Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. General Secretary Khrushchev

Introduction

Party history
October Revolution
War communism
New Economic Policy
Stalinism
Khrushchev's thaw
The era of stagnation
Perestroika

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (in informal use and everyday speech it is often shortened to General Secretary) - the most significant and only non-collegial position in the Central Committee of the Communist Party Soviet Union. The position was introduced as part of the Secretariat on April 3, 1922 at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), elected by the XI Congress of the RCP (b), when I. V. Stalin was approved in this capacity.

From 1934 to 1953, this position was not mentioned at the plenums of the Central Committee during the elections of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. From 1953 to 1966, the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee was elected, and in 1966 the position of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee was again established.

The post of General Secretary and Stalin's victory in the struggle for power (1922-1934)

The proposal to establish this post and appoint Stalin to it was made based on Zinoviev’s idea by member of the Politburo of the Central Committee Lev Kamenev, in agreement with Lenin. Lenin was not afraid of any competition from the uncultured and politically small Stalin. But for the same reason, Zinoviev and Kamenev made him secretary general: they considered Stalin a politically insignificant person, they saw in him convenient assistant, but not an opponent.

Initially, this position meant only the leadership of the party apparatus, while the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Lenin, formally remained the leader of the party and government. In addition, leadership in the party was considered inextricably linked with the merits of the theorist; therefore, following Lenin, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were considered the most prominent “leaders”, while Stalin was seen to have neither theoretical merits nor special merits in the revolution.

Lenin highly valued Stalin's organizational skills, but Stalin's despotic behavior and his rudeness towards N. Krupskaya made Lenin repent of his appointment, and in his “Letter to the Congress” Lenin stated that Stalin was too rude and should be removed from the post of General Secretary. But due to illness, Lenin withdrew from political activity.

Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev organized a triumvirate based on opposition to Trotsky.

Before the start of the XIII Congress (held in May 1924), Lenin's widow Nadezhda Krupskaya handed over a “Letter to the Congress”. It was announced at a meeting of the Council of Elders. Stalin announced his resignation for the first time at this meeting. Kamenev proposed to resolve the issue by voting. The majority was in favor of leaving Stalin as General Secretary; only Trotsky's supporters voted against.

After Lenin's death, Leon Trotsky claimed the role of the first person in the party and state. But he lost to Stalin, who skillfully played out a combination, winning over Kamenev and Zinoviev to his side. And Stalin’s real career begins only from the moment when Zinoviev and Kamenev, wanting to seize Lenin’s inheritance and organizing the struggle against Trotsky, chose Stalin as an ally who must be had in the party apparatus.

On December 27, 1926, Stalin submitted his resignation from the post of General Secretary: “I ask you to relieve me from the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee. I declare that I can no longer work in this position, I am unable to work in this position any longer.” The resignation was not accepted.

It is interesting that Stalin never signed the full title of his position in official documents. He signed himself as "Secretary of the Central Committee" and was addressed as Secretary of the Central Committee. When the Encyclopedic reference book “Figures of the USSR and Revolutionary Movements of Russia” (prepared in 1925-1926) was published, in the article “Stalin”, Stalin was introduced as follows: “since 1922, Stalin has been one of the secretaries of the Central Committee of the party, in which position he remains now.” That is, not a word about the post of Secretary General. Since the author of the article was Stalin’s personal secretary Ivan Tovstukha, it means that this was Stalin’s desire.

By the end of the 1920s, Stalin had concentrated so much personal power in his hands that the position became associated with the highest position in the party leadership, although the Charter of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks did not provide for its existence.

When Molotov was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in 1930, he asked to be relieved of his duties as Secretary of the Central Committee. Stalin agreed. And Lazar Kaganovich began to perform the duties of the second secretary of the Central Committee. He replaced Stalin in the Central Committee. .

