Bolsheviks Adopt Democratic Centralism (1917)

Thu Jul 26, 1917

On this day in 1917, the "Sixth Party Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party" began in Petrograd, wherein the Bolshevik movement formally defined and adopted the Leninist concept of democratic centralism.

Although the idea of democratic centralism was originally outlined in Vladimir Lenin's "What is To Be Done?" 1902 political pamphlet, it was at this meeting the concept was officially defined and adopted by the Bolsheviks.

The Congress defined democratic centralism as follows:

• That all directing bodies of the Party, from top to bottom, shall be elected.

• That Party bodies shall give periodical accounts of their activities to their respective Party organizations.

• That there shall be strict Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority.

• That all decisions of higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on lower bodies and on all Party members.

The concept is sometimes briefly surmised as "freedom of discussion, unity of action", and was intended to prevent factions forming within the party. When the Bolsheviks consolidated power following the Russian Civil War, Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders instituted a ban on factions in the party during the 10th Party Congress of 1921.

The concept was widely influential in other communist movements; for example, it was adopted in Article 3 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

Libertarian socialists have been critical of the practice, with anarchist writer Scott Nappolas calling democratic centralism "the organizational theory of a rising ruling class".

• Date: 1917-07-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Marxism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Libertarian socialists have been critical of the practice, with anarchist writer Scott Nappolas calling democratic centralism "the organizational theory of a rising ruling class".

Indeed we have, and indeed it is