The 18th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was held during 10–21 March 1939 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. It elected the 18th Central Committee. This is the first Congress to be dominated by the "purified" leadership of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

after the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. This would be the last one held for over a decade. In the report on the work of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party Stalin outlined important aspects of the foreign policy of the USSR, particularly its disappointment with the western democracies and their failure to adopt the policy of collective security advocated by Soviet foreign minister

Maxim Litvinov Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (; born Meir Henoch Wallach-Finkelstein; 17 July 1876 – 31 December 1951) was a Russian Empire, Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet Union, Soviet statesman and diplomat who served as Ministry of Foreign Aff ...

. Shortly after this, Stalin dismissed Litvinov and appointed

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (; – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. ...

, a move that led to the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

and a temporary understanding with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

Agenda of the Congress

# Stalin: Report of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) # Mikhail Fedorovich Vladimirski: Report of the Central Revision Committee # Dmitry Zakharovich Manuilski: Report of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Delegation to the executive committee of the Communist International # Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov: Report on the Third Five-Years Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the USSRthe Third Five-Years Plan (1938-1942) could not completed due to the war # Andrey Aleksandrovich Zhdanov: Changes in the Statutes of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) # Election of the Commission in Charge of Changes in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Program # Election to the Central Organs of the Party

Decisions of the Congress

The report of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) consisted of an analysis of the internal and international situation of the country, as well as its future development perspectives. The Congress took note of the now prevailing socialist mode of production and considered socialism in the USSR to be largely built, while in its view the country was already sailing towards a new step of development, i.e. the completion of the socialist society. A new goal was set: to catch and get ahead of the most developed capitalistic States. The report also tackled theoretical questions regarding the stages of development and functions of the socialist State, and viewed as erroneous the idea that the State would be soon extinct. The Congress sanctioned the new Party's statute which was supposed to reflect changes in the class structure of the Soviet society. A unified set of conditions for entry in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was implemented, as well as a one-year probation period. An exception was made for former members of other parties, to which these conditions would not apply. The division into separate categories depending on each individual's social class origin was abolished. Articles defining new rights for the Party's members were also added. The Congress also confirmed the third five-years plan for the development of the Soviet economy.

Elected during the Congress

:Central Committee: 71 members, 68 candidates to Central Committee membership :Central Revision Committee: 13 members :Party Control Commission: 187 members

References

External links

*
The Land of Socialism Today and Tomorrow: Reports and Speeches at the Eighteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). March 10-21, 1939
'
Eighteenth Congress of the CPSU (Bolshevik)
in ''The

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

'', 3rd Edition (1970–1979). {{Joseph Stalin 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)