The 7th extraordinary congress of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks opened

On March 6, 1918 in Tauride Palace in Petrograd opened the 7th extraordinary congress of the Russian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks). At the congress were present 47 delegates having a deciding vote and 59 having a deliberative voice which represented over 170 thousand party members. The congress was headed by V. I. Lenin.

The aim of the congress was to solve the most important issue for Russia of the time: drop out of the imperialistic war. The order paper also included the Central Committee report, the revision of the party’s program and name as well as the organizational issues and the Central Committee election.

The organizational report of the Central Committee was approved by the congress unanimously. Regarding the issue of war and peace the debate began. The demands of the ‘left communists’, standing up for the immediate ‘revolutionary war’ against German, were rejected. Lenin’s resolution ‘On war and peace’ adopted 30 votes against 12 with 4 abstentions acknowledged it necessary to confirm the hard peace treaty with German signed on March 3 in Brest-Litovsk ‘due to the absence of the army, due to the extremely unhealthy condition of the demoralized front units, due to the necessity to use any possibility in front of the imperialist attack against the Socialist republic’.

Upon the congress decision the Russian social and democratic working party (of Bolsheviks) was renamed to the Russian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks). In order to elaborate a new party program was elected a commission headed by V. I. Lenin.

Lit.: Седьмой экстренный съезд РКП(б). Март 1918 года. Стенографический отчёт. М., 1962; Седьмой съезд РКП (б) [Электронный ресурс] // Большая советская энциклопедия. М., 1976. Т. 23; Соболев Г. Л. Русская революция и «немецкое золото». СПб., 2002; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/research/sobolev_gl/index.html; Троцкий Л. Сочинения. Т. 17. Ч. 1. М.; Л.,1926.