The Communist Dream: A Junior Seminar

The April [1985] plenary session and the 27th Party Congress opened the way for an objective critical analysis of the current situation in society and adopted decisions of historic importance for the country’s future. We have irrevocably begun restructuring and have taken the first steps on this path …

At the same time, we see that changes for the better are taking place slowly, that the task of restructuring has turned out to be more difficult than it had seemed to us earlier, and that the causes of the problems that have accumulated in society are more deep-rooted than we had thought. The more deeply we go into restructuring work, the clearer its scale and importance become; more and more new unsolved problems inherited from the past are coming to light …

At a certain stage the country began to lose momentum, difficulties and unsolved problems began to pile up, and stagnation and other phenomena alien to socialism appeared. All of this had a serious effect on the economy and on the social and spiritual spheres.

Of course, comrades, the country’s development did not stop. Tens of millions of Soviet people worked honestly, and many Party organizations and our cadres acted vigorously, in the interests of the people. All this restrained the growth of negative processes, but it could not prevent them.

In the economy, and in other spheres as well, the objective need for changes became urgent, but it was not realized in the political and practical activities of the Party and the state.

What was the reason for this complex and contradictory situation?

The principal cause-and the Politbiuro considers it necessary to say this with total frankness at the plenary session-was that the CPSU Central Committee and the country’s leadership, primarily for subjective reasons, were unable to promptly or fully appreciate the need for changes and the danger of the mounting crisis phenomena in society or to work out a clear-cut line aimed at overcoming them and making fuller use of the possibilities inherent in the socialist system.

Conservative inclinations, inertia, a desire to brush aside everything that didn’t fit into habitual patterns and an unwillingness to tackle urgent social and economic questions prevailed in both policy-making and practical activity.

Comrades, the executive bodies of the Party and the state bear the responsibility for all this …

Lenin’s theses about socialism were interpreted in an oversimplified way, and frequently their theoretical profundity and significance were emasculated. This also applied to such key problems as public ownership, relations among classes and nationalities, the measure of labor and the measure of consumption, cooperatives, methods of economic management, people’s rule and self-management, the struggle against bureaucratic aberrations, the revolutionary-transformational essence of socialist ideology, the principles of instruction and upbringing, and guarantees of the healthy development of the Party and society.

Superficial notions about communism and various kinds of prophecies and abstractions gained a certain currency. This in turn lessened the historical significance of socialism and weakened the influence of socialist ideology …

In point of fact, a whole system of weakening the economic instruments of power came into being, and a unique mechanism was formed for retarding social and economic development and holding back progressive transformations that make it possible to disclose and utilize the advantages of socialism. The roots of this retardation lay in serious shortcomings in the functioning of the institutions of socialist democracy, in outmoded political and theoretical principles that sometimes did not correspond to reality, and in a conservative mechanism of management.

Comrades, all this had a negative effect on the development of many spheres of the life of society. Take material production. Over the past three five-year plans, the growth rates of national income declined by more than50%. For most indices, plans had not been fulfilled since the early 1970s. The economy as a whole became unreceptive to innovations and sluggish, the quality of a large part of output no longer met current demands, and disproportions in production became exacerbated …

We have at the same time been unable to fully realize the possibilities of socialism in improving living conditions and the food supply, in organizing transportation, medical service and education and in solving a number of other urgent problems.

Violations of the most important principle of socialism-distribution according to work-appeared. The struggle against unearned income was waged indecisively. The policy of providing material and moral incentives for highly productive labor was inconsistent. Large sums of money were paid out in unwarranted bonuses and in various kinds of additional incentives, and reports were padded for the sake of personal gain. A dependent mind-set grew, and a “wage-leveling” mentality began taking root in people’s minds. This hit at those toilers who were able and wanted to work better, while at the same time it made life easier for those whose idea of working involves little effort.

Violation of the organic tie between the measure of labor and the measure of consumption not only deforms the attitude toward labor, impeding growth in labor productivity, it also leads to the distortion of the principle of social justice, and this is a matter of great political importance.

The elements of social corrosion that emerged in recent years had a negative effect on society’s spiritual temper and imperceptibly sapped the lofty moral values that have always been inherent to our people and in which we take pride-ideological conviction, labor enthusiasm and Soviet patriotism.

The inevitable consequence of this was a falloff in interest in public affairs, manifestations of spiritual emptiness and skepticism, and a decline in the role of moral incentives to labor. The stratum of people, including young people, whose goal in life came down to material well-being and personal gain by any means increased. Their cynical position took on increasingly militant forms, poisoned the minds of those around them, and gave rise to a wave of consumerism. The growth of drunkenness, the spread of drug addiction and the increase in crime became indices of the falloff in social mores.

