Let us recall that the III Program of the Communist Party Soviet Union was adopted at the XXII Congress of the CPSU, which took place on October 17 - 31, 1961 in Moscow.

The third - because the previous two were completed:

“By adopting the first Program at the Second Congress in 1903, the Bolshevik Party called on the working class, all the working people of Russia, to fight for the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the bourgeois system and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In February 1917, the tsarist regime was swept away. In October 1917, the proletarian revolution destroyed the capitalist system, hated by the people. For the first time in history, a country of socialism was born. The creation of a new world has begun.
The first Party Program was completed.

Adopting the Second Program at the VIII Congress in 1919, the party put forward the task of building a socialist society. Walking unknown paths, overcoming difficulties and hardships, the Soviet people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, implemented the plan for building socialism developed by Lenin. Socialism won completely and completely in the Soviet Union.
The second Party Program has also been completed.”

The Third Program of the CPSU is a program for building a communist society.

How did the party activists see it 50 years ago?

“The solution to the problems of building communism is carried out in successive stages.
In the next decade (1961-1970), the Soviet Union, creating the material and technical base of communism, will surpass the most powerful and richest capitalist country, the United States, in production per capita; the material well-being and cultural and technical level of the working people will rise significantly, and everyone will be provided with material prosperity; all collective and state farms will turn into highly productive and highly profitable farms; the needs of Soviet people for comfortable housing will be basically satisfied; hard physical labor will disappear; The USSR will become the country with the shortest working day.

As a result of the second decade (1971-1980), the material and technical base of communism will be created, providing an abundance of material and cultural benefits for the entire population; Soviet society will come close to implementing the principle of distribution according to needs, and there will be a gradual transition to a single national property. Thus, a communist society will basically be built in the USSR.
The construction of a communist society will be fully completed in the subsequent period.”
The historical document ended with the words: “The PARTY SOLEMNLY DECLARES: THE CURRENT GENERATION OF SOVIET PEOPLE WILL LIVE UNDER COMMUNISM!”

The Program even included an “external” criterion for the success of building communism, according to which it was possible from the outside to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the work being carried out to implement the Program:
“When the Soviet people enjoy the benefits of communism, new hundreds of millions of people on earth will say: “We are for communism!” Not by war with other countries, but by example of a more perfect organization of society; with the flourishing of productive forces, the creation of all conditions for human happiness and well-being, the ideas of communism are winning the minds and hearts of the masses.”

Despite the rabid criticism of bourgeois and reformist ideology, which occupies a significant place in the Program, life has shown who, ultimately, was preferred by the working people of the whole world.

Today it is absolutely clear that the leadership of the CPSU did not intend to implement its Program.
The entire power of the state machine was in the hands of the Central Committee.
The leaders of the party and state clearly saw in real time that the pace of development was falling, that instead of increasing prosperity, the standard of living of the Soviet people was declining.
If anything grows, it is disbelief, disappointment.

But the party leadership kept silent about the real situation until the last moment, even though the ideological defeat of socialism became obvious to everyone.

And perestroika itself, organized by communist leaders, was a smokescreen designed to hide, if not the real state of affairs, then the further plans and intentions of the USSR leadership, which were no longer related to communist ideology.

When everything was revealed, those in power managed to prepare the conditions for “personal communism”, and the majority of the country’s population was left to the mercy of fate.
Which subsequently led to the death and degradation of millions of people.

The Third Program of the CPSU contains the following words:
“The bourgeois system was born with tempting slogans - freedom, equality and fraternity. But the bourgeoisie used these slogans only to push back the feudal nobility and come to power. Instead of equality, a new, deepest abyss of social and economic inequality has emerged.”
Exactly the same claims can be addressed to the Communist Party.
Its main goal is to seize and retain power.
Everything that the communists did “for the working people” was a side effect of solving the main task - retaining power.
Because the working people themselves were for the RSDLP - CPSU (b) - CPSU only a means to retain power.

Therefore, failure to implement one’s own Program did not lead to an honest dialogue with society, to repentance, or withdrawal from the political scene, but, on the contrary, to the use of a critical situation for one’s own selfish interests.

The Third Program of the CPSU was not completed because the tasks set by the party could be solved by free people, their free associations, freely solving the most complex creative problems.
But the CPSU, in principle, could not abandon total administration.
Even the communism of the Program is a set of oughts.
A human creator cannot be found in the Program - it only contains systemic conditions for people to perform certain tasks.

In other words, the party activists of 1961 imagined communism as an effective social machine, and man as a part of this perfect mechanism that needed to be “processed.”

The Third Program of the CPSU could not, in principle, be implemented, since its provisions and conclusions were based not on real facts, but on propaganda clichés.

For example, the following pearls mask the main tool of the communists - violence.
“The industrialization of the USSR is a great feat of the working class, of the entire people, who spared neither effort nor means, and deliberately went through hardships in order to pull the country out of backwardness.”
“Millions of small individual farms voluntarily united into collective farms.”
“Complete equality, mutual respect for independence and sovereignty, fraternal mutual assistance and cooperation - character traits relations between the countries of the socialist community."

Of course, there is not a single line about the Gulag, the Holodomor and other “laws” of socialism that claimed the lives of millions of people.

In the year the Third Program of the “Working Party” was adopted, a peaceful demonstration of workers was shot in Novocherkassk (June 2, 1962).

The hypocritical principle of “full equality, mutual respect for independence and sovereignty” in relation to fraternal socialist countries manifested itself in relation to Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), and other “partners”.

The following statements, similar to which the Program abounds, are absolutely false:

“Socialism has solved a great social problem - it has eliminated the exploiting classes and the causes that give rise to the exploitation of man by man. There are two friendly classes left in the USSR - the working class and the peasantry.”

“The awareness of workers that they work not for exploiters, but for themselves, for their society, generates labor enthusiasm, innovation, creative initiative, and mass socialist competition. Socialism is the living creativity of the working masses. The growth of activity of the masses in building a new life is the law of the era of socialism.”

“The entire life of a socialist society is built on the basis of broad democracy. Through Soviets, trade unions and other mass public organizations, workers actively participate in the management of state affairs and in resolving issues of economic and cultural development. Socialist democracy includes both political freedoms - freedom of speech, press, rallies and meetings ... " - and so on.

“The process of formation and development of the world socialist system occurs on the basis of sovereignty, complete voluntariness and in accordance with the fundamental vital interests of the working people of all states of this system.”

It is no coincidence that with the weakening of communist power in the USSR, recent allies rushed away into the arms of yesterday’s “potential enemy” - NATO, the US satellites.
Interethnic conflicts that had been frozen for many years flared up.
Fraternal Soviet republics Having received sovereignty, they became, if not enemies, then by no means friends of Russia.

Former Soviet citizens, whose highest consciousness was reported by the communist leaders, began to rob and kill each other, demonstrating amazing selfishness, insensitivity, and lack of minimal social solidarity.

