En Wikipedia Org Wiki Communist Party Of The Soviet Unio

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 1 sur 8

Communist Party of the Soviet Union From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"CPSU" redirects here. For other uses, please see CPSU (disambiguation). The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за, transliterated Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Sovetskogo Soyuza, acronym: КПСС (KPSS)) was the ruling political party in the Soviet Union. It emerged in 1912 as the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party created a separate party. The party led the October Revolution, which led to the establishment of a socialist state in Russia. The party was dissolved in 1991, at the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

For most of the history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union, the Communist Party was virtually indistinguishable from the government, as it was generally the only political party tolerated by the government. Consequently, the history of the USSR and the CPSU are deeply intertwined and overlapping. Therefore, it is useful for those interested in the history of the CPSU to also consult the History of Russia series of articles.

Contents n

n

n n n n n n n

1 Structure n 1.1 CPSU n 1.2 Membership 2 History n 2.1 End of Communist rule 3 In Estonia 4 In Lithuania 5 In Moldova 6 Branches 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

Leader

Vladimir Ivashko (last)

Founded

January 1912

Dissolved

December 1991

Headquarters

Kremlin, Moscow

Official ideology/ political position

Marxism-Leninism

International affiliation

Comintern (until 1943)

01/01/2008

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 2 sur 8

Structure CPSU

Communism

The governing body of the CPSU was the Party Congress which initially met annually but whose meetings became less frequent, particularly under Stalin. Party Congresses would elect a Central Committee which, in turn, would elect a Politburo. Under Stalin the most powerful position in the party became the General Secretary who was elected by the Politburo. In 1952 the title of General Secretary became First Secretary and the Politburo became the Presidium before reverting to their former names under Leonid Brezhnev in 1966. In theory, supreme power in the party was invested in the Party Congress. However, in practice the power structure became reversed and, particularly after the death of Lenin, supreme power became the domain of the General Secretary. At lower levels, the organizational hierarchy was managed by Party Committees, or partkoms (партком). A partkom was headed by the elected partkom secretary (секретарь парткома). At enterprises, institutions, kolkhozes, etc., they were called as such, i.e., "partkoms". At higher levels the Committees were abbreviated accordingly: raikoms (райком) at raion level, obkoms (обком) at oblast levels (known earlier as gubkoms (губком) for guberniyas), gorkom (горком) it city level, etc.

Basic concepts

[show]

Ideologies

[show]

[show] Communist internationals

Prominent communists [show] Related subjects

[show]

The bottom level of the Party was the primary party organization (первичная партийная организация) or party cell (партийная ячейка). It was created within any organizational entity of any kind where there were at least three communists. The management of a cell was called party bureau (партийное бюро, партбюро). A partbureau was headed by the elected bureau secretary (секретарь партбюро). At smaller party cells, secretaries were regular employees of the corresponding plant/hospital/school/etc. Sufficiently large party organizations were usually headed by an exempt secretary (освобожденный секретарь), who drew his salary from the Party money.

Membership Membership in the party ultimately became a privilege, with a small subset of the general population of Party becoming an elite class or nomenklatura in Soviet society. Nomenklatura enjoyed many perquisites denied to the average Soviet citizen. Among those perks were shopping at well-stocked stores, access to foreign merchandise, preference in obtaining housing, access to dachas and holiday resorts, being allowed to travel abroad, send their children to the best universities, and obtain prestigious jobs (as well as party membership itself) for their children. It became virtually impossible to join

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

01/01/2008

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 3 sur 8

the Soviet ruling and managing elite without being a member of the Communist Party. Membership had its risks, however, especially in the 1930s when the party was subjected to purges under Stalin. Membership in the party was not open. To become a party member one had to be approved by various committees and one's past was closely scrutinised. As generations grew up never having known anything but the USSR, party membership became something one generally achieved after passing a series of stages. Children would join the Young Pioneers and then, at the age of 14, may graduate to the Komsomol (Young Communist League) and ultimately, as an adult, if one had shown the proper adherence to party discipline or had the right connections one would become a member of the Communist Party itself. However, membership also had its obligations. Komsomol and CPSU members were expected not only to pay dues but also to carry out appropriate assignments and "social tasks" (общественные поручения). In 1918 it had a membership of approximately 200,000. In the late 1920s under Stalin, the party engaged in a heavy recruitment campaign (the "Lenin Levy") of new members from both the working class and rural areas. This was both an attempt to "proletarianize" the party and an attempt by Stalin to strengthen his base by outnumbering the Old Bolsheviks and reducing their influence in the party. By 1933, the party had approximately 3.5 million members and candidate members but as a result of the Great Purge party membership fell to 1.9 million by 1939. In 1986, the CPSU had over 19 million members or approximately 10% of the USSR's adult population. Over 44% of party members were classified as industrial workers, 12% were collective farmers. The CPSU had party organizations in fourteen of the USSR's 15 republics. In the Russian federation itself there was no separate Communist Party until 1990 as affairs were run directly by the CPSU.