Stalin - sovereign ruler of the USSR (1934-1951)

According to R. Medvedev, in January 1934, at the XVII Congress, an illegal bloc was formed mainly from the secretaries of regional committees and the Central Committee of the National Communist Parties, who, more than anyone else, felt and understood the error of Stalin’s policies. Proposals were put forward to move Stalin to the post of chairman of the Council of People's Commissars or Central Executive Committee, and to elect S.M. to the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee. Kirov. A group of congress delegates talked with Kirov on this subject, but he resolutely refused, and without his consent the whole plan became unrealistic.

Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich 1977: “ Kirov is a weak organizer. He's a good extra. And we treated him well. Stalin loved him. I say that he was Stalin's favorite. The fact that Khrushchev cast a shadow on Stalin, as if he killed Kirov, is vile».

For all the importance of Leningrad and Leningrad region their leader Kirov was never the second person in the USSR. The position of the second most important person in the country was occupied by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Molotov. At the plenum after the congress, Kirov, like Stalin, was elected secretary of the Central Committee. Ten months later, Kirov died in the Smolny building from a shot by a former party worker. . An attempt by opponents of the Stalinist regime to unite around Kirov during XVII Congress party led to the beginning of mass terror, which reached its climax in 1937-1938.

Since 1934, mention of the position of General Secretary has completely disappeared from documents. At the Plenums of the Central Committee, held after the XVII, XVIII and XIX Party Congresses, Stalin was elected Secretary of the Central Committee, actually performing the functions of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party. After the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, held in 1934, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks elected the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, consisting of Zhdanov, Kaganovich, Kirov and Stalin. Stalin, as chairman of the meetings of the Politburo and the Secretariat, retained general leadership, that is, the right to approve this or that agenda and determine the degree of readiness of draft decisions submitted for consideration.

Stalin continued to sign his name in official documents as “Secretary of the Central Committee,” and continued to be addressed as Secretary of the Central Committee.

Subsequent updates to the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1939 and 1946. were also carried out with the election of formally equal secretaries of the Central Committee. Charter of the CPSU, adopted at XIX Congress CPSU, did not contain any mention of the existence of the position of “general secretary”.

In May 1941, in connection with the appointment of Stalin as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Politburo adopted a resolution in which Andrei Zhdanov was officially named Stalin's deputy in the party: “In view of the fact that comrade. Stalin, remaining at the insistence of the Politburo of the Central Committee as the first Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, will not be able to devote sufficient time to work on the Secretariat of the Central Committee, appoint Comrade. Zhdanova A.A. Deputy Comrade. Stalin on the Secretariat of the Central Committee."

The official status of deputy leader in the party was not awarded to Vyacheslav Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich, who previously actually performed this role.

The struggle among the country's leaders intensified as Stalin increasingly raised the question that in the event of his death he needed to select successors in the leadership of the party and government. Molotov recalled: “After the war, Stalin was about to retire and at the table said: “Let Vyacheslav work now. He's younger."

For a long time they were seen in Molotov possible successor Stalin, but later Stalin, who considered the first post in the USSR to be the head of government, in private conversations suggested that he sees Nikolai Voznesensky as his successor in the state line

Continuing to see Voznesensky as his successor in leadership of the government of the country, Stalin began to look for another candidate for the post of party leader. Mikoyan recalled: “I think it was 1948. Once Stalin pointed to 43-year-old Alexei Kuznetsov and said that future leaders should be young, and in general, such a person could someday become his successor in leadership of the party and the Central Committee.”

By this time, two dynamic rival groups had formed in the country's leadership. Then events took a tragic turn. In August 1948, the leader of the “Leningrad group” A.A. suddenly died. Zhdanov. Almost a year later in 1949, Voznesensky and Kuznetsov became key figures in the Leningrad Affair. They were sentenced to death penalty and they were shot on October 1, 1950.