The inglorious, shameful end of communist rule, the collapse of the USSR was not just a “geopolitical catastrophe.”
The result of the dominance of the communist regime was a severe humanitarian catastrophe.

People will have to re-form public morals, work and business ethics, learn solidarity, learn to live in society, helping each other.

They still say that there were a lot of good things under socialism.

I would like to answer: there were a lot of good things on the Titanic too - comfortable cabins, bars and restaurants, a cheerful jazz band.

But the main, significant thing is that the Titanic sank.

"the extensive construction of communism" covered up the lack of thought, voluntarism and elementary carelessness in economic policy Khrushchev.

The program of "expanded construction of communism"

The second important circumstance was that the new theoretical constructions made it possible to “set the base” and justify "from the point of view of a communist tomorrow"

a number of innovations in recent years. This found its most complete expression in Khrushchev’s development of the “theory of communist society,” which degenerated into pure projectism, into a bright and significant example Soviet official myth-making.

The concept of “expanded construction of communism” became the core of the third program of the CPSU and was adopted in October 1961 at the XXII Congress. The event was given special solemnity by the fact that the delegates gathered for the first time in the newly built Kremlin Palace of Congresses, which became a symbol of the advancing new era. This congress, contrary to the established order, did not consider national economic plans, but focused exclusively on new program documents - the program and charter of the party.

The congress stated that “the high road to socialism has been laid. Many peoples are already following it. Sooner or later all nations will follow it.” Thus, the onset of communism was recognized as an inevitable and universal law, and its construction was declared the highest goal of the CPSU. This situation obligated us to define the “universal world tomorrow” and formulate a program for its approach. The third program contained the following definition of communism:

Communism is a classless social system with a single national ownership of the means of production, complete social equality of all members of society, where, along with the comprehensive development of people, productive forces will grow on the basis of constantly developing science and technology, all sources of social wealth will flow in full flow and the great principle will be realized “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Communism is a highly organized society of free and conscious workers, in which public self-government will be established, work for the good of society will become the first vital need for everyone, a conscious necessity, and the abilities of everyone will be used with the greatest benefit for the people.

The utopianism of this text today, of course, is striking. But even in the early 1960s, he evoked a wide range of feelings: sincere delight at the boldness of the plans, but to a greater extent - skepticism, numerous jokes and anecdotes. Nevertheless, this good, but abstract idea of ​​communism, divorced from life, became the core of all subsequent Soviet propaganda, the methodological basis social sciences and determining the internal policy of the party.

The CPSU associated the building of communism in the USSR with the solution of the “triple task”: the creation of the material and technical base (MTB) of a new society, the development of communist social relations and the education of a new person. The next 20 years were allotted to the creation of the material and technical base of communism. In the first decade (from 1961 to 1970), it was planned to overtake the United States in per capita production. And by 1980, the construction of the material and technical base was supposed to be completed, creating an abundance of material and cultural benefits for the entire population.

There were even specific, mind-boggling numbers outlined. The creation of the MTB of communism included: complete electrification of the country and comprehensive mechanization of production processes, the development of new efficient industries, rational use of material and labor resources, and a high cultural and technical level of workers. The most vulnerable point of these fantasies was, of course, the real state of agriculture, which did not inspire optimism. The way out of the situation was seen in the implementation of the second block of conditions related to the “development of communist relations” in the countryside. As a result of this, there should have been a “merger of properties through the economic flourishing of the collective farm system,” the ways to achieve which, however, were not specified, but were set out in the faceless formula of combining “material interest, personal and state interests with the tasks of building communism.” All this was supplemented by guidelines in the “area of ​​increasing the material well-being of the people.” The needs of citizens were supposed to be satisfied in two ways - by increasing individual wages in combination with lowering retail prices and expanding public consumption funds, the growth rate of which would supposedly increase all the time.

The “development of socialist social relations into communist ones” was declared, in the process of which the modern state of the entire people was supposed to gradually die out and national differences be erased. However, the withering away of the state should not have happened soon, since this required the fulfillment of two conditions: the construction of a communist society as an internal condition, as well as the victory and consolidation of socialism in the international arena as an external one. In contrast to the “dying state,” the thesis was put forward that the role of the party “as a proven vanguard and the highest form of public organization"will increase more and more.

Particular emphasis was placed on raising a new person. It assumed the formation of a Marxist-Leninist worldview among all Soviet people, their upbringing in the spirit of communism, labor education and the development of a communist attitude towards work, etc. The program was supplemented by the “moral code of the builder of communism,” which included the moral precepts of all times and peoples, combined with devotion to communist ideals.

The implementation of all this idle talk had to be started immediately, relying on the “sprouts of the future” existing in society. One of them was the “movement for a communist attitude to labor.”

"Movement for a communist attitude towards work"

This movement perfectly demonstrates both the attempt at a new turn in public consciousness and the mentality of the Khrushchev generation of leaders, formed during the years of the “socialist offensive”: urgently to find “sprouts of communism” in everyday life or, at worst, to cultivate them artificially. The “initiators” of the movement “for a communist attitude to work” were declared to be communists and Komsomol members of the famous Moscow-Sortirovochnaya depot, where in 1919 the first communist subbotnik took place, called by Lenin “a great initiative.” In October 1958, holding a similar event, they came up with the slogans of “combining the struggle for highly productive labor, increasing general educational and technical knowledge with strengthening socialist collectivism, and instilling communist morality.” The motto of the new movement was also formulated - “Learn to work and live communistically.” “Beacons” were not just the leaders of production, but workers,

combining hard work with studying at an evening institute, amateur activities, etc. The movement turned into a powerful propaganda campaign. They had to fight for the “communist attitude to work” not alone, but by entire teams, workshops and enterprises, which would emphasize the collectivist spirit and the nature of future social relations. Naturally, in the overwhelming majority of cases, things did not go further than appeals. The full formalism of the campaign is evidenced by the growth rate of movement participants: if at the end of 1958 35 thousand workers’ collectives took part in the competition for the title of communist labor brigades, then in May 1960 - more than 5 million people, and in 1961 - already more 20 million. Thus, the number of participants in the movement was 2 times greater than the number of the Communist Party and amounted to 10% of the total working population of the country. In other words, everyone was registered as a participant in the mass action, turning it into an absolute profanation. Each new labor initiative now fit into the general mainstream of the movement. The number of “shock workers of communist labor” grew at an equally rapid pace.

Under the slogan of “transforming labor into the first vital need of every person,” it was possible to significantly reduce production prices. In the countryside, the movement “for a communist attitude to work” transformed into a very unique “campaign for the better use of agricultural machinery, for ensuring that every tractor, every machine is in good hands.” There was an urgent need for this, due to a sharp shortage of tractors and combines. The reasons for the shortage were the “swelling” of all resources into virgin soil, as well as the financial insolvency of collective farms after they were forced to buy equipment from MTS. The acreage continued to increase rapidly, especially at the expense of corn, and the load on a unit of equipment increased.

