Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Communist Party ===
{{Main|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}
[[File:MoskauRoterPlatzSeptember1990.jpg|left|thumb|Military parade on the [[Red Square]] in Moscow, 7 November 1964]]
At the top of the Communist Party was the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]], elected at [[Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Party Congresses]] and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Secretariat]] and the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|general secretary]] (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the ''de facto'' highest office in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book |author=Law, David A. |title=Russian Civilization |publisher=Ardent Media |year=1975 |pages=193–194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C |isbn=978-0-8422-0529-0 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055909/http://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country<ref>{{cite book |author=Zemtsov, Ilya |title=Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |year=1989 |page=325 |url=https://archive.org/details/chernenkolastbol00zemt |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-88738-260-4 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941).<ref>{{cite book |author=Knight, Amy |title=Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1995 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxiuUGRQhUIC |isbn=978-0-691-01093-9 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055028/http://books.google.com/books?id=PxiuUGRQhUIC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was [[democratic centralism]], demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Hough, Jerry F. |author2=Fainsod, Merle |title=How the Soviet Union is Governed |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1979 |page=486 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38gMzMRXCpQC |isbn=978-0-674-41030-5 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512054528/http://books.google.com/books?id=38gMzMRXCpQC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the [[Nomenklatura|system of appointments]]. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,<ref>{{cite book |author=Service, Robert |title=History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century |publisher=[[Penguin Books Ltd]] |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ |isbn=978-0-14-103797-4 |page=378 |author-link=Robert Service (historian) |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511090135/http://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ&dq |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of [[Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]], the nominal [[List of heads of state of the Soviet Union|head of state]]. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by [[Kraikom|primary party organizations]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Конститутион оф тхе Руссиян Федератион: витх комментариес анд интерпретатион |publisher=Brunswick Publishing Corp |year=1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mQjvzP8VSYC |isbn=978-1-55618-142-9 |page=82 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512045452/http://books.google.com/books?id=3mQjvzP8VSYC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party,<ref>{{cite book |author=Ōgushi, Atsushi |title=The Demise of the Soviet Communist Party |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |pages=31–32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7mDUC1nOZsC |isbn=978-0-415-43439-3 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512042443/http://books.google.com/books?id=N7mDUC1nOZsC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although [[Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|factions were officially banned]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Taras, Ray |author-link=Raymond Taras |title=Leadership change in Communist states |publisher=Routledge |year=1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AlcVAAAAIAAJ |isbn=978-0-04-445277-5 |page=132 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512053745/http://books.google.com/books?id=AlcVAAAAIAAJ&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>