In the period from January 26 to February 10, 1934, the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b) was held in Moscow, which, according to its organizers, was to become the apotheosis of the totalitarian system that had established itself in the USSR by that time. However, despite all the efforts of the Soviet newspapers, which dubbed it the "Congress of the Victors", this name did not take root, and was supplanted by another one that sounded like the "Congress of the Executed", for which there were very good reasons.
Congress turned into a propaganda action
The entire agenda of the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b), the opening date of which entered the history of the party forever, was devoted to a report on the victories achieved by it during the first five-year plan. In addition, another plan for the development of the national economy was adopted, covering the period from 1933 to 1937. It was, in fact, a large-scale propaganda campaign, the task of which was to officially declare the victory of socialism in a single country, won under the leadership of I. V. Stalin.
At the evening meeting of the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b), held on January 5, 1934, representatives of severalproduction teams, among which were the envoys of the Tula Arms Plant. Having reported on their labor victories, which was an indispensable element of the script established in those years for all political events, the gunsmiths handed Stalin a sample of the newly developed Sniper rifle. Taking a gift from Tula people in his hands, the head of state, to the general applause that met then with any of his actions, pointed his weapon at the hall, and, as if jokingly, took aim at the delegates, which caused an even greater burst of applause.
Fulfilled prophecy
In the future, recalling this episode that took place at the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b) in 1934, many saw a prophetic meaning in it. To make sure they are right, it is enough to cite the statistics published by N. S. Khrushchev 22 years later from the rostrum of the 20th Congress, all the same communist party that he headed after Stalin's death.
The new Secretary General said that out of the total number of deputies of the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b) - the "Congress of Victors", in the following 2-3 years, 1108 people were arrested and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, and 848 were shot. All, without exception, were charged with allegedly carrying out anti-Soviet activities. Five more victims of the mass terror unleashed in the country, who did not want to voluntarily surrender into the hands of the executioners, and literally on the eve of their arrest, committed suicide should be added to the number of these people.
Congress that preceded mass repressions
Is it necessary to say that all these people in the 50swere rehabilitated "for lack of corpus delicti". Thus, the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks began to be popularly referred to as the "Congress of the Executed Victors." From the materials of criminal cases found in the archives, it is clear that reprisals were often carried out immediately on numerous groups of the repressed. For example, more than half of the congress delegates were shot within 8 days.
The impetus for increased repression in the country then was the murder of a prominent party leader, the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, S. M. Kirov, committed on December 1, 1934. According to modern researchers, Stalin himself was the organizer of the crime. It is believed that it was necessary for him to strengthen the fight allegedly carried out in the country against the enemies of the people, but in reality for the physical destruction of both representatives of the political opposition and everyone capable of expressing dissatisfaction with the established regime.
Genocide of one's own people
The tragic fate of the delegates of the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b) is largely natural. It was the result of the general line of the party, which built the policy of accelerated industrialization of the country on the blood of millions of innocent people. It is known that since the beginning of the 1930s, a whole social class has become a victim of mass repressions - the Russian peasantry, forcibly driven into collective farms.
The most successful part of it was declared "kulaks" and deported, while the rest were turned into cheap and disenfranchised labor, while being obliged to feed the country. The urban population lived in constant fear.before accusations of sabotage and anti-Soviet activities. In fact, the genocide of its own people was carried out in the country. Despite this, at the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, praises were constantly read out to the address of the "wise leader and teacher" - Comrade Stalin.
Unfounded rumors
Speaking about the events of those ancient years, one should dispel a myth that has been firmly established over the past decades. We are talking about completely unfounded rumors, according to which in 1934, at the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b), delegates made an attempt to express distrust of Stalin in view of the results of his policy.
In the post-perestroika period, Russian and foreign media have repeatedly discussed this version, while suggesting that it was precisely the criticism voiced at the congress that aroused Stalin's anger and provoked the mass repressions that followed. However, a detailed study of archival materials, which by that time had become the property of the general public, showed that there was no real anti-Stalinist demarche at the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b) in 1934.
Suppression of internal party opposition
As shown by the materials, which were finally declassified, the situation that prevailed among the deputies was fundamentally different from that which prevailed four years earlier at the 16th Party Congress. The autocracy of Stalin, which had been established by this time, served to completely eradicate the inner-party opposition that had manifested itself in previous years. Despite the fact that there werethe extremely negative consequences of the forced collectivization of agriculture, as well as unnecessarily hasty methods of industrialization, no one dared to speak openly about them from the rostrum of the congress.
Warnings sounded four years earlier about the possible harmful consequences of such a policy were no longer mentioned at the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b), and former opposition leaders such as A. I. Rykov, G. I. Zinoviev, L. B Kamenev, N. I. Bukharin and a number of others made speeches of repentance and vied with each other to praise the successes of socialism. As history has shown, in the future this did not help them avoid trial under the very popular in those years, the 58th article of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (counter-revolutionary activity) and capital punishment for actions allegedly aimed at undermining the Soviet state.
Stalin's report
The main event of the congress was the speech of I. V. Stalin with the report of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) on the results of the work done over the past five years. Having outlined in vivid colors the achievements of Soviet industry and agriculture, he did not fail to dwell on the grave crisis that, according to him, the bourgeois states were experiencing, doomed to inevitable collapse. At the same time, Stalin stressed the possibility of a world war imminent. His speech, as expected, was constantly interrupted by "stormy applause, turning into a standing ovation."
Speech by K. E. Voroshilov
Following him, various speakers rose to the podium, covering certain aspects of the policy being pursued. However, the general leitmotif of their speechesthere were enthusiastic assessments of Stalin's speech. In this regard, Voroshilov's speech at the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b) should be emphasized. In it, he very figuratively described the invaluable contribution that their "leader and teacher" enriched the theoretical treasury of Marxism-Leninism. Further, Voroshilov told the world that "driven into a dead end of insoluble contradictions" world imperialism indulges bestial fascism in every possible way, hoping to establish its domination with its help.
However, all his attempts are doomed to failure, because the USSR - the country of victorious socialism, is able to stop any enemy intrigues. Whatever plans world imperialism has, the Soviet Union is always ready to give it a proper rebuff. In this regard, the speaker emphasized that, in fulfilling such a high mission, the world's first state of workers and peasants becomes like a thorn in the eye of presumptuous imperialism and should be ready to enter into a decisive battle with it.
Voroshilov's speech was repeatedly interrupted by the applause of the delegates, who were ready to rush into battle even at that very moment. But they didn't get that opportunity. Long before the real enemy invaded our Motherland, most of them were counted among his accomplices and shot with the full approval of the masses, for whose happiness they stood up from the rostrum of the 17th Congress of the CPSU (b).