Thus, socialist competition had to take on a new shell. In fact, his profanation led to the emasculation of the communist myth, turning it from a beautiful dream into a meaningless red velvet pennant. Propaganda became more and more disconnected from reality; instead of an optimistic creative idea, people received yet another dogma that set their teeth on edge. Between the tragedy of the past, constant economic and food difficulties and the communist myth, a vacuum arose, and this “black hole” grew rapidly from year to year..

Public sentiment

1962 marked the collapse of Khrushchev's domestic policy. Throughout the first half of the year, discontent from below grew. In the first half of the year, the KGB authorities recorded 2 times more leaflets than in the same period last year. Here and there, “anti-Soviet organizations” arose, whose members were arrested. There was a stream of letters to all central authorities, the authors of which were representatives of all walks of life, and 47% of them were under the age of 30.

Economic difficulties continued to rapidly increase, grocery store shelves were empty, and rationing cards were introduced for some products. In June 1962, the government increased retail prices for meat, milk, and butter, citing the need to quickly increase livestock production. Among the responses to this event is the following leaflet:

Ilyich, Ilyich, wake up and deal with Khrushchev:

Vodka costs 27, Sal, there is no meat at all.

Let's approach communism - And we won't find cabbage.

The price increase caused protests that were recorded throughout the country. The main demand of the people was that the state should find funds and not raise prices or solve economic problems at the expense of the people. There was outrage about aid to socialist and developing countries. Rallies of workers and employees were held in Leningrad, Kyiv, Moscow, Riga, calls for strikes were recorded in Ivanovo and Magnitogorsk. The events in Novocherkassk turned into a tragedy, where the increase in food prices coincided with a decrease in prices at the electric locomotive plant. On June 1, a spontaneous rally arose here, to which more and more workers joined. With slogans, red flags and portraits of Lenin, the workers moved to the city party committee. Negotiations were held between the protesters and the city leadership. Members of the Presidium and secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Kozlov, Mikoyan, Polyansky, Kirilenko, Ilyichev, Shelepin quickly arrived in Novocherkassk. In agreement with Khrushchev, tanks and troops were sent to the plant. The crowd in the square in front of the city party committee was shot in cold blood. Although the soldiers tried to shoot over their heads, the number of victims was 24 people, who were buried secretly. 49 people were arrested and 116 were prosecuted. From August 14 to August 20, 1962, a trial was held in Novocherkassk, which found 14 people guilty of organizing the riots. 7 people were sentenced to death, and the rest received 10 to 15 years in prison. Despite the fact that these events were carefully hidden, the echo of the tragedy swept across the country. After the events in Novocherkassk, numerous decisions are made at the top to strengthen political control, the functions of the KGB bodies are expanded, and the fight against antisocial sentiments is intensified. In July 1962, Article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR was adopted, which restored political repression.

A society “shaken” by de-Stalinization due to failed economic policies

not inspired by the communist myth . There was too big a gap between the fairy tale and life. It was not possible to give the energy of people a positive, creative direction. The result was increased indifference, a feeling of disappointed hopes.

The crisis of Khrushchev's domestic policy

After the events in Novocherkassk, Khrushchev's authority fell even more. In this situation, he decided to use an already proven move - to use the de-Stalinization card again, spinning it new round. At the XXII Congress, Khrushchev returned to the revelations of the period of the “cult of personality.” It was then that Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov and other members of the “anti-party group” were expelled from the party. But the strongest public outcry was caused by the decision of the congress to remove the coffin with Stalin’s body from the Mausoleum and bury it near the Kremlin wall. However, the resumption of de-Stalinization, even in such a form, designed to cause a deep social shock, could no longer change anything in the position of Khrushchev himself. Society was tired of revelations, people already knew a lot about mass repressions, and Khrushchev’s actions were more likely to be assessed as an undignified settling of scores rather than as a sincere desire for justice and historical truth.

Workers of all countries, unite!

The main contradiction of society was the antagonism between labor and capital, between the majority of the impoverished people and the growing minority. In society, through criminal privatization, a private capitalist type of ownership of the main means of production was forcibly formed. Power was seized by the bourgeois class, led by plutocratic oligarchs and state bureaucrats, pursuing a policy of exploitation and oppression of the working people. There is a merging of the big bourgeoisie and the highest state bureaucracy, the subordination of the corrupt state apparatus to their interests. The collapse of productive forces continues. The main achievements of socialism have been eliminated - the state-guaranteed rights to work, housing, free education and treatment, and personal security. In the states on the territory of the destroyed USSR, the ideology and policy of militant nationalism and anti-communism are being implanted, which led to fratricidal wars.

But the victory of reaction is temporary. The workers have their way personal experience They are convinced that capitalism, which is being imposed on peoples, is a backward movement, towards poverty and lawlessness, mass unemployment, and a semi-colonial existence. The protest of workers against the anti-people policies of bourgeois regimes is growing and expanding, society is entering a time of acute class struggle. The mass communist movement is being revived, and the influence of the Communist Parties on the masses is growing.

At the XXIX Congress, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was temporarily reorganized into the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU of states formed on the territory of the USSR. Strengthening the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU, the creation of united republican parties, and their active activities are an important political condition for the reconstruction of the Soviet Union State and a united Communist Party.

The program contains fundamental provisions, general goals and objectives of the Union of Communist Parties - CPSU, which are specified taking into account the conditions.

I. Basic principles and goals of the UPC - CPSU

UPC - CPSU is a voluntary, international union of equal communist parties operating in the former republics of the USSR.

UPC - CPSU is a union of communist parties, the ideological and organizational basis of which is creatively developing Marxism-Leninism, proletarian internationalism, and democratic centralism.

UPC - CPSU is a union of party partnerships, the purpose of which is to collectively develop problems common to communist parties, coordinate political actions, exchange experiences in political activities, and ensure the unity of actions of communists.

The main goals of the UPC - CPSU:

Restoration of democracy in the form of Soviets of Working People's Deputies, councils of labor collectives and other forms of self-government of the people;

Return through socialist nationalization of large property: land, natural resources, key sectors of the economy to the true owner - the working people, who delegate the right of ownership to the state and labor collectives. The form of ownership determines the type of socio-economic formation. The class that owns the main means of production has power;

Social and economic security of workers, ensuring social justice in society: elimination of exploitation and national oppression, guaranteed right to work and remuneration based on final results, free education and medical care, affordable housing and social security, personal security, unity of rights and responsibilities of every person;

The return of the country to the socialist path of development, meaning the restoration of public ownership of the main means of production, genuine socialist democracy, the transition through a series of successive stages to the highest phase of communism;

Re-establishment on a voluntary basis and socialist principles of a union state of sovereign equal republics of fraternal Soviet peoples.

II. Socialism and capitalism

The 20th century passed under the sign of the ongoing struggle between capitalism and socialism. The events that have shocked and continue to shock the world are based on the rapid progress of the productive forces, the scientific and technological revolution, which accelerated the course of socio-political processes throughout the world.

