most necessary cases” as a “struggle for survival” during the Civil War with the extreme methods and mass repressions used by Stalin even when the Revolution was “already victorious”. In his memoirs, Khrushchev argued that Stalin's widespread purges of the "most advanced nucleus of people" among

18096-420: The party's programme and line, as well as the right to elect and recall officials at all levels. Unified power is the opposite of the separation of powers , and seeks to centralise all power into one organ. This meant that the unified power of the party was bestowed on the congress, which was often designated as the party's "supreme organ". This supreme organ is responsible for electing the central committee, which

18252-486: The party's seizure of power in 1948. Another interpretation, as outlined by Hazan, is that "the exercise of electing a new Central Committee is designed to remove those elements that had, for various reasons, become undesirable, while promoting people faithful to the party leader and his closest associates." Leninism Leninism ( Russian : Ленинизм , Leninizm ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes

18408-524: The party. For example, the CPSU statute , adopted at the 22nd Congress in 1961, stated that the CPSU Secretariat was "to direct current work, chiefly the selection of personnel and the verification of the fulfilment of Party decisions." The most powerful individuals in the communist state system were politburo members who concurrently served as secretariat members, also referred to as secretaries of

18564-441: The peasantry, Leon Trotsky said that the proletarian leadership of the revolution would ensure truly socialist and democratic socio-economic change. In Bolshevik Russia , government by direct democracy was realised and effected by the soviets (elected councils of workers), which Lenin said was the "democratic dictatorship of the proletariat" postulated in orthodox Marxism . The soviets comprised representative committees from

18720-415: The people as the creator of history”. He also emphasized that Lenin favored a collective leadership which relied on personal persuasion and recommended the removal of Stalin from the position of General Secretary. Khrushchev contrasted this with the “despotism” of Stalin which require absolute submission to his position and he also highlighted that many of the people who were later annihilated as “enemies of

18876-697: The politburo often ends up controlling the central committee. The politburos is often a small organ composed of anywhere from 10 to 30 members. In some parties, as in the RCP and in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the politburo has a standing committee that leads politburo work. In China, it is known as the Politburo Standing Committee , and in Romania, it was known as the Political Executive Committee . The members of

19032-509: The politically weakest country in the capitalist global-finance system in the early 20th century. In the United States of Europe Slogan (1915), Lenin wrote: Workers of the world, unite! —Uneven economic and political development is an absolute law of capitalism. Hence the victory of socialism is possible, first in several, or even in one capitalist country taken separately. The victorious proletariat of that country, having expropriated

19188-404: The position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation . The Trotskyist demands countered Stalin's political dominance of the Communist Party, which was officially characterised by the " cult of Lenin ", the rejection of permanent revolution, and advocated the doctrine of socialism in one country . The Stalinist economic policy vacillated between appeasing

19344-557: The post- emancipation agrarian society of Imperial Russia in the early 20th century. As a political-science term, Lenin's theory of proletarian revolution entered common usage at the fifth congress of the Communist International (1924), when Grigory Zinoviev applied the term Leninism to denote "vanguard-party revolution." Leninism was accepted as part of Russian Communist Party (b) 's vocabulary and doctrine around 1922, and in January 1923, despite objections from Lenin, it entered

19500-418: The presidency could concurrently serve as a secretary, called executive secretary in the LCY. Executive work was led by the secretary of the LCY Presidency , and the officeholder was assisted by executive secretaries, who could not concurrently serve in the LCY Presidency but had to be members of the LCY Central Committee to be eligible to serve. A control commission is also widespread in communist parties, but

19656-511: The price increases to the population. In other cases, as with the PUWP Central Committee sessions from 1980 to 1982 and those of the LCY more generally, the agenda and proceedings of the sessions were made entirely public. In the PUWP, proceedings were aired live by state radio and television, while in Yugoslavia, public broadcasting of central committee sessions had been a normal occurrence since

19812-461: The proletariat with the working class 's support. The communist party would lead the popular deposition of the Tsarist government and then transfer government power to the working class; that change of the ruling class—from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat —makes establishing socialism possible. In What Is To Be Done? (1902), Lenin said that a revolutionary vanguard party, recruited from

19968-411: The proletariat in every territory of the deposed Russian Empire (1721–1917). In The Right of Nations to Self-determination (1914), Lenin said: We fight against the privileges and violence of the oppressor nation, and do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the part of the oppressed nation. :... The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed nation has a general democratic content that

20124-399: The public that "measures to ensure the consistent and all-round implementation of the decisions of the 11th BCP Congress" had been adopted and discussed. What these measures were was not made public. The importance of the session was indicated by the fact that Todor Zhivkov , the first secretary of the BCP Central Committee, "read a detailed report" to the session. However, the report's content

