, 1921-1991 🇷🇺 Communist Russia

Party Centralisation, post-Civil War

Summar

Under Stalin, Russia’s decision-making became concentrated in an increasingly small number of hands.

• consisted of two main bodies – the Politburo and the Sovnarkom
  • in theory, they were supposed to co-exist and check each other
  • but over time, the Politburo made the Sovnarkom redundant

Democratic centralism (theory)

graph LR

People --> Soviets --> Politburo/Sovnarkom

• system of Soviets relaying ideas of the people to highest level was seen as democratic
  • in theory, bottom-up, fitting with their communist mission
• but in reality, it was top-down – Politburo/Sovnarkom instructed Soviets on what to do, Soviets instructed people on what to do
  • known as a command economy – the top commanded, and the bottom followed
    • e.g. if the government says to make 1000 shoes, then everyone makes 1000 shoes regardless of how many shoes are actually needed

Politburo

Inf

The term ‘politburo’ is still in use in communist countries like China and Russia.

• around 7 to 9 members
• most influential body of the Communist Party
• key decisions are made in the Politburo
• increasingly overtook the Sovnarko in terms of power

Sovnarkom

• around 15 to 20 members
• council of People's Commissioners
• key decision body of the Soviet government
  • technically more powerful than the Politburo, since government ≠ communist party on paper
  • but in reality, the Politburo was more powerful than the Communist party
• became less important as the Communist Party took over

Nomenklatura System

1923 Nomenklatura System

1923 Nomenklatura System

Inf

Nomenklatura: a formal list of about 5500 designated party and governmental posts.

Getting into the system was by invitation only. They sought to recruit:

• ‘elite’
• loyal
• dedicated (to the party + leader)

The system was very rigged, and created a series of yes-men loyalists who agreed with everything Lenin said.

• This tightened the one-party state internally, and definitely got rid of factionalism
• Stalin would later use this technique to win leadership of the Bolshevik party

Creating a separate group of ‘elites’ defeated the point of communism, but at that point the Bolsheviks began to see themselves as cultured leaders of the illiterate peasants.

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