The last years of Stalin's reign (1951-1953)

Since Stalin’s health was a taboo topic, only various rumors served as a source for versions of his illnesses. His health began to affect his performance. Many documents remained unsigned for a long time. He was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and at meetings of the Council of Ministers it was not he who chaired, but Voznesensky (until he was removed from all posts in 1949). After Voznesensky Malenkov. According to historian Yu. Zhukov, the decline in Stalin’s performance began in February 1950 and reached lower limit, stabilizing in May 1951.

As Stalin began to get tired of everyday affairs and business papers remained unsigned for a long time, in February 1951 it was decided that three leaders - Malenkov, Beria and Bulganin - had the right to sign for Stalin, and they used his facsimile.

Georgy Malenkov led the preparations for the Nineteenth Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which took place in October 1952. At the congress, Malenkov was instructed to deliver the Report of the Central Committee, which was a sign of Stalin’s special trust. Georgy Malenkov was seen as his most likely successor.

On the last day of the congress, October 14, Stalin gave a short speech. This was Stalin's last open public appearance.

The procedure for electing the party's governing bodies at the Plenum of the Central Committee on October 16, 1952 was quite specific. Stalin, taking a piece of paper out of the pocket of his jacket, said: “It would be possible to elect, for example, the following comrades to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee - Comrade Stalin, Comrade Andrianov, Comrade Aristov, Comrade Beria, Comrade Bulganin...” and then 20 more in alphabetical order. names, including the names of Molotov and Mikoyan, to whom in his speech he had just, without any reason, expressed political distrust. Then he read out the candidates for membership in the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, including the names of Brezhnev and Kosygin.

Then Stalin took out another piece of paper from the side pocket of his jacket and said: “Now about the Secretariat of the Central Committee. It would be possible to elect the following comrades as secretaries of the Central Committee: Comrade Stalin, Comrade Aristov, Comrade Brezhnev, Comrade Ignatov, Comrade Malenkov, Comrade Mikhailov, Comrade Pegov, Comrade Ponomarenko, Comrade Suslov, Comrade Khrushchev.”

In total, Stalin proposed 36 people to the Presidium and Secretariat.

At the same plenum, Stalin tried to resign from his party duties, refusing the post of Secretary of the Central Committee, but under pressure from the plenum delegates he accepted this position.

Suddenly, someone shouted loudly: “We must elect Comrade Stalin.” Secretary General Central Committee of the CPSU". Everyone stood up and there was thunderous applause. The ovation continued for several minutes. We, sitting in the hall, believed that this was quite natural. But then Stalin waved his hand, calling everyone to silence, and when the applause died down, unexpectedly for the members of the Central Committee he said: “No! Release me from my duties as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.” After these words, some kind of shock arose, an amazing silence reigned... Malenkov quickly went down to the podium and said: “Comrades! We must all unanimously and unanimously ask Comrade Stalin, our leader and teacher, to continue to be the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.” Thunderous applause and applause followed again. Then Stalin walked to the podium and said: “Applause is not needed at the Plenum of the Central Committee. It is necessary to resolve issues without emotions, in a businesslike manner. And I ask to be relieved of my duties as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. I'm already old. I don't read papers. Choose another secretary!” Those sitting in the hall began to make noise. Marshall S.K. Timoshenko rose from the front rows and loudly declared: “Comrade Stalin, the people will not understand this! We, all as one, elect you as our leader - General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. There can be no other solution." Everyone, standing and warmly applauding, supported Comrade Tymoshenko. Stalin stood for a long time and looked into the hall, then waved his hand and sat down.

From the memoirs of Leonid Efremov “On the roads of struggle and labor” (1998)

When the question arose about the formation of the leading bodies of the party, Stalin took the floor and began to say that it was difficult for him to be both the prime minister of the government and the general secretary of the party: The years are not the same; I'm having a hard time; no forces; Well, what kind of prime minister is he who cannot even make a speech or report? Stalin said this and peered inquisitively into their faces, as if he was studying how the Plenum would react to his words about resignation. Not a single person sitting in the hall admitted the possibility of Stalin's resignation. And everyone instinctively felt that Stalin did not want his words about resignation to be carried out.