20280-540: The public vocabulary. In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), in which they called for the political unification of the European working classes in order to achieve communist revolution ; and proposed that because the socio-economic organisation of communism was of a higher form than that of capitalism , a workers' revolution first would occur in

20436-441: The public. In some instances, the number of non-members exceeds that of central committee members. The Romanian Communist Party (RCP) did this, and the Central Committee of the 12th RCP Congress convened an enlarged session on 1 June 1982 attended by 360 guests to discuss the "current stage of building socialism in Romania". Sessions dealing exclusively with party affairs are usually closed. These sessions' most common agenda item

20592-512: The quality of party ranks", while Jan Szydlak was removed "for errors in economic policy and support for arbitrary action in this field." In other cases, the central committee elected additional members on the death of sitting member. For example, a session of the CPCZ Central Committee, held on 1 December 1977, opted to elect Miloš Jakeš to the central committee to replace the recently deceased Jan Baryl . Not every party did as

20748-555: The revolutionary national government, to realise the socio-economic transition by all means. In the aftermath of the October Revolution in 1917, Leninism was the dominant version of Marxism in Russia. In establishing the socialist mode of production in Soviet Russia – with the 1917 Decree on Land , war communism (1918–1921) and the New Economic Policy (1921–1928) – the revolutionary régime suppressed most political opposition, including Marxists who opposed Lenin's actions,

20904-423: The same functions and responsibilities. They are responsible for investigating disciplinary issues, screening party members, handling appeals against party decisions, combatting political corruption and, in instances where control and auditing functions have been merged, auditing the party's economic and financial affairs. In most cases, bar a few exceptions, these organs, no matter if they are elected by congress or

21060-549: The same time, others are unique, such as the Department of Western Affairs of the SED Central Committee . These organs are supervised by the secretariat , and this institutional function is usually vaguely stated in the party statute. The difference between elected and non-elected personnel in the apparatus is blurred, according to scholars Jerry F. Hough and Merle Fainsod , and using the Communist Party of

21216-651: The session, that fifteen central committee members participated in session discussions and that it approved the SED Politburo's report and the proposed economic plan for 1981. The same rule regards extraordinary sessions, both ordinary and enlarged, as well. In some cases, these sessions were made public long after the fact. For example, the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) reported that an "important" Central Committee session had taken place 1–2 July 1976, but only informed

21372-553: The socialist workers' culture should not be "hamstrung from above" and opposed the Proletkult (1917–1925) organisational control of the national culture. In post- Revolutionary Russia, the Stalinist application of Marxism–Leninism ( socialism in one country ), and Trotskyism ( permanent world revolution ) were the principal philosophies of communism that claimed legitimate ideological descent from Leninism; thus, within

21528-401: The socially progressive nature of Lenin's policies such as universal education , universal healthcare and equal rights for women . Conversely, Stalin's regime reversed Lenin's policies on social matters such as sexual equality , legal restrictions on marriage , rights of sexual minorities and protective legislation . Historian Robert Vincent Daniels also viewed the Stalinist period as

21684-549: The tenets of socialism, Leninism was a right-wing deviation from Marxism. The vanguard-party revolution of Leninism became the ideological basis of the communist parties in the socialist political spectrum. In the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party organised itself with Maoism (the Thought of Mao Zedong), socialism with Chinese characteristics . In Singapore, the People's Action Party (PAP) featured internal democracy and initiated single-party dominance in

21840-462: The urban working class, who had lost many workers to fight the counter-revolutionary Civil War. The NEP nationalisation of the economy then would facilitate the industrialisation of Russia, politically strengthen the working class, and raise the standards of living for all Russians. Lenin said that the appearance of new socialist states was necessary for strengthening Russia's economy in establishing Russian socialism. Lenin's socio-economic perspective

21996-422: The use of the term reflect problems with the concept of Stalinism itself. The major difficulty is a lack of agreement about what should constitute Stalinism." Revisionist historians such as Sheila Fitzpatrick have criticized the focus on the upper levels of society and the use of Cold War concepts such as totalitarianism, obscuring the system's reality. Russian historian Vadim Rogovin stated that "Under Lenin,

22152-480: The vast majority of the people, and suppression by force, i.e. exclusion from democracy, of the exploiters and oppressors of the people—this is the change democracy undergoes during the transition from capitalism to communism." The dictatorship of the proletariat was effected with soviet constitutionalism , a form of government opposite to the dictatorship of capital (privately owned means of production) practised in bourgeois democracies. Under soviet constitutionalism,

