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The Old Bolsheviks, Socialist Construction, and the Purges, 1923–1937

Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White

in The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members 1917-1991

After 1923 the size of the Central Committee increased, but membership was still overwhelmingly made up of pre‐1917 party members or Old Bolsheviks. The system of ‘job‐slot representation’ quickly ... More

After 1923 the size of the Central Committee increased, but membership was still overwhelmingly made up of pre‐1917 party members or Old Bolsheviks. The system of ‘job‐slot representation’ quickly took shape and approached maturity in 1934. Ironically, this apparent stability coincided with the destruction of much of the ‘first generation’ leadership in Stalin's purges of 1937‐38. Two examples of new leaders who added to the CC in the 1920s and early 1930s, who had much in common with the makers of the 1917 revolution and who fell victim to the purges, were I. M. Vareikis and P. O. Liubchenko. The involvement of the Central Committee in the purges was complex, and its great extent was partly explained by the integrated nature of the elite.Less

Challenge and Crisis, 1985–1991

Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White

in The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members 1917-1991

There were high levels of turnover in the Central Committee during the Gorbachev years, reflecting the new leader's conviction that the renewal of party and government officials was essential to the ... More

There were high levels of turnover in the Central Committee during the Gorbachev years, reflecting the new leader's conviction that the renewal of party and government officials was essential to the achievement of perestroika. The composition of the Central Committee elite changed in parallel as the job‐slot system was modified and then abandoned. Figures of the ‘third generation’, born in the 1920s and 1930s, were able to advance to membership at this time, including the Ukrainian regional first secretary V. E. Dobrik and the communications industry minister E. K. Pervyshin. A few were from the ‘fourth generation’, such as Komsomol leader V. M. Mishin. Meetings of the Central Committee itself became more frequent and substantive, but it reflected widening differences within the party and failed to provide a mechanism through which its members could exercise effective control over party policy or over the leadership that spoke in their name.Less

Stalin's New Elite, 1939–1956

Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White

in The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members 1917-1991

The purges were followed by a very high turnover of members of the Central Committee and in effect a new generation of leaders appeared, younger and more from the mass of workers and peasants than ... More

The purges were followed by a very high turnover of members of the Central Committee and in effect a new generation of leaders appeared, younger and more from the mass of workers and peasants than their predecessors. Members of this ‘second generation’ would dominate Soviet politics until the 1980s. The job‐slot system continued in the form it had reached in 1934, although there was now more stability and personal security. Examples of a new Stalinist generation were N. S. Baibakov and N. K. Patolichev, one a technocrat, the other a party generalist. The Central Committee was also much larger now, but had less real influence in politics, compared to the supreme leader and the Politburo/Presidium.Less

Revolutionaries in Power, 1917–1923

Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White

in The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members 1917-1991

The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, which constituted the political elite of Soviet Russia, was in Lenin's time, relatively homogeneous and was entirely composed of people who had ... More

The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, which constituted the political elite of Soviet Russia, was in Lenin's time, relatively homogeneous and was entirely composed of people who had been members of the underground Bolshevik party. It is, however, possible to make some differentiation between members of this Central Committee elite, and two examples of ‘types’, one from the intelligentsia and one from the working class, are N. N. Krestinskii and A. A. Andreev. Even in this period, the Central Committee was not a policy‐making body, but all its members were important policymakers in other party and state organs.Less

Elite and Society

Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White

in The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members 1917-1991

The Central Committee was never a ‘representative’ elite. Like other revolutionary elites, it was disproportionately male and well educated; but it was generally more representative of the mass ... More

The Central Committee was never a ‘representative’ elite. Like other revolutionary elites, it was disproportionately male and well educated; but it was generally more representative of the mass membership and of the population as a whole than the national party leadership. A system for the distribution of material benefits gradually developed to service its requirements, one that came increasingly to identify Central Committee members as a privileged group of a kind that had been characterized by Trotsky as a bureaucracy. But there were internal divisions and internal safeguards that helped to prevent the formation of an exploitative as well as politically dominant group.Less

