The Middle-Level Party Layer

Abstract

Proceeding from the nomenklatura,we find the next large and exceedingly important group of Party members who have almost placed one foot into the ruling elite. These persons are elected as party secretaries or as leading members of the party committees in large plants, factories, universities, research institutes, huge and advanced collective farms. They are the leading political commissars in the Soviet army, navy and state security detachments. Tomorrow these men and women will be famous all over the country and the whole world for being advanced workers of production, Stakhanovite miners, milk- maids, famous breeders and agrarians. But much more often, these are not very well-known ordinary workers and Party functionaries. They are the real organizers of Party life in the Soviet Union, and are ringleaders in the so-called Party active groups, which exist everywhere.