Ninth All-Russian Congress of Soviets

held in Moscow on Dec. 23-28, 1921, and attended by 1,991 delegates: 1,630 with a casting vote, among them 1,522 members and candidate members of the RCP (Bolshevik). By social strata, 39 percent of the delegates were workers, 20 percent peasants, 32.5 percent white-collar employees, and 8.5 percent from other groups.

The agenda of the Ninth All-Russian Congress of Soviets included the report of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of Peoples’ Commissars on the republic’s foreign and domestic policy, which was delivered by V. I. Lenin. There were reports on aid to the famine-stricken population (M. I. Kalinin), on the preliminary results of the New Economic Policy (NEP) (L. B. Kamenev), on the condition of industry (P. A. Bogdanov), on the reconstruction of agriculture (N. Osinskii; pseudonym of V. V. Obolenskii), on cooperatives (L. M. Khinchuk), on finances and the budget (N. N. Krestinskii), on building up the Red Army (L. D. Trotsky), and on Soviet construction (T. V. Sapronov). The final item on the agenda was elections to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

At the suggestion of Sovnarkom (the Council of People’s Commissars) the congress examined Sovnarkom’s decree on electrification and heard a report on the subject by G. M. Krzhizhanovskii. After hearing Lenin’s report, the congress approved the foreign and domestic policy of the Soviet government. The resolutions on aid to the famine-stricken population indicated measures to be taken in the struggle against the famine and expressed gratitude to the workers of foreign countries and to F. Nansen for their aid to the famine victims.

The congress summarized the results of the NEP for the first ten months of 1921 and recognized the development of agriculture as the nation’s primary task. Measures to ensure increased agricultural productivity were outlined (for example, the organization of long-term agricultural credit and the development of commodity circulation). Land communes were granted the right to choose freely any form of land use (cooperative, communal, or khutor [privately owned farmstead]).

The delegates approved the directives for the reconstruction of the coal, oil, and metallurgical industries and for the production of articles for the mass consumer market. The decree of the Council of People’s Commissars On Electrification was approved on December 28, the date of the adoption of Lenin’s Instructions on Questions of Economic Activity, which summarized the new methods of economic leadership under the NEP. The resolution on finances, which were worked out by Lenin, and the budget, which included points on strengthening the exchange rate of the ruble and limiting the issuance of paper money, was adopted by the congress.

In its resolution on the Red Army and Navy the Ninth All-Russian Congress of Soviets approved a reduction in the armed forces and outlined measures to strengthen the army and improve its preparedness. The efforts of the Soviet state to establish and strengthen peaceful relations with neighboring states received full approval in the Declaration on the International Situation of the RSFSR. The congress elected an All-Union Central Executive Committee, consisting of 386 members and 127 candidate members, and including representatives from the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics for the first time.