An Evolving Elite

Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White

in The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members 1917-1991

Across the years of its existence, the USSR witnessed three elite revolutions: in 1917, when the Tsarist elite was replaced by a Bolshevik elite of professional revolutionaries; during the Purges, ... More

Across the years of its existence, the USSR witnessed three elite revolutions: in 1917, when the Tsarist elite was replaced by a Bolshevik elite of professional revolutionaries; during the Purges, when the ‘second generation’ moved into positions of power; and under Gorbachev, when levels of turnover in the Central Committee were at their highest, although they were not sufficient to bring many of the ‘fourth generation’ into the political elite. Considerable numbers of the Central Committee membership, however, retained their status into the post‐communist years, and they took part in a wider transition from political position (which had become insecure) to the more enduring advantage of property.Less

In the Portals of Power

Archie Brown

in The Gorbachev Factor

When Gorbachev moved to Moscow in November 1978, he became – at the age of 47 – the youngest member of the predominantly elderly Soviet top leadership team. He received rapid promotion, becoming a ... More

When Gorbachev moved to Moscow in November 1978, he became – at the age of 47 – the youngest member of the predominantly elderly Soviet top leadership team. He received rapid promotion, becoming a candidate member of the Politburo in 1979 and a full member in 1980, while retaining the Secretaryship of the Central Committee he had been accorded in 1978. It was only after the death of Leonid Brezhnev in November 1982, however, and the choice of Andropov to succeed him, that Gorbachev entered the inner circle of the leadership. He was unusual for a Politburo member in consulting widely among social scientists and in taking full advantage of Moscow's cultural life. Andropov, when he was dying, tried to elevate Gorbachev above Konstantin Chernenko and make him his heir apparent, but the old guard in the Soviet leadership prevented this. There was also an attempt to prevent Gorbachev becoming de facto ‘second secretary’ after Chernenko succeeded Andropov in March 1984, but Gorbachev eventually became the clear number two within the party hierarchy and the obvious, and in the end unanimous, choice to succeed Chernenko as General Secretary when the latter died in March 1985. Meantime, Gorbachev had begun to show that he was a potential leader of a different kind by impressing Margaret Thatcher and the British public on a visit to the UK in December 1984 and, in the same month, making a speech in Moscow which castigated Soviet stereotypical thinking and introduced some of the new ideas that were to become so important during his years as General Secretary.Less

The Central Committee as a Bureaucratic Elite

Robert Daniels

in The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is considered an institutionally defined elite. Research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s explored the educational and career ... More

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is considered an institutionally defined elite. Research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s explored the educational and career backgrounds of Central Committee members as well as the channels for “recruitment” or “co-optation” into that body. Also investigated was the “representation” of functional entities, ranging from the party apparatus to military, government bureaucracy, and intelligentsia, along with various geographical regions and social groups, in the composition of the Central Committee membership. However, the exact composition of the Central Committee and the specific posts that were associated with Central Committee status received little attention. Members of the Central Committee were chosen neither by free election nor by random appointment, but in accordance with a system of unwritten (or at least unannounced) rules. The Central Committee as a bureaucratic elite appears to reflect a complex matrix of unacknowledged but strongly felt status relationships in Soviet politics.Less

The New Convergence of Power

Joel Rast

in The Origins of the Dual City: Housing, Race, and Redevelopment in Twentieth-Century Chicago

This chapter describes the process through which city officials and the city’s leading downtown business group, the Chicago Central Area Committee, came together around a program for revitalizing ... More

This chapter describes the process through which city officials and the city’s leading downtown business group, the Chicago Central Area Committee, came together around a program for revitalizing downtown. By the early 1970s, business leaders had lost faith in the slum clearance program and had become increasingly focused on a new objective: redeveloping the near downtown area for middle-class housing that would provide a nearby workforce for downtown businesses, along with patrons for downtown retail establishments, restaurants, and places of entertainment. New housing developments would insulate the Loop from economically distressed areas on the city’s South and West Sides, places that were now considered largely irredeemable. The policy paradigm for engaging with the city’s blighted areas was once again in transition. The goal of eliminating slums altogether, an objective held by city officials and civic leaders since the early twentieth century, was largely abandoned, replaced by a more one-dimensional focus on achieving the highest and best use of land. These goals were embodied in a new plan for the central area called Chicago 21: A Plan for the Central Area Communities, prepared by the Central Area Committee and adopted by the city as its plan for the central area.Less

