The First General Purge of the RCP(b) in 1921: Institutional and Human Dimensions (Basing on Archival Material of the Vyatka Gubernia)

Abstract

In June 1921, the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) adopted a decision on the first general purge of the party and for the period August 1 — October 1. The party organizations set as a goal to free themselves from all “clinging” members who pursued selfish material or other interests. The subject of the study is the analysis of the organization, conduct, and results of the purge in the Vyatka provincial organization of the party, as well as a socio-psychological portrait of those expelled after the purge. The work uses archival sources and the principle of historicism, methods of historical institutionalism, and case studies. It turned out that the purge took place at a later date, from September to November 1921, which indicated both the weakness of party discipline and low level of party organization. The number of excluded and expelled members was much more than in the whole country, which was due to the non-proletarian composition of the organization, the crisis at the beginning of the NEP, and the nature of the attitude of peasant communists to NEP. The main result of the purge was an increase in more disciplined and executive party members who believe in the ideals of communism. Nevertheless, the purge did not reach its goal, since the crisis in the party organizations of the province kept growing. In the 1922–1924, many county-level organizations whose members were purged found themselves in a state of deep disintegration and were again subjected to purges.