The struggle for the possession of increased social wealth pushed the most aggressive imperialist states to start two world wars. Imperialism gave birth to bloody fascism - a bourgeois-nationalist dictatorship based on mass terror, the domination of one nation over another. The workers' indignation at social inequality and the growth of their human dignity and class consciousness gave rise to a whole series of socialist and national liberation revolutions. The colonial system collapsed. The process of transition from capitalism to socialism on a worldwide scale has begun.

The growing process of socialization of production and the exacerbation of the contradictions of imperialism forced capitalist countries to take into account the experience of the Soviet Union, to use socialist methods of state regulation of economic life, modifying them for their needs. In some countries this was the direct nationalization of basic industries, in others it was the accumulation in the state budget of a significant part of the national income and its allocation to finance measures social assistance, government orders, including Scientific research, support for the agricultural sector, etc.

But no matter how capitalism is reformed, its essence remains the exploitation of hired workers, that is, the gratuitous appropriation by the owners of the means of production and capital of the results of other people’s labor in the form of surplus value. Thus, economic and social inequality and antagonism between different classes and countries of the capitalist world are preserved. Moreover, using the factor of the destruction of the Soviet Union, the ruling classes seek to minimize the social rights and guarantees obtained by workers in the previous period. In response, the protest movement of the working class, peasantry and working intelligentsia is growing.

Within the framework of the world system of capitalism, uneven development and exploitation of some countries by others cannot be eliminated. After the USA and other imperialist countries lost the opportunity to directly and openly plunder the enslaved peoples, they were able to impose economic exploitation on them, pump energy resources out of the “third world” countries, widely use cheap labor and, to a large extent, at the expense of This ensures a relatively high standard of living for its population.

The destruction of the Soviet Union gave the imperialists a free hand for a new redivision of the world. It has become possible for the United States and its NATO allies to introduce economic sanctions and blockades of states fighting for independence, and to carry out armed actions against them in order to impose a “new world order.”

Exploited peoples live in conditions of poverty and lawlessness. A new rise in the national liberation movement for economic and financial independence is inevitable. The success of this movement will not only lead to the accelerated development of currently backward peoples, but will also reduce the reserves for maintaining stability in developed capitalist countries.

Under capitalism, humanity cannot solve its moral problems. The morality by which everything is bought and everything is sold, extreme individualism, crime, corruption, the desire for overconsumption for the sake of false prestige, the readiness to use violence are not innate properties of the peoples of capitalist countries, but a consequence of the conditions of their existence. And this is another sphere of social existence that forms the revolutionary social consciousness of the working people and the oppressed masses.

Thus, the world system of capitalism is unstable. It is characterized by interstate conflicts, arms races and world wars, economic crises and social upheaval. The financial and economic crisis that has broken out, along with reckless integration into the world capitalist economy, has internal roots. The capitalist mode of production is characterized by irreconcilable contradictions between the social nature of the productive forces and the private capitalist type of property, the elements of the market, the unrestrained pursuit of profit, and the absence of a unified development plan. The only way to rid humanity of financial and economic crises, social upheavals and wars is the destruction of capitalism, the transfer of our countries to a planned economy, the socialist path of development.

The Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War paved the way to a socialist future, turned the country into a world power, saved humanity from fascism, accelerated the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism, and the creation of a world socialist system.

For the first time in world history, the foundations of socialism were built, the multinational Soviet Union was created, exploitation and national oppression were eliminated, the rights to work, rest, free education and treatment, housing, secure old age, and personal security were realized on a state scale and in relation to every person. . In the shortest possible time in history, the country reached the forefront in the field of education, science, culture, industry, the living standards of Soviet people were constantly increasing and at the same time different groups of the population were getting closer in income levels. A new international community of people was formed - the Soviet people, and the Soviet way of life took shape.

These successes were based on the fundamental advantages of the socialist system: public ownership of the means of production, Soviet power of the working people, friendship of peoples, collectivism, a planned national economy, the possibility of concentrating the efforts of society in decisive areas and directions. Nevertheless, socialism in the USSR suffered a temporary defeat.

III. Reasons and lessons
temporary defeat of socialism

The defeat of socialism was not an inevitable consequence of the supposedly initial depravity of the socialist system, the unreformability of the Soviet system, as those who betrayed the cause of socialism are trying to imagine. It is caused by a complex of objective and subjective factors.

Real historical conditions significantly complicated the construction of socialism, did not allow it to fully reveal its enormous potential: here is the backwardness of tsarist Russia, the petty bourgeois element, the constant threat of aggression from imperialism, the subversive activities of foreign intelligence services, forced and necessary defense spending, lagging behind advanced capitalist countries in the production of civilian products.

The Soviet Union, like no other country in the world, was thrown back twice in a short period of time; it took over 20 years to repel aggression and restore the national economy. But despite this, the country has reached high level economic development.

For the Soviet state, at the stage of creating the foundations of socialism in a capitalist environment, it became objectively inevitable that centralized system management. To a certain extent, thanks to her, the country achieved success in industrialization, won the Great Patriotic War, restored the national economy in an unprecedentedly short time, was the first to break into space, and achieved military-strategic parity with the United States. At the same time, excessive “nationalization” of the means of production, over-centralization in the context of the increased scale of the national economy, and the complication of production relations hampered the development of the initiative of labor collectives, socialist democracy, and “shadow” capital was gaining strength.

Attempts at the necessary transformations in the economy undertaken by the country's leadership in the 50s and 60s were inconsistent. The lag in improving production relations gave rise to stagnation in society, began to slow down the development of productive forces, and had a corrupting effect on public consciousness and morality.

In the early 80s, the leadership of the CPSU raised the question of the need for social transformations based on continuity, within the framework of socialism. In the second half of the 80s, by decision of the 27th Congress and the Plenums of the CPSU Central Committee, a socialist restructuring of the main spheres of society began, the main directions of which found their concrete embodiment in the 12th Five-Year Plan (1986-1990).

The main guidelines for social transformations were a more efficient economy, a significant improvement in the material and spiritual life of the population, and the expansion of the real participation of workers in the management of society.

In the first years of socialist perestroika, the largest volumes of industrial and agricultural production and housing construction were achieved. For the first time, an increase in production was achieved due to an increase in labor productivity; the construction of schools, children's institutions, hospitals, and clubs developed rapidly.

Positive changes in the development of the country, despite the mistakes made, took place because transformations in society were carried out within the Soviet system with the goal of its renewal, improvement, and not destruction.

In recent years, perestroika has lost its socialist and democratic orientation. This was a consequence of the weakening ties of the CPSU with the Soviet people, its ideological and organizational loosening, the formation of platforms and factions in it, the penetration of careerists and national separatists into the leadership of the party, state, party and government structures of the republics, the political degeneration of a group of the country’s leaders, their transition to the position of opportunism, liquidationism of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. The gross violations of socialist legality in the thirties had a detrimental effect.

