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Stalin's Speech at the Plenum of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, March 3, 1937 Comrades, from the reports, and the discussions on
them heard in the Plenum, it follows that we have to deal here with the
following three basic facts. First, the wrecking and diversionist-espionage
activity of agents of foreign States, among whom a pretty active role was
played by the Trotskyites, has affected in one degree or another all or
nearly all our organisations - economic, administrative and Party. Second, agents of foreign States, including
Trotskyites, penetrated not only into subordinate organisations, but also to
certain responsible posts. Third, some of our leading comrades, both in the
centre and locally, not only failed to discern the real countenance of these
wreckers, diversionists, spies, and murderers, but proved so unconcerned,
complacent and naïve, that at times they themselves assisted in promoting the
agents of the foreign States to one or other responsible post. These are the three indisputable facts which
naturally arise from the reports and the discussions on them. I. Political Unconcern How are we to explain the fact that our leading
comrades, having a rich experience in the struggle against anti-Party and
anti-Soviet currents of every kind, proved in the present case so naïve and
blind, that they failed to discern the real countenance of the enemies of the
people, failed to recognise the wolves in sheep’s clothing, and could not
tear away their mask? Can it be maintained that the wrecking and
diversionist-espionage activity of the agents of foreign States, acting on
the territory of the U.S.S.R., could be for us something unexpected and
unprecedented? No, this cannot be maintained. This is demonstrated by the
wrecking acts in different branches of the national economy during the last
ten years, beginning with the Shakhty period, recorded in official documents.
Can it be asserted that in recent times we had no
warning signals, no precautionary hints about the wrecking, spying, or
terrorist activity of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite
agents of fascism? No, this cannot be asserted. There were such signals and
Bolsheviks have no right to forget about them . . . How are we to account for the fact that our Party
comrades, despite their experience in the struggle against anti-Soviet
elements, despite numerous warning signals and precautionary reminders,
proved to be politically short-sighted in face of the wrecking and spying
diversionist activity of the enemies of the people? Maybe our Party comrades have become worse than they
were before, less conscious and less disciplined? No, of course not! Maybe they have begun to degenerate? This is not
true either. Such a presumption would be totally unfounded. What then is the matter? Whence such a gaping
attitude, unconcern, complacency and blindness? The fact of the matter is that our Party comrades,
engrossed in economic campaigns and elated by the colossal successes on the
front of economic construction, simply forgot a few extremely important facts
which Bolsheviks have no right to forget. They forgot one basic fact
connected with the international position of the U.S.S.R. and failed to
perceive two highly important facts which have direct bearing on the
present-day wreckers, spies, diversionists and murderers who shield
themselves behind the Party card and mask themselves as Bolsheviks. II. Capitalist Encirclement What facts are these which our Party comrades have
forgotten or which they simply have not noticed? They have forgotten that the Soviet power was
victorious in only one-sixth of the world, that
five-sixths of the world is in the possession of capitalist States. They have
forgotten that the Soviet Union finds itself in circumstances of capitalist
encirclement. We have the habit of chattering about capitalist encirclement,
but many do not want to ponder over what exactly this capitalist encirclement
means . . . Is it not clear that so long as we have a capitalist
encirclement we shall have in our own country wreckers, spies, diversionists
and murderers sent to our rear by the agents of foreign States? All this our Party comrades had forgotten, and,
having forgotten this, they were taken by surprise. That is why the espionage-diversionist work of the
Trotskyite agents of the Japanese-German secret police was a complete
surprise to some of our comrades. III. Contemporary Trotskyism Further. In waging the struggle with Trotskyite
agents, our Party comrades did not notice, overlooked, that present day
Trotskyism is no longer what it was, let us say, seven or eight years ago;
that Trotskyism and the Trotskyites have, during that time, undergone a
serious evolution which has fundamentally altered the face of Trotskyism;
that for this reason the struggle against Trotskyism, and the methods of
struggle against it likewise must be fundamentally altered. Our Party comrades have not noticed that Trotskyism
has ceased to be a political tendency in the working class, that from the
political tendency in the working class that it was seven or eight years ago,
Trotskyism has become a frenzied and unprincipled band of wreckers,
diversionists, spies and murderers, acting on instructions from intelligence
service organs of foreign States . . . The mistake of our Party comrades lies in the fact
that they did not notice this profound difference between Trotskyism in the
past and the Trotskyism of the present day. They did not perceive that the
Trotskyites have long since ceased to be people of ideas, that the
Trotskyites have long since degenerated into highway robbers capable of any
villainy, capable of all that is base down to espionage and direct treason to
their fatherland in order to injure the Soviet State and the Soviet power.
