The era of Stalin 2. The first president

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

“I, on appeals to my Reception

I can always tell what issues are acute now.

You can write history on the materials of the Reception Room."

(M. I. Kalinin in conversation with the press)

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was one of the favorite and most popular of the leaders of the "peoples of the Soviet Union." He acquired this exceptional popularity in constant lively contact with the broadest working masses of town and country. For which he received an honorary people's "position" - the All-Union headman.

From the very first day of his election as Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in March 1919, the highest post in the leadership of the USSR, corresponding to the modern style of the President of the USSR, we can say with confidence that there is literally not a single site of Soviet economic and cultural development where the hand of Mikhail Ivanovich is not felt where his weighty word would not have been said.

Less than a month after his election, the following announcement appeared in the Izvestia VTsIK newspaper on April 25, 1919: “Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Comrade Kalinin on Saturday (April 26, 1919) will receive applicants from 10 to 12 o'clock. in the fourth House of Soviets, on Mokhovaya, 7, third floor, apt. 4 . Since that time, the reception room of MI Kalinin began its actual existence.

As one of the main "architects" of the structure of Soviet Power, and the formation of interaction between the "branches" of power, Kalinin, by personal example, established a connection with the masses of workers and peasants, and introduced this into the system as one of the main priorities of interaction between the government and the people.

MI Kalinin made sure that his reception quickly and politically correctly responded to complaints from workers. “If where you need to be able to apply policy, - Mikhail Ivanovich spoke - so this is precisely in the issue of handling complaints, because in our conditions every decision is a policy … It is better to refuse than to throw like a ball, by a man … A dozen correct decisions in a district is after all a 10 thousandth meeting. What do you think is the right decision, it remains only in one village? It extends to 10, or even 15 kilometers, because the masses themselves act here as agitators, they will spread this decision everywhere, and they will discuss this decision 10 times at lunch, in the evening, etc. … Consideration of complaints - one of the important conductors of communism”.

Members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, who worked in the field, were involved in receiving visitors and analyzing their applications. These were people who knew the local situation and needs, it was easier for them to correctly approach the resolution of complaints and applications. The visitor knew that his case was being examined by a member of the highest body of Soviet power. At the same time, working in the reception room, the members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee - workers and collective farmers - learned to approach issues not from a narrow local, but from a national point of view. In a conversation on May 16, 1935 with members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee, who had come to work in the Reception Room. M. I. Kalinin pointed out:

“First of all, you need to remember that you must consider cases on the merits, and not formally. You must consider the cases that come to you so that they are resolved in good conscience … The main thing here is to soberly approach each issue, to speak with a person so that, leaving you, he felt that he was treated like a human being. Send cases to places less. Transferring cases to places is the easiest thing. If we deal with the transfer of cases to local organizations, then we will have a dead office

It is still alive with us, because we solve some of the issues here. If you can only decide here, then you need to decide. It is better to refuse when the question is clear than to engage in referral. Don't be afraid to deny your eyes. Of course, when you refuse, the person will leave you enraged, but then he will think and say that there was a place where they told him right in his face what to expect. Our departments usually suffer from the fact that they send people from Pontius to Pilate. And they do not refuse, and do not satisfy. This is the most disgusting bureaucratic red tape. You see that nothing can be done - then refuse. Why fool a man's head in vain? You need to tell him directly: "Don't go anywhere, nothing will come of it." The person will first get excited, will prove to you that you are wrong, and then calm down and. in any case, he will know what to do

We need to see it through to the end. If the local authorities are stubborn and do not want to implement your decisions, and you feel that you have made the right decision, then insist on your decision. You must strive to see it through to the end. Only then are the results of politics visible when the matter is brought to an end. If you start something and don't finish it, it will be a perversion of politics."

When some Soviet leaders spoke out in favor of abolishing the reception offices of the chairmen of the Presidiums of the Supreme Soviets of the republics, MI Kalinin categorically opposed such proposals. Addressing the leaders of the Supreme Soviets of the republics, he said: “You must appear in public at least once a week. You say that we have the most democratic parliament in the world, the most democratic government in the world, and you want to liquidate the Reception Room so that it would be very difficult to get to a representative of the government. This will not work. "

According to far from complete data, for 27 years MI Kalinin and his closest assistants received about 1 million people at the Reception. In addition, 3 million applications sent to the Reception Office by mail were reviewed. In total, therefore, the Reception Office received about 4 million applications. It should be taken into account that numerous representatives from entire districts, volosts, villages and collective farms applied to the Reception Office, and also the fact that letters were often collective.

