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Soviet Union [USSR] Departments of the Central Committee
Several departments of the Central Committee had some
responsibility for foreign policy in the 1980s, including the
International Department and the Propaganda Department, which was
absorbed by the Ideological Department in 1988. Until late 1988,
when the departments were reorganized, the Liaison with Communist
and Workers' Parties of Socialist Countries Department (Liaison
Department) and the Cadres Abroad Department also had foreign
policy responsibilities. These two departments, originally part of
the International Department, were apparently reincorporated into
the revamped International Department. From 1978 to 1986, there
existed another department involved in foreign policy execution,
the International Information Department.
The International Department, created in 1943 essentially to
carry out functions previously performed by the Third Communist
International
(
Comintern--see Glossary), was responsible for CPSU
relations with nonruling communist parties in other states. Under
Boris Ponomarev, chief of the International Department from 1955 to
1986, the International Department focused mainly on CPSU relations
with Third World communist and radical parties, but under Anatolii
Dobrynin, appointed chief in 1986, the focus included overall party
and state relations with developed Western states. In late 1988,
Valentin A. Falin, an expert on Western Europe and a professional
propagandist, was appointed chief.
The International Department, in focusing on party-to-party
relations, had traditionally been involved in supplying various
resources to the nonruling parties. These included funds,
propaganda, and training. The International Department also had
received international delegations from communist and leftist
groups while the Soviet government was maintaining correct
relations with the home government in power. Finally, the
International Department acquired international support for Soviet
foreign policy through extensive use of international front groups,
such as the World Peace Council and the Afro-Asian People's
Solidarity Organization, which were funded and controlled through
Soviet parent organizations.
In late 1988, two other departments dealing with foreign policy
were reincorporated into the International Department. The Liaison
Department, created in 1957 as a spin-off from the International
Department, had responsibility for CPSU relations with ruling
communist parties in Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cuba,
Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany),
Hungary, Romania, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. The Cadres Abroad
Department, created in 1950, approved foreign travel of virtually
all Soviet citizens, except for tourists visiting the Warsaw Pact
states and military personnel.
The International Information Department, disestablished in
1980, had been created by Leonid I. Brezhnev to consolidate and
improve upon propaganda efforts undertaken by the International
Department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Propaganda
Department. It regularly held press briefings for foreign media
personnel in Moscow. Its functions were reabsorbed by the
International Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and
Propaganda Department; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reassumed
responsibility for press briefings on major policy issues.
Data as of May 1989
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