Lenin Enrollment in the Party

the large-scale admission of front-rank workers into the RCP (Bolshevik) in 1924, after Lenin’s death. The working people’s unity with the party and their desire to carry on Lenin’s cause were shown by the workers’ striving to join the RCP(B).

At workers’ meetings in plants and factories resolutions were adopted to join the party en masse. The Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP(B), held Jan. 29–31, 1924, recognized the great political importance of the large-scale entry of workers into the party, and in order to organize it the plenum proclaimed the Lenin enrollment. The plenum issued the appeal “To Working Men and Women” and adopted the special resolution “On Admitting Workers From the Bench into the Party.” It resolved to admit to the party only industrial workers; special attention was given to admitting into the RCP(B) workers who were members of the Komsomol. The Central Committee adopted a resolution admitting 20,000 poor and middle peasants into the party.

Group applications were permitted, but new members were admitted on an individual basis at open party meetings. If those who wished to join did not have a recommendation, the Central Committee granted party committees the right to consider their application at general meetings of the workers of an enterprise with the active participation of nonparty persons. This facilitated the selection of the best workers for membership in the party and strengthened the party’s ties with the masses. The period from February 15 to May 15 was designated for carrying out the Lenin enrollment. Between Jan. 22 and May 15, 1924, more than 350,-000 applications were submitted and 241,600 persons admitted, of whom 92.4 percent were workers. Thus the social composition of the RCP(B) was improved; in January 1924 44 percent of party members were workers and in May 1924, 60 percent. The Lenin enrollment attested to the enormous prestige of the party and helped strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat and the alliance between the working class and peasantry.