They did not discern this and were therefore unable to reorganise themselves
in time to wage a struggle against the Trotskyites along new lines, more
decisively. That is why the abominations of the Trotskyites in
recent years have come as an utter surprise to some of our Party comrades . .
. . . . The strength of the Shakhty and Industrial
Party people lay in the fact that they possessed to a greater or lesser
degree the necessary technical knowledge at a time when our people, lacking
such knowledge, were compelled to learn from them . . . Not so the
present-day wreckers, . . . [who] have no technical advantage over our
people whatsoever . . . Wherein then lies the
strength of the contemporary wreckers, the Trotskyites? Their strength lies
in their Party membership card, in their possession of the Party membership
card. Their strength lies in the fact that the Party membership card gains
for them political confidence and opens all our institutions and
organisations to them. Their advantage lay in the fact that, possessing Party
membership cards and pretending to be friends of the Soviet power, they have
deceived our people POLITICALLY, abused confidence, wrecked on the sly and
revealed our State secrets to the enemies of the Soviet Union. A doubtful
‘advantage’ in its political and moral value, but nevertheless an
‘advantage’. This ‘advantage’ explains, in substance, why the Trotskyite
wreckers, as people with Party membership cards having access everywhere, to
all our institutions and organisations, proved to be a real find for the
intelligence service organs of foreign States. The mistake made by some of our Party comrades was
that they did not perceive, did not understand all this difference between
the old and new wreckers, between the Shakhty and Trotskyite wreckers, and
not perceiving this, were not able to reorganise themselves in time in order
to wage a struggle against the new wreckers along new lines. IV. Dark Sides of our Economic Successes Such are the basic facts connected with our
international and internal situation which were forgotten or unnoticed by
many of our Party comrades. That is why our people were caught unawares by
the events of recent years in regard to wrecking and diversion. It may be asked: why did our people fail to perceive
all this, why did they forget about all this? Whence came all this
forgetfulness, blindness, unconcern, and complacency? .
. . . There are dangers . . . associated with
successes, dangers associated with achievements. Yes, yes, comrades, dangers
associated with successes, with achievements. These dangers consist in this
that people who are little versed in politics, who have had little experience
of the atmosphere of success - success after success, achievement after
achievement, over-fulfilment of plan after over-fulfilment - are apt to fall
into a disposition of unconcern and self-satisfaction; an atmosphere is
created of ceremonial parades and mutual congratulations which stultify the
sense of proportion and blunt the political sense, puffing up people and
impelling them to rest on their laurels. No wonder that, in this stupefying atmosphere of
conceit and self-satisfaction, the atmosphere of parades and noisy
self-praise, people forget certain essential facts which are of paramount
importance to the destinies of our country; people begin to overlook such
unpleasant facts as the capitalist encirclement, the new forms of wrecking,
the dangers associated with our successes and so on . . . V. Our Tasks How can these defects in our work be eliminated?