22308-511: The work of China's highest organ of state power, the NPC. The document clarifies that the CPC has the right to review all proposed laws, but detailed scrutiny of articles and other legal features should be left to the NPC. In line with this, the number of negative votes by NPC deputies against proposed legislation and candidates has increased since 1991. The NPC has also rejected proposed legislation, such as

22464-450: The work of state organs, granting approval to the state plan and budget ahead of the discussions in the highest organ of state power , and endorsing the appointments of individuals to prominent state roles. However, more generally, central committees are empowered to deal with any issue that falls under the party's purview. Most communist states formally enshrine the communist party's leading or guiding role in state and society , and this

22620-469: The working class, should lead the political campaign because only in that way would the proletariat successfully realise their revolution; unlike the economic campaign of trade-union-struggle advocated by other socialist political parties and the anarcho-syndicalists . Like Marx, Lenin distinguished between the aspects of a revolution, the "economic campaign" ( labour strikes for increased wages and work concessions) that featured diffused plural leadership; and

22776-701: Was a Polish Communist political figure. He was one of four deputy chairmen of the Polish Council of State 1976–1980. Babiuch served as the 50th Prime Minister of Poland from 18 February to 24 August 1980. Son of Mikołaj and Bronisława. In the years 1953-1955 he was a student at the Party School at the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. He studied at the Main School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw. Since 1948 member of

22932-422: Was age, with Hoxha noting that newer members were younger than incumbent ones. He also stated that party organizations had put forward over 2,000 potential candidates to the leadership but had shortened the list to 125 nominees for central committee membership. Hoxha's statement was, according to Hazan, vague but more transparent on election practices than most of his communist counterparts. The exception to this rule

23088-525: Was agrarian and semi-feudal , the task of democratic revolution fell to the urban, industrial working class as the only social class capable of effecting land reform and democratisation, in view that the Russian bourgeoisie would suppress any revolution. In the April Theses (1917), the political strategy of the October Revolution (7–8 November 1917), Lenin proposed that the Russian revolution

23244-477: Was discussed. In this, the communique stated, "The Central Committee discussed and approved: a report submitted by Comrade Andreas Gyenes , secretary of the Central Committee, on topical international issues; and a proposal submitted by Comrade Ferenc Havasi , member of the Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee, on guiding principles for the 1982 plan and state budget." The ensuing communique summarised

23400-528: Was not an isolated national event but a fundamentally international event—the first socialist revolution in the world. Lenin's practical application of Marxism and proletarian revolution to the social, political, and economic conditions of agrarian Russia motivated and impelled the "revolutionary nationalism of the poor" to depose the absolute monarchy of the three-hundred-year dynasty of the House of Romanov (1613–1917), as tsars of Russia. In Imperialism,

23556-486: Was not made public either. Despite the meeting's secretive nature, and the low level of transparency about it, the BCP Central Committee's main newspaper Rabotnichesko delo wrote, "the entire population is called upon to fulfill the 'program' contained in the report." That is, the Bulgarian people were called to participate in implementing resolutions they were not acquainted with. In other more extreme cases, details of

23712-468: Was not philosophically inherent to the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Bolshevik government nationalised industry and established a foreign-trade monopoly to allow the productive coordination of the national economy and so prevent Russian national industries from competing against each other. To feed the populaces of town and country, Lenin instituted war communism (1918–1921) as a necessary condition—adequate supplies of food and weapons—for fighting

23868-471: Was not smooth and inevitable." Historian and Stalin biographer Edvard Radzinsky believes that Stalin was a genuine follower of Lenin, exactly as he claimed himself. Proponents of continuity cite a variety of contributory factors, in that it was Lenin, rather than Stalin, whose civil war measures introduced the Red Terror with its hostage-taking and internment camps ; that it was Lenin who developed

24024-453: Was prompted by the fact that several political parties either took up arms against the new Soviet government , or participated in sabotage, collaborated with the deposed Tsarists , or made assassination attempts against Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. Liebman also argued that the banning of parties under Lenin did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under the Stalinist regime. Several scholars have highlighted

24180-635: Was supported by the German Revolution of 1918–1919 , the Italian insurrection and general strikes of 1920, and worker wage-riots in the UK, France, and the US. In recognising and accepting nationalism among oppressed peoples, Lenin advocated their national right to self-determination and so opposed Russian chauvinism because such ethnocentrism was a cultural obstacle to establishing the dictatorship of

24336-561: Was the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY), which had instituted clear and transparent rules on elections to the LCY Central Committee . For example, the Sixth Session of the Central Committee of the 10th LCY Congress , held on 20 March 1978, instituted a system in which each republican branch had twenty representatives, each autonomous province had fifteen members, that the army branch had fifteen members in

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