The Generational Revolution

Robert Daniels

in The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union held its Twenty-seventh Congress in February and March 1986, signaling the end of an era characterized by an unprecedented series of leadership changes sparked ... More

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union held its Twenty-seventh Congress in February and March 1986, signaling the end of an era characterized by an unprecedented series of leadership changes sparked by the successive deaths of three national chiefs in less than two-and-a-half years. The bureaucratic elite also underwent radical changes. There were important questions about the nature of political power in the Soviet system, such as how power was mobilized and transferred and what difference the succession from one generation to another made as the experience of Stalinism receded into the past. The composition of the Central Committee in terms of functional and regional status reflects a compulsion about rank and precedence that seems to have been deeply embedded in Russian political culture. Generational politics undoubtedly played a central role in the surprise turns of Soviet politics during the triple succession to Leonid Brezhnev. Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership and his reform line were both confirmed at the Twenty-seventh Congress as the outcome of the triple succession.Less

Creating a Unified Business Elite

Joel Rast

in The Origins of the Dual City: Housing, Race, and Redevelopment in Twentieth-Century Chicago

This chapter describes the origins of the Chicago Central Area Committee, an organization created in 1956 to provide a unified voice for the downtown corporate community in civic affairs. Prior to ... More

This chapter describes the origins of the Chicago Central Area Committee, an organization created in 1956 to provide a unified voice for the downtown corporate community in civic affairs. Prior to 1956 the downtown business community was fragmented, with no single organization representing downtown interests as a whole. By the mid-1950s, certain business leaders saw this as a growing problem. The passage of the Illinois Blighted Act in 1947 and the federal Housing Act of 1949 ushered in a series of slum clearance projects in the city’s central area sponsored by various neighborhood groups. Business leaders grew alarmed as these projects were introduced in piecemeal fashion, unconnected to any broader vision for downtown redevelopment. Business unity was forged through political struggles over concrete planning initiatives in which business elites became increasingly cognizant of their collective interests in the city’s slum clearance and redevelopment program.Less

The Fall of Khrushchev and the Advent of Participatory Bureaucracy

Robert Daniels

in The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia

Soviet politics may be studied by means of an art of educated guesswork known as Kremlinology, defined as the occult science of deducing what was going on in the Kremlin based on whatever evidence is ... More

Soviet politics may be studied by means of an art of educated guesswork known as Kremlinology, defined as the occult science of deducing what was going on in the Kremlin based on whatever evidence is available. There were two main schools of speculation about Soviet politics: the “totalitarian model” and the “conflict model.” The first model is convincing under Joseph Stalin while the conflict model is more appropriate under Nikita Khrushchev. An anti-Khrushchev conservative faction led by Communist Party secretary Frol Kozlov existed from 1960 to 1963. The shakeup in the Secretariat in May 1960 was the first obvious sign of the campaign against Khrushchev, who was finally removed by the rules of representative procedure. What appears to have been evolving, in the party framework, was a new kind of Soviet politics called participatory bureaucracy, which made the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union the cornerstone of the entire Soviet system.Less

Politics, Yes, but Not Electoral Politics

in Between Justice and Politics: The Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, 1898-1945

Victor Basch, a spokesman for the Ligue des droits de l'homme (League of the Rights of Man), admitted that the League has always been involved in politics, but only in the form of public policy. ... More