What has to be done? The following measures must be carried out:- (1) It is necessary above all to turn the attention
of our Party comrades, absorbed in ‘current questions’ in one institution or
another, towards big political questions of an international and internal
character. (2) It is necessary to raise the political work of
our Party to the proper level, placing in the foreground the task of
political education and the Bolshevik tempering of Party, Soviet and
industrial cadre. (3) It is necessary to explain to our Party comrades
that economic successes - the importance of which is undoubtedly very great
and for which we will continue to strive from day to day, from year to year -
nevertheless do not exhaust the whole work of our Socialist construction . .
. (4) It is necessary to remember and never to forget
that capitalist encirclement is the basic fact determining the international
position of the Soviet Union . . . (5) It is necessary to explain to our Party comrades
that the Trotskyites, representing the active elements of the
diversionist-wrecking and espionage activity of the foreign intelligence
service organs, have long ago ceased to be a political current in the working
class, that they have long ago ceased to serve any kind of idea compatible
with the interests of the working class, that they have become an
unprincipled band of wreckers devoid of ideas, diversionists, spies,
murderers hired by foreign intelligence service organs. To explain that in the struggle with contemporary
Trotskyism, not the old methods are now needed, not methods of discussion,
but new methods, methods of uprooting and destroying. (6) It is necessary to explain to our Party comrades
the difference between contemporary wreckers and the wreckers of the Shakhty
period, to explain that whilst the wreckers of the Shakhty period deceived
our people in technique, taking advantage of the technical backwardness of
the latter, the contemporary wreckers, possessing Party membership cards,
deceive our people’s political confidence in them, as members of the Party,
taking advantage of the political unconcern of our people . . . The central question for us now is, not the
abolition of the technical backwardness of our cadres, for in the main it has
already been abolished, but in the abolition of political unconcern and
political credulity toward wreckers who have accidentally received Party
membership cards . . . (7) It is necessary to shatter and discard the
rotten theory to the effect that with every step of progress which we make
the class struggle here is bound to die down more and more, that in
proportion to the growth of our successes the class enemy becomes more and
more tamed. This is not only a rotten theory, but also a
dangerous theory, for it lulls our people to sleep, it leads them into a
snare, while allowing the class enemy the possibility of rallying for the
struggle against the Soviet power. On the contrary, the greater our progress, the
greater our successes, the more embittered the remnants of the smashed
exploiting classes will become, the more quickly they will resort to sharper
forms of struggle, the more they will do damage to the Soviet State, the more
they will clutch at the most desperate means of struggle as the last resort
of the doomed . . . (8) It is necessary to shatter and discard another
rotten theory which alleges that he who is not always engaged in wrecking,
and who at least sometimes shows success in his work, cannot be a wrecker. This strange theory betrays the naïveté of its
authors. No wrecker will go on wrecking all the time, if he does not wish to
be exposed very rapidly. On the contrary, the real wrecker will show success
in his work from time to time, for this is the only means of staying on the
job, of worming himself into confidence and continuing his wrecking activity.
I believe this question is clear and needs no
further elucidation. (9) It is necessary to shatter and discard a third
rotten theory the meaning of which is that systematic fulfilment of the
economic plans allegedly sets at nought wrecking and the results of wrecking
. . . (10) It is necessary to shatter and discard a fourth
rotten theory which alleges that the Stakhanov
movement is the basic means of doing away with wrecking . . . (11) It is necessary to shatter and discard a fifth
rotten theory which alleges that the Trotskyite wreckers have no more
reserves, which alleges that they are rallying their last cadres. This is not true, comrades. This theory could be
invented only by naïve people. For the Trotskyite wreckers have their
reserves. They consist above all of the remnants of the routed exploiting
classes in the U.S.S.R.. They consist of a number of
groups and organisations beyond the borders of the U.S.S.R. that are hostile
to the Soviet Union . (12) Finally, it is necessary to smash and cast off
one more rotten theory to the effect that since there are many of us
Bolsheviks, and few of the wreckers, since we Bolsheviks are supported by
tens of millions of people while the Trotskyite wreckers are merely
individuals and dozens, therefore we Bolsheviks can afford not to pay any
attention to some handful of wreckers. Return to Course Section |