From the memoirs of Dmitry Shepilov “Non-Aligned”

Unexpectedly for everyone, Stalin proposed creating a new, non-statutory body - the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee. It was supposed to perform the functions of the former all-powerful Politburo. Stalin proposed not to include Molotov and Mikoyan in this supreme party body. This was adopted by the Plenum, as always, unanimously.

Stalin continued to search for a successor, but no longer shared his intentions with anyone. It is known that shortly before his death, Stalin considered Panteleimon Ponomarenko as a successor and continuer of his work. Ponomarenko's high authority was demonstrated at the 19th Congress of the CPSU. When he took the podium to make his speech, the delegates greeted him with applause. However, Stalin did not have time to carry out a poll through the Presidium of the Central Committee to appoint P.K. Ponomarenko to the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Only Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev and Bulganin out of 25 members of the Presidium of the Central Committee did not have time to sign the appointment document. .

And according to a telegram from the regional committee... I considered it my duty to inform General secretary Central Committee CPSU about the state of affairs around the test site... was heard phone call- called secretary Central Committee CPSU O. D. Baklanov, in charge...

On September 12, 1953, Nikita Khrushchev was elected first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. After Stalin's death, he was one of the initiators of the removal from government positions and the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria and, in principle, was considered one of the main contenders for the first post in the state.

One of the most notable events during his reign was the 20th Congress of the CPSU and Khrushchev’s report on Stalin’s personality cult and mass repressions. It was this event that became the beginning of the “Khrushchev Thaw”. By decision of the Central Committee, following the results of the congress, the body of Joseph Stalin was removed from the mausoleum and buried near the Kremlin wall, in addition, all geographical objects named after him were renamed, and monuments (except for the monument in his native Gori) were dismantled. Rallies in Tbilisi, whose participants protested against the condemnation of the cult of personality, were dispersed by the authorities. The official procedure for the rehabilitation of victims has begun Stalin's repressions and repressed peoples.

You can also recall his decision to stop payments on all bond issues internal loan, that is, in modern terminology, the USSR actually found itself in a state of default. This led to significant losses in savings for the majority of residents of the USSR, whom the authorities themselves had previously forcibly forced to buy these bonds for decades. It should be noted that on average, each citizen of the Soviet Union spent from one to three monthly salaries per year on forced subscriptions for loans.

In 1958, Khrushchev began to pursue a policy directed against personal subsidiary plots - since 1959, residents of cities and workers' settlements were prohibited from keeping livestock, and the state bought personal livestock from collective farmers. Collective farmers began mass slaughter of livestock. This policy led to a reduction in the number of livestock and poultry and worsened the situation of the peasantry.

At the same time, it was during these years that, by order of Khrushchev, the development of virgin lands began, primarily fallow lands in Kazakhstan. Over the years of development, more than 597.5 million tons of grain were produced in Kazakhstan.

In 1954, by decision of Khrushchev, the Crimean region was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

From tragic pages in the history of Khrushchev's reign we can highlight the introduction Soviet troops to Hungary in 1956 and the Novocherkassk execution in 1962.

In foreign policy, we remember the Caribbean crisis associated with the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, meeting with US Vice President Richard Nixon in Iowa, World Festival of Youth and Students 1957 in Moscow.

The first attempt to remove Khrushchev from power took place in June 1957 at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. It was decided to relieve him of his duties as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. However, a group of Khrushchev’s supporters from among the members of the CPSU Central Committee, led by Marshal Zhukov, managed to intervene in the work of the Presidium and achieve the transfer of this issue to the consideration of the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee convened for this purpose. At the June 1957 plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev's supporters defeated his opponents from among the members of the Presidium. The latter were branded as “an anti-party group of Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich and Shepilov who joined them” and were removed from the Central Committee, and later, in 1962, expelled from the party. Four months after these events, Khrushchev relieved Marshal Georgy Zhukov of his duties as Minister of Defense and member of the Presidium of the Central Committee.