The fight against the main danger - anti-socialist, national-separatist forces was replaced by the elimination of the so-called “conservative” forces, which actually advocated the improvement and reform of society within the framework of the Soviet system, on the principles of socialism. The process of disorganization of society began, a growing gap between the mass of goods and the income of workers, an increase in labor productivity and an increase in wages, and there was an acute shortage of consumer goods. National-separatist tendencies were gaining strength. The position of the USSR in the international arena weakened.

All this caused social tension in society. Strikes by workers at enterprises in various industries took place in the country, and political movements focused on the restoration of capitalism arose. Relying on the active support of external forces, the “shadow” economy, the “elite” of the artistic intelligentsia, part of the state and party apparatus, through deception and demagogy, these movements were able to gain the support of part of society. The means that launched the anti-Soviet slanderous campaign played a destructive role mass media, which were actually transferred by the state-party elite into the hands of the enemies of socialism.

The denouement came in August-December 1991. The counter-revolutionary coup brought anti-socialist forces to power. Under the false flag of building a “civil society,” anti-people ruling regimes in alliance with external forces began to liquidate the Soviets, remove workers, peasants, and labor intelligentsia from power, forcefully capitalize society, steal public property through privatization, and form a bourgeois authoritarian regime.

Is the defeat of socialism in the USSR final? What are the main lessons? History shows that not a single socio-economic formation was established without “rollback” processes, restorations of previous political structures, periods of reaction, but there were and cannot be forces that could turn history back. And the general crisis that gripped the socialist countries in the 80-90s is not a crisis of the very essence of socialism, but the result of distortion and deviation from the principles of socialism. Modern history testifies to the new rise of the communist movement in the world, the successful construction of socialism in China, Vietnam, and Cuba.

V.I. Lenin’s conclusion that one cannot move forward without moving towards socialism remains relevant. Restoration of capitalism is a movement backwards. Social transformations in the country were necessary and possible on the principles of socialism, within the framework of the Soviet system, without changing its economic and political foundations. Deviation from the planned beginning in economic development, the introduction of unregulated, so-called contract free prices led to the disorganization of the consumer market, the entire national economy, and the acceleration of the destruction of the Soviet state.

The course of events in recent years largely confirms J.V. Stalin’s prediction that as socialism is built, the resistance of internal and external hostile forces intensifies and often takes on fierce forms. Political practice once again proves the correctness of the proposition that those social forces against which political struggle is not being waged pose a particular danger. Anti-socialist, national-separatist forces were so hostile to society.

The subject of special concern of communists should be the creative development and application of Marxism-Leninism in the changed modern conditions. Unity and cohesion of the communist movement, purity of party ranks, exclusion of factions and platforms, development of internal party democracy. Strengthening control of the party masses over the formation and activities of party bodies and leading cadres. An uncompromising fight against opportunism, the eradication of bureaucracy in the party and society. The ties between the party and all its links with the working people should be developed in every possible way.

IV. Strategy and tactics of the UPC - CPSU
in the fight for restoration
workers' power

At each stage of the political struggle, the Communist Parties announce their strategy and tactics of action, based on the alignment of socio-political forces and the specific situation in the republics. At the same time, the general strategic program guidelines of the communist parties included in the UPC - CPSU are:

At the first stage, as opposition parties - a political struggle against anti-people regimes for the return of power and large property to the working people, active opposition to any steps ruling regimes that worsen the lives of working people and infringe on their political and social rights;

In the second, restorative transitional stage, after the working people have won power, there is the restoration of the foundations of socialism, the national economy with the increasing role of public ownership of the means of production, a decent standard of living, social guarantees, and the re-creation of the union state. In the future - a transition to a higher level of socialism with the complete dominance of public property, ensuring the rapid development of productive forces, growth in labor productivity and the well-being of the people.

At all stages, tactics, the choice of allies, methods and methods, and key areas of the activities of the Communist Parties are of particular importance.

The social support of the communist parties that are members of the UPC - CPSU is the working class, the peasantry, and the working intelligentsia. At the same time, communists take into account that among the working classes and social groups delamination occurs. Within them there is a certain part of workers, employees, thin layer intelligentsia, the top of the army and other security forces, fed by government handouts.

Property demarcation among the peasantry is proceeding more slowly. Some peasants conduct agriculture on the basis of collective property. As for farmers, many of them are in difficult situation and are practically a semi-proletariat.

In the process of restoration of capitalism in the republics, a bourgeois class was formed. It should be taken into account that the petty bourgeoisie is subject to fluctuations and is inclined to agree with the ruling regimes. The large speculative-criminal bourgeoisie, which has accumulated huge fortunes through the robbery of people's property through criminal privatization and the removal of raw materials from the country, is closely connected with international capital, contributes to the enslavement of the country, and is the support of the current regimes.

Domestic commodity producers, dissatisfied with the government's policies and the invasion of foreign capital, can be involved in a joint struggle against the colonial enslavement of our peoples, for the development of production, and the economic integration of the republics.

In order to eliminate the current regimes and restore the power of the working people, the Communist Parties will be able to form temporary political coalitions and enter into agreements with a wide range of organizations of a socialist, people's patriotic orientation. By concluding such alliances and undertaking joint actions, communist parties retain their political and organizational independence. Communist parties cannot be part of organizational blocs with the participation of anti-communist parties and movements.

UPC - CPSU as a union of communist parties of active political action will fight for the power of workers by all available forms and methods within the framework of the constitutions and legislation of the republics, as well as in accordance with the actions of the anti-people government. The parties advocate a peaceful transition to socialism. But if the bourgeois regime of power continues to pursue a policy of impoverishment and extinction of the population, then the working people have every right to its revolutionary overthrow. Of particular importance is the combination of the activities of communist parties in parliaments and representative bodies of power with the organization of mass protest actions of citizens as forms of class struggle in defense of the interests of workers.

Communists attach great importance to the promotion of workers, peasants, and intellectuals to legislative bodies at all levels, and to the energetic work of communist parliamentary factions. Elections to any bodies, referendums should be considered as peaceful forms of class struggle with the involvement of all sections of the working people, all voters, in them.

The main efforts of the party will be concentrated in labor collectives and at the place of residence of the population with the aim of educating and organizing them, exposing the anti-people essence of the ruling regimes, and will seek to stop the mockery of the Russian and Soviet history, give a decisive rebuff to the perversions of the ideas and achievements of V.I. Lenin, I.V. Stalin, and their comrades. Without clearing people's consciousness of the layers of lies about the Soviet era and the Communist Party, it is impossible to really involve millions of people in the struggle for socialism. Parties organize mass protests and solidarity, participate in political events held by other parties, trade unions, and social movements. In this work, we should more actively rely on veterans of war and labor who know the real price and significance of the achievements of socialism, communists of the older generation who remained faithful to the party in the most difficult times.

Lenin’s thesis about the need to unite socialism with the labor movement is becoming relevant again. The struggle for the power of the working people, for socialism, will end in success if these ideas, having captured the consciousness of the masses, again become a material force. This process will grow, gradually covering all groups of the working class, peasantry and intelligentsia, which suffered the most from economic devastation and the elimination of social guarantees.