The walkers certainly want to see Mikhail Ivanovich himself and will leave him invariably satisfied. Even if he refused. To one he will arrange what he asked, with another he will talk heart to heart, explain why his request cannot be satisfied, and to the third he will say:

- You were ruining the collective farm, you are the enemy of the collective farm, so you are also my enemy …

It happens that talking with a walker about an illegally taken cow. Mikhail Ivanovich will take out his watch, frown and, having finished speaking, will go about other business. Not far to go, across the road. After a while, the most expensive foreign cars in the world drive up to the same ancient stone gates, into which Mikhail Ivanovich entered.

The president of the first socialist state gives audiences to numerous representatives of foreign states or accepts credentials from ambassadors of world powers. People plated with gold will emanate from them. In the magnificent Kremlin hall, M. I. Kalinin receives credentials from the ambassador and gives him an audience. - the oldest president of the strongest government of the greatest power.

In the descriptions of contemporaries who happened to listen to Mikhail Ivanovich's speeches, he retained in his memory not only the content, but also the very form of his speech. For Mikhail Ivanovich's speech is always figurative, specific, unusually logical, convincing and often flavored with subtle humor. An exceptional master of "intelligible" words with any interlocutor or audience. He knows how to present the most complex and "delicate" questions to the audience in such a clear, precise and figurative form that they will certainly reach the listener's consciousness and cause the necessary reaction.

Kalinin makes very strict requirements not only to the content of a speech or document, but also to their form. In a conversation with peasant writers in May 1932, Mikhail Ivanovich said:

“If they asked me who knows Russian better, I would answer - Stalin. It is necessary to learn from him stinginess, clarity and crystal purity of the language. Try to summarize in a shorter way some idea expressed by Stalin”

At a meeting of the party and Soviet activists in Western Siberia, Mikhail Ivanovich explained his phrase:

“What does it mean to acquire such a culture? This means knowing in literature, and philosophy, and other subjects necessary for a cultural leader. A person is in charge of an entire area, he must know people, their nature, ways of their best use. For this, from my point of view, one must have a good knowledge of the world of fine literature. And for this you need to have a lot of time. We, the old Bolsheviks, are comparatively cultured people, but we, after all, have been cultivated in prisons for five or more years. There was a library, there was time, there was bread, there was a room too … But now, the very situation, production, the state of the Soviet country, in spite of everything, urgently demand a cultural leader. And since the very history of the victory of mankind poses this problem, then undoubtedly means and opportunities will be found to solve this problem."

These are the advice of the "president" of the Soviet state.

The iron determination and unshakable confidence of Mikhail Ivanovich in the greatness, righteousness and invincibility of the work to which he devoted his life, amazes and amazes everyone who comes in close contact with him in his work.

From the very first days of his election, Mikhail Ivanovich tirelessly travels throughout our vast country, often climbing into the most remote, remote areas. Particularly memorable are his long trips to the fronts of the civil war and during the fight against hunger. During these trips, Mikhail Ivanovich did tremendous work in the fight against counter-revolution, hunger and devastation, everywhere organizing the broad working masses into an offensive against intervention, sabotage, sloppiness and bureaucracy, and instilling courage and faith in the measures of the Party and the government and in the inevitability of our complete victory.

His services in raising the morale of the Red Army during the years of the civil war were marked with a high award - two Orders of the Red Banner and a special order from Comrade Voroshilov with the presentation of a personalized honorary weapon.

Especially great are the merits of Mikhail Ivanovich in the implementation of organizational work on collectivization and the development of industrialization of the USSR. He is the author of the movement of twenty-five thousand, when the rapidly growing collective farm movement needed to be given socialist forms of management.

Thousands of enterprises and organizations of the country responded to the resolution of the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1929. As a result, in the USSR, 27,519 people were selected and sent to work in collective farms, of which only 60% were party members. To prepare twenty-five thousand people for work in the countryside, special courses were created in which questions of collective farm construction were studied.

Twenty-five thousand people took an active part in the creation of new collective farms and the economic strengthening of weak artels, led political and educated. and cultural - mass work among the peasants. They helped the collective farms to establish an accounting of the artel property, correctly distribute the labor force, strengthen labor discipline, establish the correct wages, and acted as organizers of socialist competition.

Continuing the friendly communication with the country, bonded by many years ago, he rarely sits in Moscow for a long time. But if he is not on a trip, if he is late in the capital, the country itself comes to him with thousands of walkers, tens of thousands of letters. The number of letters is growing from year to year, and the difficult path of our victories can be traced from them. It can be seen how unemployment was disappearing: there were fewer and fewer requests for material assistance: how the collective farms were getting stronger, how the affairs of the state became a vital matter of every Soviet citizen: more and more letters not about personal, but recommending to the head of government one or another state measure to improve, to improve the cultural living standards and much more.

Deep erudition, excellent knowledge of folk life, the ability to understand the intricacies of behind-the-scenes politics, rich experience of communicating with various strata of society, with numerous foreign delegations characterize Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin.

