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Soviet Union [USSR] The Party's Appointment Authority
The nomenklatura system arose early in Soviet history.
Lenin wrote that appointments were to take the following criteria
into account: reliability, political attitude, qualifications, and
administrative ability. Stalin, who was the first general secretary
of the party, also was known as "Comrade File Cabinet" (Tovarishch
Kartotekov) for his assiduous attention to the details of the
party's appointments. Seeking to make appointments in a more
systematic fashion, Stalin built the party's patronage system and
used it to distribute his clients throughout the party bureaucracy
(see Soviet Union USSR - Stalin's Rise to Power
, ch. 2). Under Stalin's direction in
1922, the party created departments of the Central Committee and
other organs at lower levels that were responsible for the
registration and appointment of party officials. Known as
uchraspredy, these organs supervised appointments to
important party posts. According to American Sovietologist Seweryn
Bialer, after Brezhnev's accession to power in October 1964, the
party considerably expanded its appointment authority. However, in
the late 1980s some official statements indicated that the party
intended to reduce its appointment authority, particularly in the
area of economic management, in line with Gorbachev's reform
efforts.
At the all-union level, the Party Building and Cadre Work
Department supervised party nomenklatura appointments. This
department maintained records on party members throughout the
country, made appointments to positions on the all-union level, and
approved nomenklatura appointments on the lower levels of
the hierarchy. The head of this department sometimes was a member
of the Secretariat and was often a protégé of the general
secretary.
Every party committee and party organizational department--from
the all-union level in Moscow to the district and city levels--
prepared two lists according to their needs. The basic
(osnovnaia) list detailed positions in the political,
administrative, economic, military, cultural, and educational
bureaucracies that the committee and its department had
responsibility for filling. The registered (uchetnaia) list
enumerated the persons suitable for these positions.
Data as of May 1989
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