Instances of a scornful attitude toward laws, hoodwinking, bribe-taking and the encouragement of servility and glorification had a pernicious effect on the moral atmosphere in society. Genuine concern for people, their living and working conditions and their social well-being was frequently supplanted by political ingratiation-the mass handing out of awards, titles and bonuses. An atmosphere of all-forgivingness took shape, while exactingness, discipline and responsibility declined …

This was the situation, comrades, in which the question of accelerating the country’s social and economic development and of restructuring was raised. In essence, what is involved here is a change of direction and measures of a revolutionary nature. We are talking about restructuring and related processes of the thoroughgoing democratization of society, having in mind truly revolutionary and comprehensive transformations in society.

This fundamental change of direction is necessary, since we simply have no other way. We must not retreat, and we have nowhere to retreat to …

Today there is a need to state once again what we mean by restructuring.

Restructuring means resolutely overcoming the processes of stagnation, scrapping the mechanism of retardation, and creating a reliable and effective mechanism of accelerating the social and economic development of Soviet society. The main idea of our strategy is to combine the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with a planned economy and to set the entire potential of socialism in motion.

Restructuring means reliance on the vital creativity of the masses, the all-round development of democracy and socialist self-government, the encouragement of initiative and independent activity, the strengthening of discipline and order, and the expansion of openness, criticism and self criticism in all spheres of the life of society; it means respect, raised on high, for the value and worth of the individual.

Restructuring means steadily enhancing the role of intensive factors in the development of the Soviet economy; restoring and developing Leninist principles of democratic centralism in the management of the national economy, introducing economic methods of management everywhere, renouncing the peremptory issuing of orders and administrative fiat, ensuring the changeover of all elements of the economy to the principles of full economic accountability and to new forms of the organization of labor and production, and encouraging innovation and socialist enterprise in every way.

Restructuring means a decisive turn toward science …

Restructuring means the priority development of the social sphere and the ever fuller satisfaction of Soviet people’s requirements for good working, living, recreational, educational and medical-service conditions …

Restructuring means the energetic elimination from society of distortions of socialist morality, and the consistent implementation of the principles of social justice …

The ultimate aim of restructuring is clear, I think-a thoroughgoing renewal of all aspects of the country’s life, the imparting to socialism of the most up-to-date forms of social organization, and the fullest possible disclosure of the humanistic nature of our system in all its decisive aspects-economic, social, political and moral.

On the political level, the matter at hand is deepening democracy in the electoral system and achieving the more effective and more active participation of voters at all stages of pre-election and election campaigns …

It is quite natural that questions of expanding inner-Party democracy be examined within the overall context of the future democratization of Soviet society …

There is also a need to give some thought to changing the procedure for the election of secretaries of district, region, city, province and territory Party committees and of Union-republic Communist Party Central Committees. Here comrades suggest that secretaries, including first secretaries, could be elected by secret ballot at plenary sessions of the appropriate Party committees. In the process, the members of the Party committee would have the right to enter any number of candidates on the ballot. This measure ought to significantly enhance the responsibility of secretaries to the Party committees that elected them, give them more confidence in their work, and make it possible to more accurately determine the extent of their prestige.

Needless to say, the Party’s statutory principle according to which the decisions of higher agencies are binding on all lower-level Party committees, including decisions on personnel questions, should remain immutable.

In the Politbiuro’s opinion, further democratization should extend to the formation of the Party’s central leadership bodies as well. I think this is perfectly logical. Apparently it would be logical to democratize elections of leadership bodies in other public organizations as well …

In improving the social atmosphere, it is also necessary to continue to develop openness. It is a powerful lever for improving work in all sectors of our construction and an effective form of control by all the people. Excellent confirmation of this is provided by the experience that has been accumulated since the April [1985] plenary session of the Central Committee.

Obviously, the time has come to begin the drafting of legal documents guaranteeing openness. They should ensure maximum openness in the activities of state and public organizations and give working people a real opportunity to express their opinion on any question of the life of society …

Here one cannot help saying regretfully that we continue to encounter not only hostility toward criticism but also instances of persecution for it and the outright suppression of critical statements. Frequently this assumes such dimensions and scope, and takes place in such forms, that the Central Committee has to intervene in order to restore truth and justice and to support honest people who back the interests of the cause. I have already had occasion to speak on this question, but matters are being corrected slowly. Take the articles in the central press for January alone, and you will see that persecution for criticism is anything but a rare phenomenon.

In this connection, the efforts of the mass news media to develop criticism and self-criticism in our society must be supported …

There should be clarity on yet another question. We say that Soviet society should have no zones closed to criticism. This is fully applicable to the mass news media, too …

When we talk about the democratization of Soviet society-and this is a fundamental question for us-it is appropriate once again to emphasize the main, defining feature of socialist democracy. What I mean is an organic combination of democracy and discipline, independence and responsibility, and the rights and duties of officials and of every citizen.

Socialist democracy has nothing in common with an “everything goes” attitude, irresponsibility or anarchy. Genuine democracy serves every person, protecting his political and social rights, and at the same time it serves every collective and society as a whole, upholding their interests …

The open selection of people for promotion-from among both Communists and non-Party people-would be in keeping with the tasks of democratization and the enlistment of broad masses of the working people in management.