Victor Basch, a spokesman for the Ligue des droits de l'homme (League of the Rights of Man), admitted that the League has always been involved in politics, but only in the form of public policy. League members also asserted that they did not engage in electoral politics or parliamentary politics. However, the League always participated in elections in France. In fact, partisan quarrels arising from the 1906 elections resulted in intense ideological tensions within the League. Some members blamed Article 17, which allowed local sections to support a candidate on the first ballot only if he were the only left-wing candidate in the race, as the root of the “crisis” experienced by the League in the latter half of the decade. Almost half of the governments in the interwar years were headed by men who were members, or used to be members, of the League. After World War I, the League's Central Committee formed a parliamentary group comprised of all League deputies and senators.Less

The Politburo's Role as Revealed by the Lost Transcripts

Paul Gregory

in The Lost Politburo Transcripts: From Collective Rule to Stalin's Dictatorship

This chapter examines the origins of the Politburo transcripts and the way they fit with the other documents of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from the interwar period. It suggests that the ... More

This chapter examines the origins of the Politburo transcripts and the way they fit with the other documents of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from the interwar period. It suggests that the Politburo used the transcripts to circulate information from the inner circle of party leaders to the Central Committee and state and party leaders in the regions. The chapter also contends that they were intended to discipline regional leaders and make them more responsive to the Kremlin's policies, and highlights the fact that they were sometimes withheld from distribution because the discussions were too sensitive or indiscrete for dissemination.Less

The Central Jewish Historical Commission in Poland 1944–1947

Natalia Aleksiun

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 20: Making Holocaust Memory

This chapter highlights the ambitious mission of documenting the martyrdom and heroism of Polish Jewry under the sponsorship of the Central Committee of Polish Jews. It details how the Central Jewish ... More

This chapter highlights the ambitious mission of documenting the martyrdom and heroism of Polish Jewry under the sponsorship of the Central Committee of Polish Jews. It details how the Central Jewish Historical Commission mobilized scores of survivors to retrieve, organize, and reconstruct the memories of more than 7,000 Polish Jewish survivors. It also mentions the publication of books on various aspects of the destruction of Polish Jewry. The chapter emphasizes how the prodigious undertaking of the commission dispels the impression of quiescent survivor communities that are preoccupied solely with resuming normal life in the post-war world. It draws attention to the prosecutorial dimension of the commission's work.Less

Three Resolutions about Beauty: Ideological Conscientiousness as Device

Evgeny Dobrenko

in Late Stalinism: The Aesthetics of Politics

This chapter focuses on the historical narrative that is part of the wider process of reformatting the representational regime for Soviet reality. It shows how reformatting was the main goal of the ... More

This chapter focuses on the historical narrative that is part of the wider process of reformatting the representational regime for Soviet reality. It shows how reformatting was the main goal of the three Central Committee resolutions adopted in August 1946 regarding the most popular forms of art that were also most important to the Stalinist Regime: literature, cinema, and theater. It explains how the three resolutions are considered to be the starting point of the “Zhdanov era.” The chapter looks into the inaccurate portrayal of the postwar Donbass in the second part of Leonid Lukov's film “A Great Life.” It talks about the demand to stop the domination of foreign plays on the Soviet stage and Soviet plays. It also discusses “Communist conscientiousness” that was aimed to replace the nineteenth-century concept of “tendentiousness.”Less

Learning to Live with the Slums

Joel Rast

in The Origins of the Dual City: Housing, Race, and Redevelopment in Twentieth-Century Chicago

This chapter describes the development of Dearborn Park, a new housing development built in the South Loop during the 1970s and early 1980s. Dearborn Park, sponsored and financed by a group of ... More

This chapter describes the development of Dearborn Park, a new housing development built in the South Loop during the 1970s and early 1980s. Dearborn Park, sponsored and financed by a group of downtown business leaders associated with the Chicago Central Area Committee, was an effort to initiate the transformation of the near-downtown area into middle-class residential communities. The project was intended to increase the presence of middle-class whites in the downtown area, an objective viewed as central to the protection of downtown property values. Yet the project’s sponsors also sought to achieve some racial diversity in the new development. Concerned that the city’s growing black population would intensify white flight, the sponsors of Dearborn Park viewed the development as a model community that would disrupt rigid patterns of thinking about race and housing and persuade whites that integrated neighborhoods could work.Less