As part of the commemoration of tho 30th anniversary of the 17th Congress of the C.P.S.U., the Feb. 7th Pravda printed an article by Lev Shaumyan, one of the few survivors among the delegates. That Congress was, to quote Khrushchov, the "victors'" congress; the victers being Stalin's faction after it had crushed all opposition groups. Tut Stalin turned against his ovm followers: Shaumyan cites the figures that Khrushchov gave at the 20th Congress. Out of the 1,966 delegates to the 1934 Congress, 1,108 wero liquidated. Out of 139 members and alternates elected to the Central Committee, 98 fell victim.
The Pravda article also recalls that it was the assassination of Sergei Kirov, leader of tho party in Leningrad, that served as Stalin's pretext to unleash the terror. ‘hoereas Khrushchov in his speeehes at the 20th and 22nd congresses, spoke only of troublesome and obscure circumstances surrounding the the assassination, Shaumyan speaks of it as a “promewtatod and carofully plannod crime." “hile Shaumyon spoaks of the dologates, hoe docsn't namo a single ono, not even Khrushchov wiko took the floor at this Congress to make a speech in which he did not fail to pay eloquent trite to Stalin as the “leador of genius."
A real innovation im Shaumyan's article is his affirmation that among "some of the congress delegates....above all those who remembered Lenin's testament" the “idea was ripening that it was time to transfer Stalin from the post of general secretary to other work." From what has been disclosed so far there is nothing to confirm that the delegates actually considered such a proposal. It is know that in the Central Committee, as late as 1932 after the elimination of the left and right oppositionalists, Stalin was once in a minority. This was in the period of the crisis in the countryside after the forced collectivisat— ion. But by 1934 he had overcome this situation and his grip was complete, It is more likely that he had not forgotten what had happened in 1932 and his almost paranoic mistrust led him to believe that he could never be safe until all the old revolutionaries had been eliminatede Hence the fearful purges which led him to purge his own followers as well as his opponents.