Personnel and Role in the Soviet Political System

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-328
Author(s):  
Nikolay Mitrokhin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Social Achievement ◽  
Collective Biography ◽  
High Level ◽  
Governing Institutions

The article analyzes the functions of one of the most important groups of the Soviet bureaucracy. It is based on 120 oral interviews and memoirs of former staff members of the CPSU Central Committee apparatus. In the first part, a new understanding is put forward about the place the Central Committee apparatus occupied in the functioning of the central governing institutions in the Soviet Union in the Brezhnev period. Various specific and non-obvious functions carried out by the apparatus are also discussed. The second part reviews a collective biography of the Central Committee staff. In particular, the unexpectedly high level of social class and education of the Central Committee staff is noted, as well as their remarkable level of social achievement and fairly young age at the entry level into the CC apparatus. In this part several typical biographical patterns are - analyzed. In the third part, a comparison with the Western bureaucracy is attempted. In particular, a detailed analysis is made of the anti-corruption measures and means of formation of the corporate discipline in the CC apparatus. The most important difference is found in their respective cultural background, which in the Soviet case was formed by the secondary education they received during Stalin’s rule.

scholarly journals Dismantling an Innovation: The November 1964 Decision Reunifying Industrial and Agricultural Organs of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1985 ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Barbara Ann Chotiner
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
New Products ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Agricultural Organizations ◽  
Great Purges

Two years after the November 1962 decision to divide the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) into separate industrial and agricultural organs, the new Brezhnev-Kosygin leadership reunited the party. The reorganization was and remains the most fundamental reform of the Soviet political system since the Great Purges. Restructuring the CPSU "on the production principle" had divided party committees below the union-republican level into industrial and agricultural organizations. Raikoms and some gorkoms were abolished; territorial production kolkhozsovkhoz administration (TPA) party committees and zonal-industrial party committees were established. The CPSU Central Committee (CC) and its unionrepublican counterparts acquired specialized bureaus to oversee production in the different economic spheres. 1 As a result of the 1962 reorganization, party involvement in the economy became more frequent and more occupied with details of production. Moreover, partkoms' economic interventions became oriented primarily toward development and guidance through the restructuring of productive relationships, introducing new products and technology, and planning.

scholarly journals The Public Politics of Aleksandr Nikolaevich Yakovlev, 1983-1989, Jonathan Harris.

1990 ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Jonathan Harris
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Functional Specialization ◽  
Full Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Public Politics ◽  
General Secretary

During the first five years of his reign as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CC/CPSU) M.S. Gorbachev has changed the structure of authority in the USSR's political system. He initially regarded the interlocking directorate of Politburo and Secretariat as the final source of authority and the ultimate driving force for his program of reform, the CC/CPSU as a miniparliament for the discussion and elaboration of his proposals, and the CPSU's apparatus of full time officials as the major instrument to assure the program's implementation. Gorbachev's initial definition seemed to be the logical expression of his own experience as a party official who became General Secretary only after an extensive career as a regional party leader, a Secretary of the CC/CPSU with a functional specialization, and considerable experience as a member of the Politburo.

Why pioneer camps survived the collapse of the Soviet Union

2021 ◽  
pp. 161189442110186
Author(s):  
Anna Kozlova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Teaching Experiences ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Children’S Centres ◽  
Educational Field

The article analyses the survival of the children’s centres, Artek and Orlyonok, during the post-socialist transformation. It is based on 50 interviews with employees who worked there starting in the late-Soviet era. Artek and Orlyonok were exemplary children’s camps, subordinated to the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Since the early 1960s, they have functioned as schools for distinguished teenagers who were considered ‘good examples’ for other children. In this article, I have made an ethnographic analysis of Artek and Orlyonok employees’ late-Soviet experiences. This analysis shows how the agency of Soviet counsellors and camp directors became a creative interpretation of the governmental order to raise the children as active Soviet citizens. Camp educators transformed it in line with the idea to base their agency on ‘common human values’, which was spread in the Soviet educational field in the post-Stalin era. As a result, the Soviet teaching experiences gained in these education centres were heterogeneous. When a child-centred paradigm was later introduced to the post-Soviet educational system, the camps adopted the most applicable practices from their Soviet experiences.

Will the Rise of China Transform the International System?

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Fall 2021) ◽  
pp. 231-258
Author(s):  
Kemal İnat ◽  
Melih Yıldız
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
International System ◽  
Military Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Global Status ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
The U.S

In this article, the rise of China is discussed in the light of economic and military data, and what the challenge from China means for the global leadership of the U.S. is analyzed. Changes in the indicators of the U.S. and China’s economic and military power over the last 30-40 years are examined and an answer is sought for the following question: What will the consequences of China’s rise be in terms of the international political system? To answer this question, similar ‘rise and challenge’ precedents are discussed to contextualize and analyze and the present challenge China poses. This article concludes that while improving its global status, China has been taking the previous cases’ failed challenges into consideration. China, which does not want to repeat the mistakes made by Germany and the Soviet Union, is hesitant to pursue an aggressive military policy and tries to limit its rivalry with the U.S. in the economic area. While Chinese policy of avoiding direct conflict and focusing on economic development has made it the biggest economic rival of the U.S, the rise of China initiates the discussions about the end of the U.S. and West-led international system.

scholarly journals The problems of the formation of a democratic regime in post-Soviet Russia

nauka.me ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Ilya Volostnov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia

The discussion about the development of democracy in Russia does not lose relevance 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Constitution proclaims the formation of a democratic regime, but political scientists note the development of autocratic tendencies in post-Soviet Russia. It's necessary to study its origins, consider the process of formation for a deeper analysis of the modern political system. it will be possible to study the factors that hindered the development of democracy in our country. It was at that time that the trends of authoritarian development were laid.

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