Cogs in a Big Machine: To Publication of the Reference Book “Apparatus of the Central Committee of the AUCP (B): Its Structure, Functions, and Cadres. July 10, 1948 – October 5, 1952”

Abstract

This review is devoted to examination of the reference book “Apparatus of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: Its Structure, Functions, and Cadres. July 10, 1948 – October 5, 1952.” Throughout the entire period of the USSR’s existence, it was impossible to study this subject scholarly. Researchers were only aware of the most important figures within party, state, and economic institutions. A great number of people, who prepared policy documents and were daily monitoring their implementation, remained hidden behind the institutions’ signboards. By mid-1920s the USSR was a “party-state” and the apparatus of the Central Committee of the RCP (B)—AUCP (B)—CPSU became essentially its highest institution. Therefore, it is important to study the organization of its activities and the history of functioning and development of its departments. The authors of the reference book have studied the Central Committee apparatus as a notion, as well as its structure, functions, personnel, and periodic restructuring (in 1946, 1948, 1949, 1952) in order to understand the role of the Central Committee apparatus in the political system at its different levels. The first part of the reference book, “The Structure and Staffing of the Central Committee Apparatus” (pp. 41–183), contains detailed information on the staffing and structure of all departments of the Central Committee apparatus, outlining 25 departments and standing commissions, naming their leaders and employees. It should be noted that this is the first time that the structure and leadership of the Technical Secretariat of the Organizational Bureau (Orgburo), Special Sector, Central Committee Administrative Directorate, Party Control Commission, and Central Audit Commission have been detailed. The second part, “Biographical Index of Leading Officials of the Central Committee” (pp. 184–617), contains 577 biographies of all heads of structural divisions of the Central Committee (heads of departments and their deputies, heads of sectors and their deputies, assistants to the Central Committee secretaries). The third part, “Central Committee Apparatus Personnel Summaries for 1948–52,” gives a complete picture of positions and staffing dynamics of the Central Committee apparatus from July 1948 to October 1952 (pp. 618–737). These documents are also being published for the first time. The fourth part, “Documents. Regulations for Departments” (pp. 738–762), contains all relevant Central Committee resolutions (including those from the so-called “Special Folders”) and several memoranda from department heads (Department of Foreign Relations, Department of Personnel of Diplomatic and Foreign Trade Bodies, Foreign Policy Commission of the Central Committee) on powers and functions of the Central Committee departments in 1948–52 (25 documents in total). As a result, this collection provides readers with a multifaceted picture of this important institution and its divisions (departments) in which several thousand executive and technical employees worked.