UPC - CPSU supports the formation of workers' councils, strike committees and other workers' self-government bodies at enterprises and regions.

SKP - CPSU believes that the creation of parties with a social democratic orientation in states on the territory of the USSR is objectively aimed at splitting the working class and narrowing the base of the communist movement. At the same time, the communist parties that are members of the UPC - CPSU will act together with the Social Democrats against the impoverishment and lack of rights of working people, the establishment of an authoritarian regime and on other problems where there are common positions.

A special place in the activities of communist parties should be occupied by the replenishment of their ranks at the expense of youth, the combination of experienced and young communists in governing bodies at all levels, without which the ideological and organizational strengthening of the party and continuity in their policies are impossible.

UPC - CPSU is considering the Union Komsomol organizations- The Komsomol, as its main personnel reserve, a reliable assistant in achieving program goals, will provide all possible support and assistance in the formation and development of the Komsomol movement.

UPC - CPSU will also actively support women's and veterans' organizations, achieving their unity and, in turn, counts on their support in the struggle for social justice.

The active participation of communists in trade unions, even those with a conciliatory position, and joint actions in defense of the economic and social interests of working people will contribute to the revival of a powerful and organized labor movement.

Communists, while remaining atheists, stand for freedom of conscience, the right of everyone to profess a religion or not to profess any, for a strictly respectful attitude towards the religious feelings of believers, for the separation of church from state and school, against the substitution of science with faith and the use of religion for political purposes. Communists proceed from the fact that in the name of saving the Motherland, restoring the Soviet Union, and a decent life for working people, relations between communists and religious confessions can be relations of interaction, as happened in certain periods of Soviet power.

The events of recent years have led to the cleansing of the communist parties from direct accomplices of the counter-revolution, political careerists and simply masses of random people.

The diversity of communist organizations became inevitable in conditions when the general party leadership, both at the all-Union and at the republican levels, was treacherously destroyed.

Now, when the struggle for the power of the working people is entering a decisive phase, the multi-party system in the communist movement is dividing and weakening the forces of the communists. Communists advocate the unification of party ranks within the framework of single republican communist parties and their entry into the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU. It must be borne in mind that the shorter the period in which it is possible to turn the country onto the socialist path of development and recreate the state union of Soviet nations and nationalities, the less damage the people of each republic will suffer. This largely depends on the creation of united republican communist parties, their ideological and organizational cohesion.

The issues of creative development of the theory of Marxism-Leninism, deep understanding of ongoing processes in society, development of the correct strategy and tactics of the communist movement, deployment of agitation and propaganda among the masses are on the agenda with all urgency. In the current conditions, V.I. Lenin’s position that one must go to the masses “both as theorists, and as propagandists, and as agitators, and as organizers” is especially relevant.

The UPC - CPSU, the Communist Parties consider the primary task to be the fight against chauvinism, national separatism as the greatest evil that brings torment and suffering to the working people, they stand for political, social equality and friendship of peoples, for the international solidarity of working people of all nations.

The fratricidal wars revealed the connection between nationalism and anti-communism and the destructiveness of the policy of encouraging anti-communism. Ultimately, anti-communism and chauvinism of the ruling regimes resulted in the death of tens of thousands of people, the ruins of cities and villages.

Infringement of the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population in general in a number of republics causes a split in society along national lines, which prevents the reunification of peoples into a new Union.

Only the removal of anti-people regimes from power, the establishment of Soviet patriotism and socialist internationalism, and the restoration of the union state can extinguish interethnic and regional conflicts, solve the problem of divided Soviet peoples, and establish a lasting and just peace in all republics and regions of the union state.

Bourgeois plans for the integration of states, based on the power of capital, the dominance of private capitalist property, lead to increased exploitation, mass unemployment, the lack of rights and poverty of the majority of people, and the loss of independence of peoples and countries. The unity of the fraternal Soviet peoples on the principles of socialism is the path to unity, independence, progress, to a better life for people.

The task of the UPC - CPSU and its member communist parties is to organize an international social movement, groups and committees to assist him for the re-establishment on a voluntary basis and socialist principles of a union state of equal sovereign republics of fraternal Soviet peoples.

V. Action program of the UPC - CPSU
for restoring the foundations of socialism,
re-establishment of the union state

UPC - CPSU puts forward a set of tasks and measures that must be implemented immediately and in the future after the transfer of power to the working people. The main ones:

1. Restoring workers' power

To do this you need:

a) develop the Soviet system of power, ensure the sovereignty of the Soviets and the subordination of the executive bodies to them; to achieve broad representation in the Councils of workers, peasants, and labor intelligentsia by electing deputies on the production-territorial principle;

b) eliminate government positions and structures that are not under the control of the Soviets (presidents and their representatives, governors, mayors, prefects, etc.);

c) restore the bodies of people's control, the practice of nationwide discussion of important bills, and actually reduce the state apparatus;

d) ensure access to the media of all parties and movements. Prohibit the propaganda of racism, nationalism, violence and other immoral phenomena that undermine the moral foundations of the family, society, friendship of peoples, offending national traditions and customs;

e) restore order and legality, sharply reduce crime, eradicate profiteering, overcome drunkenness and drug addiction;

widely involve workers in restoring public order, ensuring the capacity law enforcement, disarm all paramilitary forces;

stop corruption and organized crime.

2. Return of the country
to the socialist path of development:

a) restore public property to Natural resources, fixed assets of production, while allowing the private sector in the sphere of small-scale production and sale of consumer goods and services;

stop the privatization of public property, review the results of privatization, return illegally appropriated property to labor collectives and the state;

save in recovery period enterprises owned by labor collectives that have completely become collective property; in the ownership of employees of enterprises - shares received or purchased by them in these enterprises, ensuring equality between managers and ordinary employees;

abolish private ownership of land and the right to buy and sell it; assign the land indefinitely to those who cultivate it, including for family farms, garden plots with the right of inheritance;

b) introduce a state monopoly on banking, nationalize banking, stock exchange and insurance activities, review all purchasing, wholesale and retail prices, establish equivalent exchange between industry and agriculture;

c) raise industrial and agricultural production to the level of 1989, for which:

Enter government regulation in combination with broad economic independence of enterprises, develop a plan for economic restoration, primarily the production of food and consumer goods;

To modernize the machine-building complex and on this basis ensure the technical re-equipment of industry and agriculture, the growth of production of knowledge-intensive, resource-saving products, relying mainly on own strength. Economic development must be accompanied by the preservation and protection of the environment;

Provide state support for the agro-industrial complex, healthcare, culture, education, fundamental science;

d) reduce the level of social differentiation, carry out a set of measures to withdraw capital acquired through speculation, the sale of national wealth, and the use of hired labor. Eliminate disproportions in the pay of certain groups of workers, make maximum use of the principle of payment according to work, encourage talent, qualifications and hard work;

e) restore social guarantees: ensure full employment of the working population, legislatively guarantee the employment of young people, abolish all types of paid healthcare and education. Expand housing construction to the level of 1986-1989 with free provision of housing to those in need;

restore full accessibility to all types of transport and communications; implement measures to restore the public catering system at affordable prices;

provide state support for the growth of the birth rate, additional assistance to mothers and children, and resume the work of all child care institutions;

f) develop and implement a state program for improving the spiritual life of the people, disseminating the best examples of domestic and world culture, stopping the inculcation of Westernism and Americanism, withdrawing art, culture and sports from the sphere of commerce, and creating favorable conditions for the activities of the artistic intelligentsia.

