All what in his opinion was necessary and what he could say in that summery and assessment of the potentials for the further development of the socialism in the USSR and in the world was in 1952 published in the collection of the articles and answer letters to the participants of that discussion under the common name “The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR”, which was many times cited here and mentioned in the above chapters and that we are specifically going to analyze in the next chapter. The last of the letters of J.V. Stalin inserted in this book is dated September 29, 1952. In a week 19th Congress of the ACP (B) (All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks) was held and the party was renamed as CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). This abbreviation remained ambiguous. The history proved the competence of the following interpretation: Capitulator Party of the Self-liquidation of Socialism.
19th Congress took place in Moscow in October 5 — 14, 1952. There a new membership of the Central Party Committee was elected. To understand why the history proved such a competence of the abbreviation CPSU we need to turn to a not well-know episode of the work of the Central Committee that was elected at the XIX congress.
After the Congress held on October 16, a Central Committee plenary session took place. J.V. Stalin spoke at the plenary session. His speech was a surprise for the participants: the surprise was not that no one expected it, but its contents. This Stalin’s speech benumbed the plenary session.
There were two reasons for it:
First, J.V. Stalin bluntly warned the plenary session participants about the fact that those who are regarded his closest faithful associates, and if necessary — successors, were ready for betrayal of justice, bourgeois degeneration and joining in a conspiracy with imperialism. Thus J.V. Stalin openly expressed his distrust to V. Molotov and A. Mikoyan.
Secondly, J.V. Stalin reported to the Central Committee members, — what they could have guessed themselves: that he had already become old and tired, therefore soon the time would come when he wouldn’t be able to rule the country, hence they were to think about and elect in advance another person to be the ruling party Central Committee Secretary General.
One could content oneself with this information about J. Stalin’s speech and go on to the further consideration of the problems. But it’s better to turn to one of the plenary session participant’s evidence, otherwise someone could consider our conclusion concerning attitude of the participants of the plenary session a groundless slander.
K. Simonov, who was a famous and influential writer and poet, respected in the Soviet society for decades, — became a candidate member for C.P.S.U. Central Committee, elected by the 19th Congress. In his memoirs, which he recorded on a tape-recorder not long before his death, and which were deciphered and published under the name “With the Eyes of a Man of My Generation” after he had passed away, he reports about the plenary session held on October 16, 1952, the following:
«In the March 1953 record1 I didn’t expatiate on the plenary session for many reasons. Nevertheless first I’ll cite the short recording of that time, and then I’ll decipher some points, to decipher which now, 27 years after, will be a less sin2 than to consign them to oblivion.
Here is the record in the original form:
«Of course, I have no right to record everything what ha p pened at the Central Committee plenary se s sion 3 , but I still want to record some details not touching upon the issues of the pl e nary session.
When the plenary session began precisely at the appointed time, everyone was in his place. And when Stalin together with the other Politburo members came out from the back door and approached the presi d ium table, the people gathered in the Sverdlov Hall applauded him. Stalin came in, his face being very serious and concentrated, and casting a quick glance at the hall he made a gesture with his hand — from his chest towards us. And in this gesture he expressed that he understands our fee l ings to him and that we should understand that this is a Central Committee plenary session, where we should work <bold type supplied by the a u thors>.
One of the Central Committee members speaking from the rostrum said in the end of his speech that he was Stalin’s faithful disciple. Stalin, who had been listening to the speech very attentively sitting in the presidium behind speakers, shortly remarked: «We are all Lenin’s followers»[324].
In his speech talking about need for steadfastness and intr e pidity Stalin began to speak about Lenin and the intrepidity he showed in 1918, about the incredibly hard situation of that time and how strong enemies were.
And what about Lenin? — Stalin asked. — And Lenin — r e read, what he said and wrote then. He thundered in that incred i bly hard situation, thundered, wasn’t afraid of anyone. Thu n dered.
Stalin repeated this word «Thundered!»[325] twice or thrice.
Then in connection with one of the questions[326] emerged at the plenary session talking about his duties Stalin said:
As far as I am entrusted with it, I am doing it. It doesn’t mean it’s just meant for me. I’m brought up in another way, — he said the last phrase in a very sharp way» (the italics is supplied by the authors in order to separate the diary record of 1953 given by K. Simonov from the memoirs of 1979).
So, what happened and what did I mean by that short record made in 1953? I’ll try to remember and explain in the way I can.
(…)
I don’t want to take a sin upon my soul and try to recollect the details of the plenary session, which I remembered but didn’t record. I’ll just talk about what is really etched in my mind, what is a hard and even tragic recollection[327].
I think, the plenary session lasted for 2 hours or a bit more time, from which Stalin’s speech took half an hour and Molotov’s and Mikoyan’s speeches and elections of the Central Committee executive office in the end of the plenary session took the rest of the time. As far as I remember while Stalin was speaking Malenkov presided over the plenary session, the rest of the time Stalin himself presided over it. Almost after the beginning Malenkov gave Stalin the floor, and the latter walking behind the presidium table descended to the rostrum, which was several stairs lower than the table, in the middle as respects to it. From the beginning to the end he was talking in a harsh way without any humor, there were no sheets of paper in front of him[328]. During his speech he intently, tenaciously and somehow severely peered into the hall, as though he tried to penetrate into the thoughts of the people who were sitting in front and behind of him. The tone of his speech, the way he was speaking grasping the hall with his eyes, — everything benumbed the sitting, I also experienced that torpor. The main idea of his speech (if not textually, then according to the train of thought) was that he was old, and the time was coming when others would have to continue what he had been doing, that the situation in the world was hard and the struggle with the capitalist camp would be very difficult, and that is the most dangerous in that struggle was to waver, take fright, retreat, capitulate. This was the main idea he wanted not only to express, but also to inculcate into the present[329], which in its turn was connected with the theme of his own old age and probable departure.