From: CDELL@VAX1.UMKC.EDU ("VALENTINE M. SMITH")
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Comments on Document ab2unity.doc of the LC Archives
Date: 13 Aug 92 07:05:06 GMT
Reply-To: "talk.politics.soviet via ListServ" <TPS-L@indycms.iupui.edu>

To the comment of NVALDES on RUSSIA that my comments to these
documents are "unnecessary" - you are probably right. They are
"unnecessary," however, I WAS asked to give them, so I have continued
to do so despite an enormous amount of flack over offering comments.
Writing the series at all was "unnecessary," I chose to do so because
I was interested - if you don't like 'em, don't read them! In fact,
after this one, given the general hostility RUSSIA members have
offered over this series, the last four documents, AND comments, will
be available on SovHist and TPS-L (plus Val-L), but will "spare"
RUSSIA from having to read them.

As they used to say often on "Saturday Night Live," " Excuuuuuuuse
me!" At least I took the time, and sometimes aggravating trouble, to
comment on these 31 documents. It has elicited some productive
exhange, so I apologize for boring those of you who are bored, I have
five documents left to comment about, and I AM going to finish! I
must say I agree, at least in part, with Cathy Flick's recent
comments on the level of tolerance for expression of thought on
RUSSIA - it is minimal, and often immensely vicious. It is hard, in
historic times, to talk of historic things, while petty sniping
occurs about the effacy of one posting at all.

>                     To the TSK KPSS


>                    R E S O L U T I O N
>       of the 3rd All-Union Conference of the Society
>        "Unity, for Leninism and Communistic Ideals"
>               October 28, 1990, Leningrad

>ON THE LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN THE POLICIES OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF
>THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION [CC
>CPSU] M.S. GORBACHEV

>Faced with catastrophic consequences for the people, the country, and
>the party due to M.S. Gorbachev's policy of so-called "Perestroika",
>and in view of the fact that this policy has absolutely revealed its
>bourgeois-restorationist character, and in consideration of the fact
>that we are on the brink of an even graver national catastrophe in
>connection with the planned implementation in the country of the
>"stabilization program" from the International Monetary Fund, which
>is disguised as a transitional program toward a market economy, the
>3rd All-Union Conference of the Society "Unity, for Leninism and
>Communist Ideals,"

There remains an enormous hostility towards the IMF that extends all
the way to Yeltsin, and the "bourgeois-restorationist" changes are
not completely welcome two years later ...

>expresses its lack of confidence in the policies of M.S. Gorbachev as
>General Secretary of the CC CPSU.

Somehow, such a move is not too surprising.

>We feel that the only force in the country capable of changing the
>course of the events in a constructive way, without leading to civil
>war, to date continues to remain the Communist Party.

This attitude remains staunchly held by a substantial minority in
Russia 22 months later.

>We invite all honest, socialistically-and patriotically-oriented
>members of the CPSU, members of the Central Committee and the CC
>CPSU, party organizations at all levels, and the communist parties of
>all union republics to request the convening of a special meeting of
>the CPSU, to raise the question of:

Most of what is suggested below was tried.

>1.   The dismissal of M.S. Gorbachev and his more zealous associates,
>who were involved in the unleashing of a bourgeois counterrevolution
>in the Soviet Union, from all elected party posts and about their
>exclusion from the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Yakovlev and Shevardnadze got the boot just before the coup, Gorb
quit, to some degree the CPSU got what this minority wanted. However,
the ax fell on the party at the same time, Pyrhhic victory, it would
seem.

>2.   The recall of M.S. Gorbachev and said persons from deputy posts,
>to which they were appointed only because they were party
>functionaries.

>3.   The immediate removal of the country from this general national
>crisis not along the path of the restoration of capitalism but of
>socialist renewal.

The debate still proceeds, "capitalism, Russian-style, is still the
course of preference.

>[4]  An investigation into the real reasons and processes that formed
>this crisis situation during 1985-1900, which is unprecedented in
>terms of severity and danger for the Soviet government, and calling
>the guilty to account before the party and the country.

This probably won't happen, though the CPSU's role is being examined
by the Constitutional Court, for not only the Gorbachev period, but
all the way back to 1917.

>The All-Union Society "UNITY" recommends that all members of the
>organization develop propaganda campaigns for this resolution at the
>local level, firstly, by means of conducting open party, trade-union
>and similar meetings, to achieve the concurrence of CPSU party
>organizations.

A lot of CPSU debate over directions, and the role of leadership, DID
occur.

>Forward the proceedings from the open All-Union Party Conference to
>Call M.S. Gorbachev to Account before the Party to the CC CPSU, to
>newspapers, and to the political executive committee of "Unity".

The "calling to account" really failed to occur, despite the
militancy expressed in this document.

>The resolution was accepted unanimously.

>Chairman of the political executive committee of the All-Union
>Society "Unity--for Leninism and Communist Ideals"

>[signed] N. ANDREEVA

Lots of resistance to change, this document is probably but one tiny
slice of the magnitude and depth of that resistance. VMS
Xref: sparky talk.politics.soviet:7128 soc.history:7505