History

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Main article: History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union n

n

n

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Russian: Росси́́йская Социал-демократи́ческая Рабо́чая Па́ртия , РСДРП) was formed in Minsk in 1889. The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was finally divided in 1912, although the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions had de facto functioned as separate political blocs. Henceforth, the Bolshevik party was known as RSDLP (bolsheviks) (Russian: Росси́́йская Социал-демократи́ческая Рабо́чая Па́ртия (большевико́в) , РСДРП(б)). In 1918 the party took the name Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) (Russian: Росси́йская Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия (большевико́в) , РКП(б)).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

Party History Party Organization Congress Central Committee Politburo

01/01/2008

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia n

n

In 1925 the party was renamed the All-Union Communist party (bolsheviks) (Russian: Всесою́зная Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия (большевико́в) , ВКП(б)). In 1952 the party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

End of Communist rule

Page 4 sur 8 Secretariat Orgburo Control Committee Auditing Commission Leaders Lenin • Stalin Khrushchev • Brezhnev Andropov • Chernenko Gorbachev

The growing likelihood of the dissolution of the USSR itself led conservative elements in the CPSU to launch the August Coup in 1991 which temporarily removed Gorbachev from power. On August 19, 1991, a day before the New Union Treaty was to be signed devolving power to the republics, a group calling itself the "State Emergency Pravda Committee" seized power in Moscow declaring that Gorbachev was ill and therefore relieved of his position as Komsomol president. Soviet vice-president Gennadiy Yanayev was named acting president. The committee's eight members Communism Portal included KGB chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov, Internal Affairs Minister Boris Pugo, Defense Minister Dmitriy Yazov, and Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov. The coup dissolved because of large public demonstrations and the efforts of Boris Yeltsin who became the real power in Russia as a result. Gorbachev returned to Moscow as president but resigned as General Secretary and vowed to purge the party of conservatives. Yeltsin had the CPSU formally banned within Russia. The KGB was disbanded as were other CPSU-related agencies and organisations. Yeltsin's action was later declared unconstitutional but by this time the USSR had ceased to exist. Archives of the Party are now preserved in a number of Russian state archives (Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, State Archive of the Russian Federation), many of them remain classified. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian adherents to the CPSU tradition, particularly as it existed before Gorbachev, reorganised themselves as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Today there is a widespread flora of parties in Russia, claiming to be the successors of CPSU. Several of them used the name CPSU. However, CPRF is generally seen (because of its massive size) as the inheritor of the CPSU in Russia. In other republics, communists established the Armenian Communist Party, Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan, Communist Party of Ukraine, Party of Communists of Belarus, Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Communist Party of Tajikistan. Along with the CPRF, these parties formed the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SKP-KPSS). n n n

In Turkmenistan, the local party apparatus led by Saparmurat Niyazov was converted into the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. In Uzbekistan, Islom Karimov converted the CPSU branch into the Democratic People's Party. In Georgia, the Socialist Labour Party was founded in 1992. This party would later evolve into the Communist Party of Georgia (SKP). Another communist faction in Georgia, which is larger than SKP, is the United Communist Party of Georgia (SEKP).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

01/01/2008

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia n

n

n

Page 5 sur 8

In Estonia, the CPSU branch was in the hands of reformers, who converted it into the Estonian Democratic Labour Party (EDTP). A minority regrouped into the Communist Party of Estonia. In Lithuania, the CPSU was officially banned in 1991. A branch of "progressive" communists led by Algirdas Brazauskas established the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania in 1992. In Latvia, communist organizations were officially banned and a major part of the party there had broken away in 1990 and formed the Latvian Social Democratic Party. The remnants of CPSU became the Union of Communists of Latvia, which went underground. Later, communists regrouped into the Socialist Party of Latvia.

In Estonia Like in the rest of the Russian empire, the RSDLP branches in the Estland gubernia had been ravaged by division between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. In 1912 the Bolsheviks started a publication, Kiir, in Narva. In June 1914 the party took a decision to create a special Central Committee of RSDLP(b) of Estland, named the Northern-Baltic Committee of the RSDLP(b)" (Estonian: VSDT(b)P Põhja-Balti Komitee). After the February Revolution, as in the rest of the empire, Bolsheviks started to gain popularity with their demands to end the war immediately, as well as their support for fast land reform and originally even ethnic claims (to introduce Estonian as an official language parallel to Russian). During the summer of 1917 Bolsheviks and their supporters took the control over the Tallinn Soviet. By the end of 1917 Estonian Bolsheviks were stronger than ever - holding control over political power and having significant support - remarkably more than in Russia. In the elections into the Russian Constituent Assembly their list got 40,2% of the votes in Estonia and 4 out of 8 seats allocated to Estonia. The support for the party did however start to decline, and the Estonian Constituent Assembly election of January 1918 was never completed. Moreover the party faced the situation in which it had difficultly building alliances. Their opponents, the Democratic Bloc, was able to initiate cooperation with the Labour Party, Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Those parties supported different ideas but were united around the demand for an independent or Finland-linked Estonia and wished to distribute land to the peasants. In the first question the Estonian Bolsheviks, although having introduced Estonian as an official language after their takeover, promoted the idea of Estonia as a part of Soviet Russia. In the land reform policy, Estonian Bolsheviks continued to support immediate collectivisation. Bolshevik rule in Estonia was ended by the German invasion in the end of February 1918. The party branch continued to function in exile in Russia. After the German revolution in November, when an Estonian government took office, the party together with support of Soviet troops attempted an armed attack against the new state. However, by this time the support for the party had waned, and it failed to mobilize mass support for revolutionary warfare. An Estonian Workers' Commune was set up, but with limited real influence. At this time the party branch had been reorganized into the Central Committee of the Estonian Sections of the RCP(b) (Estonian: Venemaa Kommunistliku (bolshevike) Partei Eesti Sektsioonide Keskkomitee). After the war a reorientation was found to be necessary (since Estonia was now an independent state) by the central leadership of the RCP(b) and thus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