From his speeches at meetings with workers, peasants, conferences, congresses, one can perfectly study the history of both internal and foreign policy of the Soviet Union, it is such a leader who deserves the power of workers and peasants, and the post of leader of the Soviet Union for 26 years deservedly belonged to Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin …

Some of his quotes are offered to your attention:

(Excerpts from the speeches of comrade Kalinin, delivered by him at meetings and conversations with the peasants of the Kazan, Simbirsk, Penza and Samara provinces).

“There should not be any pressure and violence on the part of party comrades and on the part of the Government of the Soviet Republic on the peasants. We are bringing communist teaching to the peasants; but at the same time we ourselves must learn from these same peasants."

*****

“Our Soviets are guarded by sentries, fenced off with slingshots in the form of pass tickets. The employees in them become callous and become bureaucrats. Local Soviet power cannot approach the peasants. On the contrary, it is necessary that each Soviet be the home and intimate place of the worker and peasant, so that everyone can go there during the day, at night, so that the homeless can find shelter there."

*****

“It happens that a decree issued in Moscow is good for the Tver province, tolerant for the Simbirsk province, but completely unsuitable for the Arkhangelsk province. If this or that decree does not meet the interests of the peasantry, then, of course, we are not Old Believers, we will always change this decree."

*****

"We will remove the commissars who are causing devastation and collapse in the countryside in the most decisive manner, and we will offer the peasants to elect those whom they find necessary and useful."

*****

“I travel around Russia and collect peasant complaints. Upon arrival in Moscow, we will bring them together, but if there are many complaints against the same decree, it will be canceled."

*****

"The socialist system will not only never fight against individual peasant farms, but will even try in every possible way to improve their situation."

"No one can encroach on the peasant economy."

*****

“The gross output per day of human labor in industry is 18 rubles. 36 kopecks, and in agriculture - 1 rub. 53 kopecks. This is the difference in terms of labor productivity. Agriculture lags behind almost 12 times the productivity of a worker in our Union. The incredible wastefulness of labor in agriculture, the miserable level at which the productivity of small-scale agriculture stands - all these shortcomings can be eliminated only with the transition of small individual farms to collective principles. Outside the transition to collective principles, there are no broad prospects for the development of agriculture, and small individual farms will not be able to meet the needs of the developing economy of the country."

*****

“Further, several hundred German and Swedish kulaks left the Soviet Union, who did not like collectivization. Around these kulaks, the bourgeois and Social Democratic press abroad raised an incredible uproar and an uproar directed against the Soviet Union.

Or: we have been conducting systematic anti-religious propaganda for a long time, which, it seems to me, is by no means interference in the internal affairs of any foreign state. Nevertheless, it turns out that the whole world, starting from the Pope and ending with the last social-fascist, "suffers" from our anti-religious propaganda, and in this regard, the most unbridled campaign and persecution is being waged against us.

Finally, the foreign bourgeois and social-fascist press does not hesitate in the struggle against the Soviet Union to take advantage of the betrayal of some of our officials who are deserting from our trade missions and missions. However, comrades, every such traitor who deserves only contempt meets in the bourgeois camp with a greeting and open arms, and incredible hooting rises at the address of the Soviet Union. Compare these facts, and you will understand the anti-Soviet campaign that is being prepared by the adventurous elements of the capitalist world.

"Report at the meeting of the Moscow regional party organization on July 17, 1930"

*****

“And, finally, the imperialists are afraid that the war against the Soviet Union will turn into a civil war and that in this way they may lead themselves to suicide. This last motive has a very serious significance, and the imperialist gentlemen are right when they take it into account in their anti-Soviet plans."

(Report at the Lower Volga regional party conference in Saratov, June 6, 1930)

*****

“This mistake lies in the failure to understand that the dictatorship of the proletariat is exercised in our country in the form of Soviets, that the village council is not only an administrative body, but it is a grassroots foundation, a base, an organization through which and through which the entire multimillion-dollar mass of the poorest and middle peasants is embraced. The village council is an integral and very important part of the entire system of the dictatorship of the proletariat. If we abolish the village councils, and then we liquidate the district councils, then what will happen? We will have a head and torso without legs. Can this be accepted? No, that cannot be accepted."

*****

“What is a 'intensified offensive against the kulak', and the party and the opposition talk about this offensive, but they understand it differently. The opposition, frightened by the kulak, proposes to launch all sorts of coercive measures against it, such as kombedas, dispossession of kulaks, compulsory loans, administrative restraints, like we did in 1918-1919. But now it is both harmful and unnecessary.

With the fist, we will handle the economic activities. We already keep it in a fist. And any coercive measures proposed by the opposition would have hit not so much the kulan as would have undermined the entire peasant economy. Therefore, when we talk about an attack on the kulak, it means an economic offensive, it means the unification of the poor and middle peasants in partnerships, in collective farms and this way the kulaks are forced out of the market."

*****

His call to the young Red Army men to defend and defeat the enemy threatening the young republic was relevant for many years: