861.00/11–147: Airgram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary of State
A–1140. In an otherwise unextraordinary article praising Party’s leading role as organizer of victorious socialism, which appeared in No. 18 of Party Life, there are given newest figures regarding numerical strength of Communist Party in USSR. According to article, on January 1, 1947, Party had “over 6,000,000” members and “over 250,000” primary organizations.
Full figures given regarding growth of Party since 1917 are as follows:1
| Members and candidates | Primary Organizations | |
| “eve Revolution” | 240.000 | — |
| March, 1921 | over 730,000 | — |
| 1922 | — | slightly over 26,000 |
| 1939 | over 2.400.000 | over 100.000 |
| January 1, 1941 | “ 3,800,000 | over 170,000 |
| January 1, 1946 | 5,800,000 | — |
| January 1, 1947 | over 6,000,000 | over 250,000 |
Small size of increase between January 1, 1946, and January 1, 1947, would seem to indicate that Party’s membership drive of recent years is now tapering off. Current emphasis is on replenishing ranks of Komsomol, which have been depleted by war and by passage of many members into Party.
- A more detailed account of the membership of the Communist Party, with minor differences in the figures, was sent in despatch 1871 from Moscow on November 24, being “one of the most complete sets of figures on party membership to appear to date.” For January 1, 1946, there was listed a total of 6,026,000, of which 4,599,000 were party members and 1,427,000 were candidates. The despatch included this analysis: “Highlighted in the course of party development are the rapid expansion of the revolutionary years, followed by retrenchment and the purge of 170,000 in 1921, the subsequent ‘Lenin Enrollment’ of 1924 which recruited 250,000 new members within the year, the continuing steady growth of party strength to the 1933 peak [total membership, 3,555,338] when members were being admitted at a rate of 400,000 a year—to be followed again by retrenchment and purge with an overall drop in membership of 1,400,000 between 1934 and 1938. By 1939, the cycle apparently begins to repeat itself—wartime expansion achieved a pace unprecedented in party history with enrollment jumping from two to six million in the course of eight years. Although specific figures are not known, the bulk of this increase took place from the second half of 1942 to early 1944.” (861.00b/11–2447)↩