Changes in the Decision-Making Apparat: Vsja vlast’ sovietam?

Abstract

This chapter’s main thesis is that General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev intends to diminish the decision-making authority of the CPSU Central Committee apparat and to increase the power of the executive branch of the USSR Government, the Soviets. To achieve his objective, Gorbachev purged and structurally redesigned the CPSU bureaucracy in the provinces as well as in the centre. Most significant was Gorbachev’s attack on the CPSU Central Committee Secretariat, until recently one of the most élite decision-making bodies. Gorbachev’s gagging of this institution may prove to be the turning-point of his endeavours. Such a manoeuvre, if accomplished in a democratic country, would be tantamount to the elimination of one of the three branches of government. The General Secretary’s overall objective is to restore the original, Leninist power structure, which was based on the system of Soviets. In May 1989, the new Supreme Soviet assumed much of the authority previously exercised by the CPSU bureaucracy. The USSR Government, as represented by the Soviets on all levels, will be given the authority to govern and the CPSU will turn to politics. The chapter concludes by tracing parallel developments in Czechoslovakia.²

‘The question of power is the fundamental question of every revolution.’ — Lenin