UDC

94(47)084.6

DOI

10.17238/issn2227-6564.2019.5.5

Authors

Vladimir I. Bakulin
ul. Lipetskaya 49, pos. Lipniki, 354393, Adlerskiy rayon, Sochi, Krasnodarskiy kray, Russian Federation; e-mail: vla20190220@yandex.ru

Abstract

This article analyses the work and decisions of one of the plenums of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which played an important role in the history of not only the government party, but also the Soviet state and society in general. The author points out the extent and peculiarities of the coverage of this historical phenomenon by modern researchers. The 1937 party forum is considered here in the context of the country’s life and politics. Of fundamental importance was the fact that the plenum was called shortly after the adoption of the new Constitution of the Soviet Union. As a result, elections to the Soviets at all levels, starting with the Supreme Soviet, were on the agenda, while the party-state leaders were engaged in a behind-the-scenes struggle over the content of the election regulations. The plenum was immediately preceded by the Moscow Trial of the so-called Parallel Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Centre and by a long campaign of reviewing party members, in essence, purging of the party. Further, the article traces certain trends in the country’s political life in the mid- 1930s which, one way or another, influenced the work of the February-March Plenum, were reflected in its decisions and further developed in subsequent years. Analysing the materials, the author studies how the democratic principles were considered and discussed within the party as well as in the state and public life. A clash (though not always clearly defined) of different approaches to the implementation of these principles in the upcoming elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was revealed. Thus, there existed a mismatch between the aspirations of a significant part of the party establishment and the tasks of democratizing the life of Soviet society.

Keywords

plenum of the Central Committee of the AUCP(b), Constitution of the Soviet Union, electoral law, party establishment, repression

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