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Soviet Union [USSR] INTERMEDIATE-LEVEL PARTY ORGANIZATIONS
The intermediate-level party structure embraced the republic,
oblast,
raion (see Glossary), and city levels of the
hierarchy. The organizational scheme of each of these levels
resembled the others. In addition, at each of these levels the
party organization corresponded to a similar layer in the
government administration. According to the Party Rules, the
authoritative body at each of these levels was the congress
(republic level) or conference. These bodies elected a committee
that, in turn, chose a bureau with several members (including a
first secretary) and a secretariat. Conferences at one level
elected delegates to the conference or congress at the next highest
level. Thus, the rural or city conference designated delegates to
the oblast conference or, in the case of the smaller republics,
directly to the republic party congress. The oblast conference
elected delegates to congresses of the larger republics. The
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic had no party congress.
Delegates from provinces (oblasts, kraia, and autonomous
subdivisions) in that republic were elected directly to the allunion party congress. Of course, at each level of the hierarchy the
term election generally was a euphemism. By the norms of
democratic centralism, party leaders at each level approved the
makeup of the party conference or congress that ostensibly elected
them, as well as the composition of party bodies on the next lowest
level.
Data as of May 1989
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