Structure sociale du parti communiste de Biélorussie sous la NEP (d'après l'enquête du Bureau biélorusse temporaire)

Abstract

N. Werth, Social structure of the communist party of Bielorussia under the NEP (according to the investigation of the temporary Bielorussian Bureau). This article analyses, on basis of a document of the temporary Bielorussian Bureau, a section of the Central Committee of the Russian communist party, the structure of the communist party of Bielorussia in 1924, before the campaign of adhesion to the "Lenin promotion". The social composition of this party of 8 000 members sets out the difficulties which meet the party in its implantation effort within the peasantry — a great part of rural communists are not peasants — and within a working class, not yet very numerous and further decimated by civil war and foreign occupation; on the other hand, the permanent members of the party: clerks and employees, constitute the principal mass of the party army (over 2/3 of its members). The party, conforming to the character of this multinational region, accepts militants of various national and political horizons, those in particular belonging to the Jewish Bund. Most of the militants joined the party during the civil war, whereas the "Old Bolshevik Guard" represents but 8% of the party forces. Finally, the analysis of the causes of exclusion from the party sets out the domination of ideological relations inherited from the ancient regime (problems of alcoholism, religious practices, etc.). The structure of the party itself reflects the socio-economic composition of this agricultural region, but slightly industrialized, and the difficulties which the party has to overcome there in order to enforce its policy.