In 1964, the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, convened in the absence of Khrushchev, who was resting, removed him from all party and government posts “for health reasons.” Leonid Brezhnev took the place at the head of the state.

After his resignation, his name was “unmentioned” for more than 20 years (like Stalin and, to a greater extent, Malenkov). In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia he was accompanied by a brief description of: “There were elements of subjectivism and voluntarism in his activities.”

During Perestroika, discussion of Khrushchev’s activities again became possible, his role as the “predecessor” of perestroika was emphasized, and at the same time attention was drawn to his own role in the repressions and negative sides his leadership. IN Soviet magazines“Memoirs” of Khrushchev, written by him in retirement, were published.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (1894-1971) came from the poorest peasantry of the Kursk province. Like most poor children, he was forced to go to work at the age of 12. In 1918 he joined the Bolshevik Party and took part in the Civil War. In the early 1920s, he worked in the mines and studied at the workers' department of the Donetsk Industrial Institute. Later he was engaged in economic and party work in Donbass and Kyiv. In the 1920s, the leader of the Communist Party in Ukraine was L. M. Kaganovich, and apparently Khrushchev made a favorable impression on him. Soon after Kaganovich left for Moscow, Khrushchev was sent to study at the Industrial Academy. Since January 1931 he was at party work in Moscow; in 1935-1938 he was the first secretary of the Moscow regional and city party committees - MK and MGK VKP (b). In January 1938, he was appointed first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. In the same year he became a candidate, and in 1939 - a member of the Politburo.

During World War II, Khrushchev served as a political commissar of the highest rank (a member of the military councils of a number of fronts) and in 1943 received the rank of lieutenant general; led partisan movement behind the front line. In the first post-war years, he headed the government in Ukraine, while Kaganovich headed the party leadership of the republic. In December 1947, Khrushchev again headed the Communist Party of Ukraine, becoming the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine; He held this post until he moved to Moscow in December 1949, where he became the first secretary of the Moscow Party Committee and secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Khrushchev initiated the consolidation of collective farms (kolkhozes). This campaign led to a decrease in the number of collective farms over several years from approximately 250 thousand to less than 100 thousand. In the early 1950s, he hatched even more radical plans. Khrushchev wanted to turn peasant villages into agricultural cities, so that collective farmers would live in the same houses as workers and would not have personal plots. Khrushchev's speech on this matter, published in Pravda, was refuted the next day in an editorial that emphasized the controversial nature of the proposals. And yet, in October 1952, Khrushchev was appointed one of the main speakers at the 19th Party Congress.

After the death of Stalin, when the Chairman of the Council of Ministers G.M. Malenkov left the post of Secretary of the Central Committee, Khrushchev became the “master” of the party apparatus, although until September 1953 he did not have the title of First Secretary. In the period from March to June 1953, L.P. Beria attempted to seize power. In order to eliminate Beria, Khrushchev entered into an alliance with Malenkov. In September 1953, he took the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

In the first years after Stalin's death, there was talk of "collective leadership", but soon after Beria's arrest in June 1953, a power struggle began between Malenkov and Khrushchev, in which Khrushchev won. At the beginning of 1954, he announced the start of a grandiose program for the development of virgin lands in order to increase grain production, and in October of the same year he headed the Soviet delegation to Beijing.

The reason for Malenkov's resignation from the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers in February 1955 was that Khrushchev managed to convince the Central Committee to support the course of preferential development of heavy industry, and therefore the production of weapons, and to abandon Malenkov's idea to give priority to the production of consumer goods. Khrushchev appointed N.A. Bulganin to the post of chairman of the Council of Ministers, securing for himself the position of the first figure in the state.