In this respect, there is also the question of promoting women to leadership positions on a broader scale. At present, many women are working, and working successfully, in Party and state posts, in science, public health, education and culture, in light industry, trade and consumer services. Today the country needs to have them become even more actively involved in managing the economy and culture, on both the Union and the republic level. We have the opportunities for this. All we have to do is give women trust and support …

Needless to say, we cannot limit ourselves today to mere recognition of the mistakes that were made. In order to avoid similar errors in the future, we must draw lessons from the past.

Just what are these lessons?

The first one is the need to promptly resolve urgent personnel questions within the Party Central Committee itself and its Politbiuro-above all from the viewpoint of ensuring continuity in the leadership and an influx of fresh forces. The violation of this natural process led at a certain stage to a weakening of the work capacity of the Politbiuro and the Secretariat, and, for that matter, of the CPSU Central Committee as a whole and its administrative apparatus, as well as of the government.

In fact, comrades, after the April 1985 plenary session a large part of the Secretariat and a large number of the department heads of the CPSU Central Committee were replaced in a short time, and virtually the entire membership of the Presidium of the USSR Council of Ministers was changed. These replacements had to be made, because for a long time there had been no renewal of the membership of the Central Committee or the government and no constant replenishment of them with new personnel, as life demanded. Ultimately, all this had an effect on policy-making and on the Party’s practical activity in guiding society.

This cannot and must not be repeated. So that the process of renewal will not be interrupted and continuity not broken, the CPSU Central Committee, the Politbiuro and Secretariat of the Central Committee, the government and the top echelons of the Part), and state leadership should be open for an influx of fresh forces from various spheres of activity. This way of posing the question is fully in keeping with the Leninist understanding of personnel policy and the interests of the Party and the people …

Now I would like to single out the question of enhancing the role of all elective bodies. One must frankly admit that, if they had operated vigorously both in the Party and in the state, in the trade unions and other public organizations, many serious deficiencies in personnel work could have been avoided.

Let us look at life with our eyes open, as they say: Excessive growth has taken place in the role of executive agencies, to the detriment of elected agencies. At first glance, everything seems to be proceeding normally. Plenary sessions, sessions and meetings of other elected bodies are held regularly. But their work is often over-formalized, and questions of secondary importance or ones that have been decided beforehand are submitted for discussion. As a result, proper control is lacking over the activity of executive agencies and their leaders. It must be said that some comrades have begun to look on elected agencies as a kind of burden that brings only difficulties and obstacles. That’s how far things have gone!

The result is a reduced role for deputies to soviets and members of Party and other collective agencies in the formation of executive committees, in the selection of personnel and in monitoring their activity …

Impaired discipline and lowered responsibility have put down too deep roots and are still making themselves felt in a painful way. It was criminal irresponsibility and slackness that were the main causes of such tragic events as the accident at the Chernobyl Atomic Power Station, the sinking of the steamship Admiral Nakhimov, and a number of air and railroad accidents that entailed loss of life.

We must create everywhere an atmosphere that would rule out every possibility of a repetition of such things. Good organization, efficiency and assiduity should become a law for everyone.

Finally, a highly important demand is lofty morality on the part of our personnel, such human traits as honesty, incorruptibility and modesty. We now know, not only from the past but also from current experience, that we will not be able to accomplish the tasks of restructuring without strengthening the moral health of society. It is not happenstance that today we have been having sharp collisions with negative phenomena in the moral sphere. I have in mind the struggle to eradicate drunkenness, embezzlement, bribe-taking, abuse of office and favoritism …

I want once again to emphasize the idea that the line aimed at democratization and the creation of a new mechanism of administration and economic management opens up the possibility of achieving the correct combination of political leadership by the Party with an active role for state agencies, trade unions and other public organizations.

We have already adopted basic decisions on improving the activity of the soviets in present conditions. These decisions will allow the soviets to prove their worth as genuine bodies of power in their territory. Changes are taking place in the activity of the soviets, but they cannot satisfy us as yet. We all have a stake in getting the soviets to begin working properly, in the spirit of the times, as quickly as possible.

Party committees should firmly adopt a line aimed at enhancing the role of the soviets and not be guilty of unwarranted interference in their affairs, let alone of usurping their functions. It is no less important that the soviets’ executives themselves and the soviets’ administrative apparatus begin to work at full strength and rid themselves of inertia and the habit of constantly looking over their shoulder and waiting for instructions. Democratic principles in the activity of the soviets and their executive agencies must be strengthened …

We want to transform our country into a model of a highly developed state, into a society of the most advanced economy, the broadest democracy and the most humane and lofty morality, where the working person will feel himself to be a full-fledged proprietor and can enjoy all the benefits of material and spiritual culture, where his children’s future will be secure, and where he will possess everything he needs for a full, meaningful life. We want to force even the skeptics to say: Yes, the Bolsheviks can do anything. Yes, the truth is on their side. Yes, socialism is a system that serves man, his social and economic interests and his spiritual elevation.

Source: Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. XXXVII, No. 17 (May 22, 1985).