Role and Position of the Communist Party Synoptic Question

The following is a plan for a synoptic question concerning the Role and Position of the Communist Party from Stalin to Gorbachev.

Stalin

1941-45 Great Patriotic War

The Party became less working-class by recruiting more white-collar workers.

75% of Party members joined the army

By 1945 – 2/3 had been recruited since 1941, and these recruits were typically younger and more educated

The army took more control, particularly because of Zhukov’s contributions in the war, so the Party became less involved in military and political issues, and more in economic planning and administration. Arguably, the Party had less of a position during the war, although 70% of those awarded with “Hero of the Soviet Union” were Party members

1945-53 High Stalinism

10% of the population were Party members, showing they still held a great position in society

People joined for two reasons:

1. Ideological commitment to Communism

2. Career advancement

Higher Party members had special privileges, like special shops with consumer goods unavailable to the public. But there was also the risk of Stalinist purges, as shown by the Leningrad Affair

Politicisation of Life remained, with censorship and propaganda

Stalin was seen as a figurehead of the Party and the USSR with his maintained cult of personality

Party met less with Stalin, but he still had to ratify the proposals they made without him

Khrushchev

Under Reform Communism, the population was to support the system through popular consent rather than force

Destalinisation criticised Stalin, thereby criticising the old Party, and thus damaged its reputation to an extent, but it remained stable

Arbitrary terror was removed, but criticism of the regime was still suppressed. For example, with the Anti-Party Group in 1957, who opposed the influence of the Party over the government, these opponents weren’t liquidated like under Stalin, but rather they were demoted to lower positions. He sacked Zhukov and demoted him out of fear of the military power.

Party members were now allowed to speak out against Khrushchev, allowing him to be dismissed

Khrushchev also wanted to stop “jobs for life”, making it necessary to have a certain number of newly-elected members at any time. At Presidium or Central Committee level, 1/3 were to be newly elected.

With his policy of decentralisation and bifurication, the Party had less control over economic planning as the Republics and regional ministries gained more

Brezhnev

His policies of Stability of Cadres and Nomenklatura meant that only 2% of the population (3-5 million) was represented in the list of nepotism

The Party grew older and more conservative – the CC average age increased to 63 years, while the average age of the Politburo increased by 10 years

There were also privileges and corruption in the Party, for example high-ranking members were given dachas, new medical facilities and shops

There were stricter admission rules and a lack of enthusiasm of joining the Party, leading to a decline in membership

Membership growth in 1965 was 7%, this declined and stayed at 2% by 1973

In the Brezhnev Constitutionof 1977, the Party was cemented as a the “leading force of Soviet society” and the “nucleus” of Soviet politics. The Party could therefore decide what the interests of society were.

Andropov

He wanted to inject the Party with new life. 1/5 of regional secretaries (including 7/20 in Kazakhstan, Brezhnev’s power base) and 1/3 of departmental heads in the CC were replaced.

Andropov started an Anti-Corruption drive

Chernenko

He presided over a Party Commission that said through peaceful competition, the USSR could move towards socialism, although unlike Khrushchev, he didn’t specify a time frame

Andropov’s Anti-Corruption drive was dropped, as Chernenko wanted to keep Party privileges

The Party took a hard-line against dissidents

Gorbachev

The law was made independent of the Party, making Party officials accountable under the law. As the Anti-Corruption drive restarted, officials were arrested

The Congress of People’s Deputies was set up as a publicly-elected law-making body

750/2500 seats were reserved for public organisations

100 seats were reserved for the Party, making democratisation limited, but also reducing the power of the Party

However, in the March 1989 elections, 90% of deputies were Party members because of rigged elections, the structure was not used in subsequent elections

Opposition parties were allowed to form to challenge the Communist Party, e.g. Bloc of Democratic Russia and the Democratic Party

The most influential of these organisations was the International Group of deputies, which was prepared to call the Party out

The two-tier structure was adopted at an all-Union level, meaning power wasn’t only lost in Russia, but in the Republics. Republican officials didn’t know who they were representing, and as Yeltsin disbanded the CPSU in Russia, they were forced to side with nationalist movements

Gorbachev wanted to maintain the leading role of the Party, which wasn’t possible with the clear separation of powers, creating an ideological paradox that was inconsistent and incoherent

The Party was no longer in charge of economic policy, the Politburo only dealt with internal Party affairs, but the Party still had control of the KGB and the military

In 1990, 14% of Party members had left (3 million), while many more threatened to leave or stopped their subscriptions. This was because of the loss of direction in the Party.