The most striking event in Khrushchev's career was the 20th Congress of the CPSU, held in 1956. In his report at the congress, he put forward the thesis that war between capitalism and communism is not “fatally inevitable.” At a closed meeting, Khrushchev condemned Stalin, accusing him of mass extermination of people and erroneous policies that almost ended in the liquidation of the USSR in the war with Nazi Germany. The result of this report was unrest in the Eastern bloc countries - Poland (October 1956) and Hungary (October and November 1956). These events undermined Khrushchev's position, especially after it became clear in December 1956 that the implementation of the five-year plan was being disrupted due to insufficient capital investment. However, at the beginning of 1957, Khrushchev managed to convince the Central Committee to accept a plan for reorganizing industrial management at the regional level. However, the persistence of a totalitarian regime in the country means suppression of dissent, shooting of workers’ demonstrations (Novocherkassk, 1962, etc.), arbitrariness against the intelligentsia, interference in the affairs of other states (armed intervention in Hungary, 1956, etc.), escalation of military confrontation with the West ( Berlin, 1961, and Caribbean, 1962, crises, etc.), as well as political projection (calls to “catch up and overtake America!”, promises to build communism by 1980) made his policy inconsistent.

In June 1957, the Presidium (formerly Politburo) of the CPSU Central Committee organized a conspiracy to remove Khrushchev from the post of First Secretary of the Party. After his return from Finland, he was invited to a meeting of the Presidium, which, by seven votes to four, demanded his resignation. Khrushchev convened a Plenum of the Central Committee, which overturned the decision of the Presidium and dismissed the “anti-party group” of Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich. (At the end of 1957, Khrushchev dismissed those who supported him in Hard time Marshal G.K. Zhukov.) He strengthened the Presidium with his supporters, and in March 1958 he took the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, taking into his own hands all the main levers of power.

In 1957, after the successful testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile and the launch of the first satellites into orbit, Khrushchev issued a statement demanding that Western countries “put an end to cold war"His demands for a separate peace treaty with East Germany in November 1958, which would have included a renewal of the blockade West Berlin, led to an international crisis. In September 1959, President D. Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to visit the United States. After traveling around the country, Khrushchev negotiated with Eisenhower at Camp David. International situation noticeably warmed up after Khrushchev agreed to push back the deadline for resolving the issue of Berlin, and Eisenhower agreed to convene a conference on top level, which would consider this issue. The summit meeting was scheduled for May 16, 1960. However, on May 1, 1960, a US U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in the airspace over Sverdlovsk, and the meeting was disrupted.

The “soft” policy towards the United States involved Khrushchev in a hidden, albeit harsh, ideological discussion with the Chinese communists, who condemned the negotiations with Eisenhower and did not recognize Khrushchev’s version of “Leninism.” In June 1960, Khrushchev made a statement about the need for “further development” of Marxism-Leninism and taking into account the changed historical conditions. In November 1960, after a three-week discussion, the congress of representatives of the communist and workers' parties adopted a compromise decision that allowed Khrushchev to conduct diplomatic negotiations on issues of disarmament and peaceful coexistence, while calling for an intensification of the fight against capitalism by all means except military.

In September 1960, Khrushchev visited the United States for the second time as head of the Soviet delegation to the UN General Assembly. During the assembly, he was able to hold large-scale negotiations with the heads of government of a number of countries. His report to the Assembly called for general disarmament, the immediate elimination of colonialism and the admission of China to the UN. In June 1961, Khrushchev met with US President John Kennedy and again expressed his demands regarding Berlin. During the summer of 1961, the Soviet foreign policy became more and more stringent, and in September the USSR interrupted the three-year moratorium on testing nuclear weapons, carrying out a series of explosions.

In the fall of 1961, at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev attacked the communist leaders of Albania (who were not at the congress) for continuing to support the philosophy of “Stalinism.” By this he also meant the leaders of communist China. On October 14, 1964, by the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, Khrushchev was relieved of his duties as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. He was replaced by L. I. Brezhnev, who became the First Secretary of the Communist Party, and A. N. Kosygin, who became Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

After 1964, Khrushchev, while retaining his seat on the Central Committee, was essentially in retirement. He formally dissociated himself from the two-volume work “Memoirs” published in the USA under his name (1971, 1974). Khrushchev died in Moscow on September 11, 1971.

