The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)

History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): Short Course

Title page of the 1939 English edition of The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)
Author	Collective authorship
Original title	История Всесоюзной Коммунистической Партии (Большевиков): Краткий курс
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian
Genre	History
Publisher	OGIZ Gosizdat (first edition)
Publication date	1 October 1938
Media type	Print
Pages	350 (first edition)
OCLC	8504242

History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): Short Course (Russian: История Всесоюзной Коммунистической Партии (Большевиков): Краткий курс), translated to English under the title The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), is a propagandist textbook on the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, first published in 1938. Colloquially known as "the Short Course", it was the most widely disseminated book during the rule of Joseph Stalin and one of the most important representing the ideology of Marxism-Leninism.

The book was commissioned by Stalin in 1935. Regarding the motives for compiling it, Robert Service quoted a Bolshevik official who said there was a need for a book which "instead of the Bible" would "give a rigorous answer... To the many important questions." At the time, Stalin was concerned with the abundance of publications about the AUCP (B)'s history and sought to have a single, authoritative book which would serve as an official interpretation of the subject. The book was written by a team of historians and party ideologues; the principal authors were Vilhelms Knoriņš, Yemelyan Yaroslavsky and Pyotr Pospelov. Stalin wrote the chapter about dialectical materialism and "closely supervised" the others: Service wrote that "to most intents and purposes he was the general editor."

In 1937, a draft of the Short Course was submitted to Stalin, who in turn requested several revisions to the text, including more historical background. On 16 April, the Politburo decreed that Knoriņš, Yaroslavsky and Pospelov would be relieved from all their other party obligations for a period of four months in order to complete the Short Course.