3. Restoring the country's independence

Introduce a state monopoly of foreign trade on raw materials and strategic goods, and prevent the sale of enterprises to foreign companies.

Or the grandiose performance with which N. Khrushchev tried to cover up the failures and growing difficulties in the USSR economy. What did one of the most insidious and cunning party apparatchiks actually mean when he proposed to adopt a Program for the Construction of Communism in the USSR at this congress? It is worth noting that immediately after Khrushchev’s removal, the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, with its grandiose plans, was taken into the ideological shadow, in which it still exists.

At the previous, 21st Congress of the CPSU, a seven-year (1959-1965) plan for the economic development of the USSR was adopted, which was called a plan for building the foundations of a communist economy, a plan for new, grandiose achievements, etc. A year passed, and the implementation of the plan seriously stalled, primarily in agriculture, corn did not want to grow in our climatic conditions, and, with the hope of a future harvest, the sown areas that were used for rye and wheat were given over to it. Normal leaders should urgently determine ways to correct mistakes, but this meant admitting to the economic illiteracy of those who were called the Central Committee of the CPSU, personally Comrade Khrushchev, and their inability to govern the state! Looking ahead, I note that in the Report at the 22nd Congress, Khrushchev slightly hinted at this, in his own way he criticized his little Ukraine: “In 1960, only (!) 359 million poods of grain were prepared in Ukraine. You, comrades Ukrainians. Of course remember this, do not forget this."

Elsewhere, he modestly mentioned the difficult weather conditions in which the villagers fought for a high harvest! But mostly everything is fine! Since my school years, I have been tormented by one question: why is everything counted in tons, but grains are counted in pounds, and not in tons? And only when I first got to the collective farm, as it provided endless patronage, I learned a simple answer. The foreman, over a drink and a good conversation about life, explained, sons, but in poods the figure is greater, whether there are thousands of tons or a million poods, there is a difference! So they wrote pounds in their reports!

The 22nd Congress itself took place as planned, October 17-31, 1961, because unlike the previous, twenty-first, it was regular. It was attended by 4899 delegates, foreign guests from fraternal communist and friendly parties. N S Khrushchev made both a reporting report to the congress and a report on the CPSU Program. This was the third Party Program, which was called the Program for Building Communism in the USSR, and the congress itself was called the Congress of the Builders of Communism. Having announced the contents of the Program, Khrushchev looked, as they would say now, as a messiah who showed the way to heaven! Yes, right there and soon! Let me very briefly remind those who have forgotten or don’t know because they are too young.

Already in 1965 all taxes will be abolished. They will be replaced by growing labor productivity in social production. By 1970, the USSR will surpass the United States in per capita production! In addition, in 1970 the USSR will become the country of the shortest working day, in 10 years no more than 35 working hours per week... Hard physical labor will disappear! Everyone will be provided with material wealth!

As a result of the second decade (1970-1980), the material and technical base of communism will be created (as they wrote in the MTBC notes), and an abundance (!) of material and cultural goods will be ensured for the entire population! By 1980 the volume industrial production will increase 6 times! Agricultural production will increase 3.5 times. As a result, Soviet society will approach the principle of distribution according to needs! By this, so distant 1980, the Program promised, a communist society would be basically built in the USSR. The USSR will smelt 250 million tons of steel, overwhelm everyone with it and finally surpass the USA! Overtaking the United States was Khrushchev’s fixed idea, but the United States itself somehow did not run anywhere. The program confirmed the right of citizens to free education, healthcare, proclaimed in the future free housing and public utilities, free travel on public transport, etc. Those listening to the Report took their breath away; the speaker was interrupted by applause, standing ovations and even joyful laughter.

In conclusion, N. Khrushchev proclaimed the famous “The goals are clear, the tasks are defined, let’s get to work, comrades! The current generation of Soviet people will live under communism!”

The question arises, who composed all this and why? After all, pointing out specific figures for such a grandiose project to the whole world, declaring specific dates for their achievement, is hardly self-confidence and one’s capabilities, but rather projection. And if so, then this exposes the boss, in this case the head of the party, and therefore the state, and reveals him to everyone as the very last liar! Sergei Khrushchev recalls that the content of the Program was discussed many times in the summer at his father’s dacha near Moscow; many economists and ministers were there, including A. N. Kosygin and Academician B. N. Ponomarev. Yes, the same one, the main author of the textbook on the history of the CPSU. which was impossible to read, boredom and wild turbidity. So, Sergei Nikitovich recalls that he kept trying to find out from the same Ponomarev how we could catch up with the United States so quickly. He explained to the unreasonable youth, you see, capitalism is now in a crisis, which is deepening, becoming universal and leading to the stupor of the US economy and all others. And we, after the adoption of the Program, will rapidly move forward and will be able to catch up and overtake everyone, including the United States. Khrushchev did not have time to find out what communism is, because Ponomarev was called to his father. Maybe it’s for the better, because if an academician and member of the CPSU Central Committee understands economic processes so “deeply,” then he has comprehended the theory of communism, judging by the definition of this formation, to unprecedented heights. The tedious definition “Communism is a classless social system with a single national ownership of the means of production, complete social equality of all members of society...” and so on, they forced students to learn by heart. If you don’t know, it means “no luck!” Come back when you learn.

But there was one more main question, which ran like a “red thread” through both Khrushchev’s reports - “the fight against Stalin’s personality cult.” It would seem that everything has already been said at the 20th and 21st congresses, decisions have been made. But no, the struggle continued, according to the text of the Report, Khrushchev once again trashes V. M. Molotov, calling him stubborn, trashes the anti-party group with Shepilov who joined him, uses bad words for G. Zhukov, etc.... Why? Does he feel that his power is not strong, so he recruits mass sympathy? Many believe that this was an act of intimidation of possible opponents, look how I defeated the untouchables, let alone everyone else!... But, I didn’t guess, it didn’t help!

On October 31, the congress completed its work. On the same day, the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee took place, which confirmed N. S. Khrushchev’s right to power! Then, closer to midnight, Stalin was expelled from the mausoleum and reburied. A wave of renaming streets and cities began, so intrusive and therefore perceived with dull dissatisfaction. Communism did not work out, as did many of Khrushchev’s plans. Its construction led on June 1-2, 1962 to a hunger uprising of workers in Novocherkassk, execution and an evil tribunal over the rebels. Then, in 1962, the USSR began massive purchases of grain from the USA. American farmers were happy.