Khrushchev is an extremely controversial figure Soviet history. On the one hand, it belongs entirely Stalin era, is undoubtedly one of the purveyors of the policy of purges and mass repressions. On the other hand, during Cuban missile crisis, when the world was on the brink of nuclear war and global catastrophe, Khrushchev managed to heed the voice of reason and stop the escalation of hostilities and prevent the outbreak of the Third World War. It is to Khrushchev that the post-war generation owes the beginning of the process of liberation from the deadening ideological schemes of “reconstruction” of society and the restoration of human rights on “one-sixth” of the Earth.
See also.

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee is the highest position in the hierarchy of the Communist Party and according to by and large leader of the Soviet Union. In the history of the party there were four more positions of the head of its central apparatus: Technical Secretary (1917-1918), Chairman of the Secretariat (1918-1919), Executive Secretary (1919-1922) and First Secretary (1953-1966).

The persons who filled the first two positions were mainly engaged in paper secretarial work. Job title Executive Secretary was introduced in 1919 to perform for administrative activities. The post of General Secretary, established in 1922, was also created purely for administrative and personnel work within the party. However, the first Secretary General Joseph Stalin, using the principles of democratic centralism, managed to become not only the leader of the party, but the entire Soviet Union.

At the 17th Party Congress, Stalin was not formally re-elected to the post of General Secretary. However, his influence was already enough to maintain leadership in the party and the country as a whole. After Stalin's death in 1953, Georgy Malenkov was considered the most influential member of the Secretariat. After his appointment to the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, he left the Secretariat and Nikita Khrushchev, who was soon elected First Secretary of the Central Committee, took the leading positions in the party.

Not limitless rulers

In 1964, the opposition within the Politburo and the Central Committee removed Nikita Khrushchev from the post of First Secretary, electing Leonid Brezhnev in his place. Since 1966, the position of the party leader was again called the General Secretary. In Brezhnev's times, the power of the General Secretary was not unlimited, since members of the Politburo could limit his powers. The leadership of the country was carried out collectively.

Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko ruled the country according to the same principle as the late Brezhnev. Both were elected to the party's top post while their health was failing and served only a short time as secretary general. Until 1990, when the Communist Party's monopoly on power was eliminated, Mikhail Gorbachev led the state as General Secretary of the CPSU. Especially for him, in order to maintain leadership in the country, the post of President of the Soviet Union was established in the same year.

After August putsch 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary. He was replaced by his deputy, Vladimir Ivashko, who served as Acting Secretary General for only five years. calendar days, until that moment, Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspended the activities of the CPSU.

This now almost unused abbreviation was once known to every child and was pronounced almost with reverence. Central Committee of the CPSU! What do these letters mean?

About the name

The abbreviation we are interested in means, or more simply, Central Committee. Considering the importance of the Communist Party in society, its governing body could well be called the kitchen in which fateful decisions for the country were “cooked.” Members of the CPSU Central Committee, the main elite of the country, are the “cooks” in this kitchen, and the “chef” is the General Secretary.

From the history of the CPSU

The history of this public entity began long before the revolution and the proclamation of the USSR. Until 1952, its names changed several times: RCP(b), VKP(b). These abbreviations reflected both the ideology, which was clarified each time (from workers' social democracy to the Bolshevik Communist Party), and the scale (from Russian to all-Union). But the names are not the point. From the 20s to the 90s of the last century, a one-party system functioned in the country, and the Communist Party had a complete monopoly. The Constitution of 1936 recognized it as the governing core, and in the main law of the country of 1977 it was even proclaimed the guiding and guiding force of society. Any directives issued by the CPSU Central Committee instantly acquired the force of law.

