Abstract
At each stage of the political recruitment process there is a set of selectors whose preferences, articulated or not, play a part in choosing the elite. To the extent that they do achieve expression in the Soviet context, such policy statements mostly emanate from the centre and deal with only two stages of the process: recruitment into the CPSU and selection of ‘leading cadres’. It is not possible, therefore, to ascertain in a comprehensive way all of the relevant selectors’ preferences (by, say, interviews or polling) for every recruitment stage in the Soviet political system.
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Notes
On this latter point, see the Central Committee directive ‘0 rabote partiinykh organizatsii po priemu v partiiu i vospitaniiu kandidatov v chleny KPSS’, in Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika, Vypusk 17 (Moscow, 1977) p. 359, and subsequent commentaries reiterating it in ‘Individual’nyi otbor v partiiu i rabota s molodymi kommunistami’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 19 (1978) p. 57, and (in Appendix) P. Neshcheretnii, ‘Chlenstvo v partii, povyshevie zvaniia kommunista’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 4 (1980) pp. 24–5.
The relevance of regime to political mobility of CPSU obkom secretaries has been verified by Philip D. Stewart et al., ‘Political mobility and the Soviet political process: A partial test of two models’, American Political Science Review, LXVI (1972) 1269–90, esp. pp. 1277–82.
See, for instance, L. I. Brezhnev, ‘Otchet Tsentral’nogo Komiteta KPSS i ocherednye zadachi partii v oblasti vnutrennei i vneshnei politiki’, in Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika, Vypusk 16 (Moscow, 1976) pp. 62–4
I. Iudin, ‘Sotsial’naia baza rosta i ukrepleniia sostava KPSS’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 11 (1978) p. 29; ‘Individual’nyi otbor v partiiu i rabota s molodymi kommunistami’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 18 (1978) p. 54; Neshcheretnii, ‘Chlenstvo v partii… ’, p. 21.
Neshcheretnii, ‘Chlenstvo v partii… ’, pp. 22–3; Iudin, ‘Sotsial’naia baza… ’, pp. 30–1; ‘Individual’nyi otbor… ’, p. 55; T. Usubaliev, ‘Leninskoi partii — dostoinoe popolnenie’, Kommunist, no. 9 (1980) pp. 27–8. Usubaliev implies that rapidly-growing sectors of the economy ought to be especially well represented among worker recruits to the Party.
‘Individual’nyi otbor… ’, p. 56; Pravda, 1 April 1977, p. 3 (translated in Current Digest of the Soviet Press, 27 April 1977, p. 23); E. Aliev, ‘Priem v KPSS i vospitanie molodykh kommunistov’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 8 (1979) pp. 43–4.
The ‘exchange of party cards’ is discussed in T. H. Rigby, ‘Soviet Communist Party membership under Brezhnev,’ Soviet Studies, XXVIII (1976) 319–22. See also the original Central Committee decrees, ‘Ob obmene partiinykh dokumentov’, of 19 May 1972, in Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika, Vypusk 12 (1972) pp. 13–15; ‘0 nachale obmena partiinykh dokumentov’, of 16 February 1973, in Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika, Vypusk 13 (1973) p. 250; and ‘Ob itogakh obmena partiinykh dokumentov’, of 31 January 1975, in Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika, Vypusk 15 (1975) pp. 410–13.
The Latvian affair of 1959, in which local leaders of the Party were removed for promoting native cadres over others, is an exception, a case where advancement of natives was carried too far (Frederic T. Harned, ‘Latvia and the Latvians’, in Zev Katz et al. (eds), Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (New York: Free Press; and London: Collier-Macmillan, 1975) pp. 101, 113, 115).
P. A. Rodionov, O leninskom stile v rabote (Moscow: Znanie’, 1966) pp. 25–6.
See, for example, G. Krivoshein, ‘Vazhnaia cherta leninskogo stilia v rabote’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 2(1978) pp. 15–20; ‘0 rabote Udmurtskogo obkoma KPSS po podboru, rasstanovke i vospitaniiu ruko-vodiashchikh kadrov’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 23 (1979) pp. 17–20; ‘Tvorcheskoe razvitie leninskikh printsipov kadrovoi politiki partii v proizvedeniiakh tovarishcha L. I. Brezhneva “Malaia zemlia”, “Vozrozhdenie”, “Tselina”, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 2 (1979) pp. 15–23.
See also V. L. Savel’ev and O. A. Spirin, ‘Nespromozhnist’ burzhuaznykh fal’syf ikatsii kadrovoi polityky KPRS’; Ukrains’kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, no. 1 (1980) pp. 36–44.
A. Cherniak, ‘Leninskaia kadrovaia politika KPSS’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 5 (1980) p. 10
I. Kapitonov, ‘Kadrovaia politika KPSS v deistvii’ Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 14 (1980) p. 14, and Savel’ev and Spirin, ‘Nespromozhnist’ burzhuaznykh fal’syfikatsii… ’, p. 43. Hough reports that ‘a vigorous affirmative action program’ was launched following ‘the 1968 unrest in Czechoslovakia… forcing all institutions of higher education and all departments within them to admit more workers, peasants, and their children’ (Hough and Fainsod, How the Soviet Union is Governed, p. 554). This should remind us that the worker recruitment policy is not pursued in isolation in the Party-political realm, and that the ongoing upheavels in Eastern Europe are liable to have the effect of continuing to reinforce this policy.
Robert E. Blackwell, ‘Cadres policy in the Brezhnev era’, Problems of Communism, XXVIII, no. 2 (1979) pp. 31–2; Savel’ev and Spirin, ‘Nespromozhnist’ burzhuaznykh fal’syfikatsii… ’, p. 44; Cherniak, ‘Leninskaia kadrovaia politika KPSS’, p. 13.
A. Iakubovskii, ‘Demokraticheskie nachalav rabote s kadrami’, Kommunist Moldavii, no. 9 (1976) p. 26.
N. Kuz’min, ‘KPSS — politicheskii vozhd’ rabochego klassa, vsekh trudiashchikhsia, vsego naroda’, Partiinaia zhizn’, no. 1 (1980) pp. 26–7, and Naselenie SSSR… 1979, p. 19 (both in Appendix).
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© 1984 Bohdan Harasymiw
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Harasymiw, B. (1984). Post-Stalin Recruitment Policy. In: Political Elite Recruitment in the Soviet Union. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17425-6_3
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