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Soviet Union [USSR] Training
The CPSU obligated its members constantly to improve their
understanding of Marxism-Leninism and political qualifications.
Toward these goals, the party operated a series of schools to train
party members in Marxism-Leninism, to recruit rank-and-file members
into its administration, and to communicate party principles and
policies to the membership, particularly to officials in the
apparatus.
Party schools operated at all levels of the hierarchy. The
primary party schools formed the elementary level of the training
system. These schools were informal; they could be as simple as a
circle of workers who met after work to discuss the life of Lenin,
political and economic affairs, or current party policies. Since
the mid-1960s, enrollments in these schools have been declining
because of the increased education level of the population. These
courses were open to nonmembers, whose participation could be used
to demonstrate a desire to join the party. Trade unions and the
Komsomol administered schools with similar levels of instruction.
Trade unions operated "people's universities" and "schools of
communist labor." The former treated a variety of topics and
enrolled students in a group that advanced as a class from level to
level. Schools of communist labor were oriented to problems of
production. Lectures often dealt with the correct attitude toward
work.
The party had a variety of schools at the intermediate level.
Schools of the Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, administered by
district and city party committees, required some knowledge of
Marxism-Leninism. Classes were small, which permitted individual
attention to students and the examination of subject matter in
detail. Courses in these schools reviewed the fundamentals of party
doctrine and included subjects such as party history, political
economy, and Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Since the mid-1970s,
enrollment in these schools has grown. In 1981 the party formed the
Schools for Young Communists. These institutions offered
instruction to candidate members of the party and to people who had
recently become full members.
The Schools of Scientific Communism offered more specialized
instruction at the intermediate level. In 1989 topics included
current events in domestic and international affairs. Schools for
the party's economic specialists offered training in such areas as
party direction of trade unions, economic policy, and the theory of
developed socialism. Schools for ideological specialists included
courses for PPO secretaries and group leaders, party lecturers, and
media personnel. These schools offered courses on the principles of
Marxism-Leninism and on the means and methods of the party's
control over ideological affairs.
Party training at the intermediate level also encompassed
seminars in Marxist-Leninist theory and methods. Members of the
scientific intelligentsia and professors at institutions of higher
education attended these seminars. Subjects included philosophical
and social science topics: the scientific-technical revolution,
economics, the theory of proletarian internationalism, communist
morality, and socialist democracy.
Finally, the party offered courses for raising the
qualifications of party and soviet officials at the provincial and
republic levels. These courses involved supplementary training in
a variety of subjects first treated in lower-level party schools.
Party officials also could take correspondence courses offered
either by the Higher Party School of their republic or under the
auspices of the Academy of Social Sciences of the CPSU Central
Committee.
At the all-union level, the Higher Party School and the Academy
of Social Sciences in Moscow were staffed with instructors attached
to the CPSU Central Committee departments
(see Soviet Union USSR - Secretariat
, this
ch.). These schools trained officials to enter the party elite at
the all-union level. The Higher Party School graduated about 300
students per year; the Academy of Social Sciences graduated
approximately 100.
Training at party schools served a variety of purposes.
Willingness to participate in party courses at the lowest level
could indicate an aspiration to join the party or ensure
advancement from candidate status to that of full member. Once in
the party, participation in training courses demonstrated a desire
to enter into full-time, salaried party work. Indeed, such
coursework was a prerequisite for this kind of a career. Party
training also created an in-group consciousness among those who
attended courses, particularly at the intermediate and all-union
levels. Various kinds of specialists from wide-ranging backgrounds
took these courses; hence, party schools integrated officials from
all sectors of the party and government bureaucracies and
inculcated a shared consciousness of their duties and status.
Equally important, party schools, according to American Soviet
specialists Frederick C. Barghoorn and Thomas F. Remington,
underscored the CPSU's legitimacy by providing a theoretical basis
for its policies. Courses in party schools examined current events
and policy issues from the party's perspective. Thus, party
training counteracted the insular viewpoints that could arise as a
result of officials' attention to their narrow fields of
specialization.
Data as of May 1989
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