14th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
The congress is best remembered for its declaration of intent to pursue rapid industrialisation of the Soviet Union rather than seeking lasting accommodation as an agricultural producer within the international system of capitalist world economy.
[3] Following a brief floor squabble over the composition of the honorary Presidium of the convention, the congress's main address, the Political Report of the Central Committee, was delivered by Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party.
He highlighted two views of the Soviet economy going forward: the first, advocated by economist Lev Shanin, postulated that Russia would remain an agrarian country for the foreseeable future and thus would need peaceful reintegration into the network of international trade; the second, observing "so long as we are surrounded by capitalist states, we must devote all our energies to making our country remain an independent entity based upon the home market.
The 14th Congress was remembered by one official party historian as a veritable clarion call: "The slogan of industrialisation in view of the lack of large foreign credits, naturally demanded the straining of all the country's economic forces and involved the surmounting of serious difficulties.
He hailed the defeat of Leon Trotsky and his co-thinkers during the previous year and how "resolutely the party met these moves, which were really of a hostile character" but postponed for later a frontal attack on the Leningrad "New Opposition" organized around Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev.
[13] Molotov seems to have delivered a measured and generalized speech in which he poked at factional rival Grigory Zinoviev by noting the ongoing need for "immense work in the struggle with deviations from Leninism.
"[14] On the second day, Zinoviev delivered a report of his own, taking a dig at chief theoretician of the Stalin faction Nikolai Bukharin and his controversial slogan advanced to motivate the peasantry to resume production under the NEP — "Enrich yourselves.
[14] Bukharin made note that the slogan "Enrich yourselves" had been long since retracted, and hinted that no similar self-criticism by Zinoviev over his direct appeal to Trotsky at the previous convention was forthcoming.
[17] This was emphatically denied by Anastas Mikoyan of the majority faction, who was followed by Nikolai Uglanov, head of the Moscow party organization, who took a bite out of his predecessor in that role, Lev Kamenev.
Lev Kamenev delivered a long and effective speech on 21 December, first taking down hecklers with cutting comments from the lectern before launching into an attack on Stalin's earlier moderate tone towards the rich peasantry and characterization of the industrialisation-oriented Left Opposition as the greater threat to stability of the Soviet state.
