17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party
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The 17th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during 26 January - 10 February 1934. Nicknamed "The Congress of the Victors" it was in fact the last clandestine revolt against Stalin from within party ranks. The Soviet leader failed to win back a seat on the Central Committee, for in the secret ballot, 166 of the nearly 2,000 delegates crossed out his name. Only three had crossed out the name of the popular Leningrad party boss, Sergei Kirov. Although this was covered up, there was an attempt to replace him with Kirov, who refused the honour.
In public Stalin was acclaimed, not merely as the leader of the party, but as a towering, universal genius in every human sphere. All his former opponents spoke approvingly of him (other than Trotsky, who had been exiled in 1929) and pledged their total support to the party line.
At the congress Rabkrin was dissolved and its functions passed to the Sovnarkom's State Control Commission.
The 17th Congress has also been given the name The Congress of the Condemned, because of 1,996 party members present, 1,108 were arrested, and about two thirds of those executed within three years, largely during the Great Terror.
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