All this, of course, did not contribute to the democratic development of the country. In the USSR, inequality of rights along party lines was actively promoted. Even for small leadership positions Only members of the CPSU could apply, and they could be held accountable for mistakes along party lines. One of the most terrible punishments was deprivation of a party card. The CPSU positioned itself as a party of workers and collective farmers, so there were quite strict quotas for its recruitment with new members. It was difficult for a representative of a creative profession or an employee to find himself in the party ranks mental work; The CPSU followed its own no less strictly. national composition. Thanks to this selection, the really best did not always end up in the party.

From the party charter

In accordance with the Charter, all activities of the Communist Party were collegial. IN primary organizations decisions were made at general meetings, in general, the governing body was a congress held every few years. A party plenum was held approximately every six months. In the intervals between plenums and congresses, the Central Committee of the CPSU was the leading unit responsible for all party activities. In turn, the highest body that led the Central Committee itself was the Politburo, headed by the General (First) Secretary.

In number functional responsibilities Central Committee included personnel policy and local control, expenditure of the party budget and management of the activities of public structures. But not only. Together with the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, he determined all ideological activities in the country and resolved the most important political and economic issues.

It is difficult for people who have not lived to understand this. In a democratic country where a number of parties operate, their activities are of little concern to the average person - he only remembers them before elections. But in the USSR the leading role of the Communist Party was even emphasized constitutionally! In factories and collective farms, in military units and in creative teams The party organizer was the second (and in importance often the first) leader of this structure. Formally Communist Party could not manage economic or political processes: for this there was a Council of Ministers. But in fact, the Communist Party decided everything. No one was surprised by the fact that the most important political problems, and five-year plans for economic development were discussed and determined by party congresses. The Central Committee of the CPSU directed all these processes.

About the main person in the party

Theoretically, the Communist Party was a democratic entity: from the time of Lenin until the last moment, there was no unity of command in it, and there were no formal leaders. It was assumed that the Secretary of the Central Committee was just a technical position, and the members governing body are equal. The first secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee, or rather the RCP(b), were indeed not very noticeable figures. E. Stasova, Y. Sverdlov, N. Krestinsky, V. Molotov - although their names were well-known, their relationship to practical guide these people didn't have. But with the arrival of I. Stalin, the process went differently: the “father of nations” managed to crush all power under himself. A corresponding position also appeared - Secretary General. It must be said that the names of party leaders changed periodically: the General Secretaries were replaced by the First Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee, then vice versa. WITH light hand Stalin, regardless of the title of his position, the party leader at the same time became the main person of the state.

After the death of the leader in 1953, N. Khrushchev and L. Brezhnev held this post, then for short term the position was occupied by Yu. Andropov and K. Chernenko. The last party leader was M. Gorbachev, who was also the only President of the USSR. The era of each of them was significant in its own way. If Stalin is considered by many to be a tyrant, then Khrushchev is usually called a voluntarist, and Brezhnev is the father of stagnation. Gorbachev went down in history as the man who first destroyed and then buried a huge state - the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

The history of the CPSU was an academic discipline compulsory for all universities in the country, and every schoolchild in the Soviet Union knew the main milestones in the development and activities of the party. Revolution, then civil war, industrialization and collectivization, victory over fascism and the post-war restoration of the country. And then virgin lands and space flights, large-scale all-Union construction projects - the history of the party was closely intertwined with the history of the state. In each case, the role of the CPSU was considered dominant, and the word “communist” was synonymous with a true patriot and simply a worthy person.

But if you read the history of the party differently, between the lines, you get a terrible thriller. Millions of repressed people, exiled peoples, camps and political murders, reprisals against undesirables, persecution of dissidents... We can say that the author of every black page of Soviet history is the CPSU Central Committee.

In the USSR they loved to quote Lenin’s words: “The party is the mind, honor and conscience of our era.” Alas! In fact, the Communist Party was neither one nor the other, nor the third. After the 1991 coup, the activities of the CPSU in Russia were banned. Is the Russian Communist Party the successor to the All-Union Party? Even experts find it difficult to explain this.