Vladimir Smirnov (politician) - Speech at The 8th Party Congress, 1919

Speech At The 8th Party Congress, 1919

At the 8th Party Congress of the Russian Communist Party, Smirnov appeared as a delegate from the 5th army. On 20 March 1919, Smirnov gave a speech to the Congress on the use of former Tsarist Officers (termed 'Specialists' within the party) and political commissars in the Red Army. Responding to accusations from Grigory Sokolnikov that he opposed the use of officers, which by this point had become a key plank of Bolshevik military strategy, he denied favouring the use of Partisan militia in the Russian Civil War. He did, however, warn of the inadequate political mechanisms that the Soviet authority had at its disposal to control these officers. Arguing for the repeal of Decree on Revolutionary Military Councils, he said to the Congress

...The role of the political commissars is limited to the functions of supervision... Now that we have the political commissars with sufficient combat experience and able not to intervene when not needed, we must give them broader rights, a larger part in the direction of the armies.

Smirnov regarded the commissars as an integral check on the potential disloyalty of the old officers. This preference for so-called 'politicisation' of the Red Army was shared by the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party in opposition, but largely rejected by Leon Trotsky, the People's Commissar of Army and Navy Affairs, who by 1919 exercised full control over the military.

In 1923 he belonged to those who signed The Declaration of 46. In 1926 Smirnov, together with Timofei Sapronov formed the "Group of 15", which joined the United Opposition headed by Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. They were expelled from the Communist Party at the 15th Party Congress in December 1927 along with the rest of the United Opposition. Smirnov died during the Great Purge in 1937. He was survived by his wife, Karin Smirnov, who lived until 1973.