Communist Party in the Power System of the USSR

Abstract

In this article major mechanisms and different stages of the Bolshevik party’s transformation into a “party-state” are examined. The Communist party has been brought to the surface of political life and power by the Russian revolution; the organizational principles of the Party along with its approaches to political process have to a larger extent evolved as results of the revolution. Therefore the system of power which has reached its peak during Stalin’s rule has both been the product of continuity as well as change of the Russian political tradition. The Communist ideology has served as main instrument of communication between the authorities and the people. The Party occupied central position in that system of communication; one of the most important tools of the Party’s control over the Soviet society was propaganda. However the process of the communist regime acquiring legitimacy has been rather lengthy; it was completed only by the late 1920s. The basic principles of “unity” within a ruling group were rejected when rivalry for power ended in Stalin’s favor. The central element in the Communist party’s system of power was the ruling elite – nomenclature. During World War II the institution of “party- state” has reached the highest degree of centralization; but on the other hand, the decision-making system was rather flexible and adaptable as compared with the previous period. After the War even within Stalin’s dictatorship the contours of oligarchic “collective leadership” were emerging. N. Khrushchev used the same instrument as Stalin did – control over the Party apparatus – while consolidating his power. One of the important results of Khrushchev’s rule was the institutionalization of the ruling bureaucracy. Maintaining “stability” became the slogan for the new stage of the Communist regime’s evolution. Socio- economic system was getting increasingly complex and less manageable; different hierarchies, including local and industrial elites, have been failing to make timely and correct decisions due to their rigidness and sluggishness. The Party was attempting to compensate those deficiencies, but was less and less capable of doing so. Gorbachev’s “Perestroika” which was based on the idea of democratic socialism has finally ended the rule of the “party-state”. Having lost its internal integrity the system of power has rapidly deteriorated.

Keywords

• communist party
• power
• october revolution
• legitimacy
• nomenclature
• party apparatus