When the “palace coup” happened in October 1964 and N. Khrushchev was removed from power, the people breathed a sigh of relief. Finally!

Sergei Khrushchev, many years later, assessed the role of Khrushchev’s father in this way: “My father went down in history in the literal and figurative sense... he turned out to be an imprudent prophet and he alone has to answer for all the unfulfilled expectations. Posthumously!”

At the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR N.S. Khrushchev had to report on the Program for Building Communism. (The first program of the party, then still the RSDLP, called for revolution; later the Bolsheviks adopted the second program - building socialism).

And N.S. Khrushchev began to prepare...

“After reading the works of academicians, my father remained dissatisfied: on the one hand, there were specific deadlines, and on the other, complete uncertainty about what and how should be done by these deadlines. He did not consider it possible to present “academic fantasies” to the party congress. (Such an appeal is extremely strange - the works of academicians could have been published in the USSR, only if they corresponded to the provisions of the classics of Marxism-Leninism. The same book states that the main ideologist of the party M.A. Suslov got rid of difficult questions about the future of the country with “florid quotes” from the same books - Note. I.L. Vikentyev). And he proposed to lay a serious foundation for the program, to thoroughly calculate what and how much each Soviet citizen would receive by the time communism was built. “Communism requires the creation of economic preconditions. […]

In 1961, communism meant a prosperous life for everyone, including my father. Life is better than anyone else’s in the world, first of all, better than America, which, following this strange logic, was already living in communism. But I think I've gone too far. […]

On the eve of the Plenum of the Central Committee, economic forecasters led by Kosygin and Ponomarev on a sunny Sunday in June 1961 at the dacha in Gorki-9 did not report, but rather told their father about their achievements. My father often practiced such Sunday gatherings. At the dacha, under the pine trees, you can talk to your heart's content, discuss without regulations, without phone calls, without visitors waiting in the reception area. Everyone sat in a circle in wicker summer chairs, on the grass, father in a light embroidered Ukrainian shirt, the rest, some in ties, some without, but all without jackets, it was hot. They spoke in turns, without getting up from their seats. I settled down behind the group, next to my father’s assistant Shuisky.

What I heard made a dual impression on me: the numbers, of course, are grandiose, but they are just numbers. Where is communism? And where is the guarantee that we will beat the Americans, and not them us? Then they announced a smoke break, my father couldn’t stand tobacco smoke, and no one smoked near him, even in the fresh air. I saw that Ponomarev was standing alone in the distance, and decided to ask him in more detail. Boris Nikolayevich explained that the US economy has exhausted itself, the crisis of capitalism is inevitable, and we will continue to move forward. His words didn’t really convince me, but then everyone was called back and he didn’t have time to tell me what communism was. And I had to take the secretary of the Central Committee and the academician at their word that we would overtake the Americans. I believed it. But there is enough self-justification and backward-looking accusations. There is, in fact, no one to blame and nothing to blame. After all, as we know, it was not even about a plan, but a plan-forecast. Forecasters, on the other hand, do not have the opportunity to look into the future; they are based on the experience of the past and are not able to foresee future technical or other revolutions, crises, or cataclysms. This is why predictions rarely come true. Remember naive novels Jules Verne, by the way, one of the best forecasters of the 19th century, or “visionary” stories of leading scientists of that time about what will happen in twenty to thirty years. They are just right to be placed on humor pages. And fantasies and foresights Isaac Asimov and other pioneers of the computer era: gigantic, larger than the largest skyscraper, tube electronic brains, punched cards and punched tape...

To my father’s credit, I will say that he tried, as far as possible, to look beyond the horizon. For example, he insisted, I have already written about this in detail, on freezing the growth rate of steel production in favor of chemistry. But this is not a prediction, but a sober assessment of the present, the already begun technical revolution in structural materials. My father was soon “corrected”; after 1964, steel production again became a priority.

So you shouldn’t blame either the State Planning Committee or the State Economic Council, which drew up the forecast plan, for adventurism, incompetence and other sins, as well as Kosygina and father, who accepted their conclusions on faith. We are as “incompetent” in our future as our predecessors were in theirs. And we don’t know what will actually happen in twenty or thirty years, just as they didn’t know. It is ignorance that stimulates us to achieve achievements for the sake of the future. If we knew the truth... I'll return to the Program. How did all of us, including my father, imagine communism? First of all, universal prosperity. Actually, the Program for the Construction of Communism is another attempt to overcome poverty and provide people with a life worthy of a human being. It is aligned with the development of virgin lands, the construction of cheap and affordable housing, but only now, in twenty years, my father hoped, it would be possible to resolve all the remaining problems at once.

Plus - universal equality. Here a contradiction arose with the principle of material interest proclaimed by the father, who rejected equalization and put at the forefront the principle: if you work better, you live richer. I can’t say that my father didn’t think about the contradictions in the very approach to communism. I was still thinking about it. But I didn’t always find answers to my questions. […]

Why is the comparison made to 1960? There were simply no other figures; the US did not forecast economic development, and our economists, as I already noted, believed that since 1960 they had begun to stagnate and were no longer able to grow. According to the theory, as communism approached, the role of the state increased, state ownership dominated the economy, but at the same time it was ordered to die out. A contradiction that in practical terms turned out to be insoluble. The decision was postponed until better times. The congress ended on a pathetic note with the words of my father: “Our goals are clear. Our tasks are defined. Let's get to work, comrades! Those present in the hall gave a long standing ovation. After the congress, the call will be replicated in millions of posters.

The most accessible of communist innovations began to be implemented already in 1962: bread bins with free bread appeared in canteens: eat as much as you like. In city transport, trams, trolleybuses and buses, the conductors who collected fares have disappeared: now conscious passengers throw a coin into the box, unconscious ones ride like this. Over time, the number of free services to the population should have increased. […]

Most people still perceive communism as the Kingdom of God on earth, something as beautiful as it is unattainable. No one can build such communism; it can only be promised. If the father had been cunning, more cynical, they would have written into the Program a steady increase in well-being without numbers, removed the deadlines, and the construction of a communist “paradise” and something else, as abstruse as it is uncertain, would have been designated “in the foreseeable future” (who knows how far they can see) - and everything would go smoothly. Officials, on occasion, at meetings would remember the Program, and ordinary citizens - some would believe, others would not believe...

With his commitment to specifics, numbers and deadlines, my father, without knowing it, made history in the literal and figurative sense with the Third Party Program. Who doesn’t laugh at his words that “the current generation will already live under communism.” And it serves him right. It's the same as if the biblical prophets wrote down specific dates in their tablets The End of the World, the Last Judgment and the Second Coming. They would be good when the time comes. The father turned out to be an improvident “prophet”. He has to answer for all unfulfilled expectations. Posthumously...

Khrushchev S.N. , Nikita Khrushchev: Reformer, M., “Time”, 2010, pp. 753-760.

The CPSU Program stated that by 1980 the Soviet people would live under communism...