01/01/2008

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 6 sur 8

on the November 5, 1920 the Communist Party of Estonia (EKP) was founded as a separate party. In 1940 EKP was merged into the CPSU(b). The territorial organization of CPSU(b) in the Estonian SSR became known as Communist Party of Estonia (bolshevik) (EK(b)P). The EK(b)P was purged in 1950 of many of its original native leaders; they were replaced by several prominent Russian Estonians who had grown up in Russia. When the CPSU(b) changed its name in 1952, the EK(b)P removed the (b) from its name. EKP was divided in 1990, as the pro-sovereignty majority faction of EKP separated itself from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and became the Estonian Democratic Labour Party. The minority faction of pro-Soviet hardliners broke away forming a party called Communist Party of Estonia (CPSU) (EKP (NLKP)).

In Lithuania By the time of the formation of the Lithuanian SSR, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) was headed by Antanas Sniečkus. In 1940 the LKP merged into the CPSU(b). The territorial organization of the party in Lithuania was called Communist Party of Lithuania (bolshevik) (LK(b)P). In the Lithuanian territorial organization, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the party (always a Lithuanian) was de facto governor of the country. The second secretary was always a Moscow-appointed Russian. In 1952 the name of the old Lithuanian party, LKP, was retaken. In 1989, during mass protests against Soviet Union in Lithuania the party declared itself independent from Communist Party of the Soviet Union. An alternative Communist Party of Lithuania ('on platform of Communist Party of the Soviet Union') existed in 1990-1991 under leadership of Mykolas Burokevičius. It was established after the "traditional" party declared its independence from its Soviet Union counterpart, and was eventually banned in 1991. In 1990 the Communist Party of Lithuania was renamed into Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, which in turn was later merged with Social Democratic Party of Lithuania under the later's name, but with leadership dominated by ex-communists.

In Moldova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

01/01/2008

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 7 sur 8

The Communist Party of Moldova (Romanian: Partidul Comunist al Moldovei, PCM) was the republic-level chapter of the CPSU in the Moldavian SSR from 1940 to 1991. During that time, except for the period of 1941-1944, it was the sole legal political party in the republic. It was outlawed by the proRomanian Popular Front government in August 1991, just after Moldova declared independence. After the Communist party was legalised again by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on 7 September 1993, the PCM was reborn as the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, which has governed Moldova since 2001.

Branches Republic Russian SFSR

Belarusian SSR Uzbek SSR Kazakh SSR Georgian SSR Azerbaijan SSR Lithuanian SSR Moldovan SSR Latvian SSR Kyrgyz SSR Tajik SSR

Branch Коммунистическая партия РСФСР, Kommunisticheskaya partiya RSFSR (1990-1991) Комуністична партія (більшовиків) України, Komunistychna partiya (bilshovykiv) Ukrayiny, KP(b)U (1918) Комуністична партія України, Komunistychna partiya Ukrayiny Communist Party of Belorussia Communist Party of Uzbekistan Communist Party of Kazakhstan Communist Party of Georgia Azərbaycan Kommunist partiyası Lietuvos komunistų partija Partidul Comunist al Moldovei Latvijas Komunistiskā Partija Communist Party of Kirghizia Ҳизби Коммунистӣи Тоҷикистон

Armenian SSR

Հայաստանի կոմունիստական կուսակցության

Turkmen SSR Estonian SSR Turkestan ASSR Bukharan SSR Khorezm SSR

Communist Party of Turkmenistan Eestimaa Kommunistlik Partei Communist Party of Turkestan Communist Party of Bukhara Communist Party of Khorezm

Ukrainian SSR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

01/01/2008

Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Page 8 sur 8

Karelo-Finnish SSR Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR Transcaucasian SFSR Transcaucasian Regional Communist Party of the RKP(b)/VKP(b) [1]

See also n n

Communist Party Decommunization of Russia

References 1. ^ [1]

External links n n

Executive Bodies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1917-1991) Program of the CPSU, 27th Party Congress (1986)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union" Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since November 2007 | Articles to be merged since March 2007 | 1991 disestablishments | Communist Party of the Soviet Union | Communist parties in the Former Soviet Union | Ruling Communist parties | Parties of single-party systems | Political parties established in 1912 | Political parties in Russia | Defunct political parties | Soviet internal politics n n

This page was last modified 00:43, 27 December 2007. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com

01/01/2008