The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Politburo

266 Pages·1992·6.085 MB·English

by  John Lwenhardt, James R. Ozinga, Erik van Ree

THE
RISE FALL
AND
OF THE
SOVIET
POLITBURO
John Lowenhardt,
James R. Ozinga and Erik van Ree
~ \
J
~
~
'
-
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE
SOVIET POLITBURO
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE
SOVIET POLITBURO
John Lowenhardt
Leiden University, The Netherlands
James R. Ozinga
Oakland University, Michigan, U.S.A.
and
Erik van Ree
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
St. Martin's Press
New York
© John Lowenhardt, James R. Ozinga and Erik van Ree, 1992
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division
St. Martin's Press, Inc.
175 Fifth A venue
New York, NY 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1992
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 0-312-04784-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lowenhardt, John.
The rise and fall of the Soviet Politburo / John Lowenhardt, James R.
Ozinga, and Erik van Ree.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-04784-3
1. TSK KPSS. Politbiuro--History. 2. TSK KPSS. Politbiuro-
Rcgisters. I. Ozinga, James R. II. Ree, Erik van. III. Title.
JN6598.K7L627 1992
324.247'075-dc20 91-29623
CIP
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . vii
List of Tables and Figures . . viii
Terminology, Dates and Abbrevations • X
Preface ... xiii
Introduction . xv
Part I
1 Inner Circle-The Central Committee's Russian
Branch
Origins of the Politburo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Not a Debating Club
The Politburo Under Lenin ............... 11
3 The Entourage of the Leader
The Politburo Under Stalin ............... 21
4 The Era of Conspiracies
The Presidium Under Khrushchev .............. 45
5 Stability of Cadres
The Politburo Under Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko . 59
6 Abdication
The Politburo Under Gorbachev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7 The Politburo at Work
Mode of Operation . . . .............. 85
Part II
8 The Politburo Dissected
Profile ......... . 127
9 The Politburo: A Complete List of Its Composition at
Selected Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
10 Politburo Background List 1919-1990 169
Bibliography . . 229
Index of Names 241
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Protokol of the first session of the Politburo, 16 April 1919 12
2 Politburo members at Kalinin's funeral in June 1946 . . . . 36
3 Mikoian, Khrushchev, Stalin and Malenkov strolling in the
Kremlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4 Stalin's funeral in the mausoleum, Red Square 9 March 1953 43
5 The Politburo in the early 1950s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6 A Presidium banquet in the mid-1950s . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7 Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (1894-1971) after his retirement 119
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables
7. 1 Membership of the Communist Party, Central Committee, Polit
buro, Orgburo and Secretariat, 1919-1990 . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7. 2 Positions Held by Full Members of the Politburo for Selected
Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
7. 3 Leaders of Party, State and Government, 1917-1991 . . . . . . 90
7. 4 Overlapping Membership: Politburo, Secretariat, Presidia of the
Council of Ministers and Supreme Soviet, November 1980 . . 95
7. 5 Work Schedule of the Politburo and the Central Committee, May
1926 ............................... 106
7. 6 NumberofReportedPolitburoSessions, 1919-1990 ...... 108
7 .7 7-day Intervals as Percentage of All Intervals Between Reported
Politburo Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7. 8 Number of Decisions Made by the Politburo, 1981-1990. . 116
8. 1 Age Groups of Politburo Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8. 2 Increases in Average Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8. 3 Numbers Born in Specific Decades Between 1870 and 1940. 132
8. 4 Average Year of Birth for Selected Dates . 133
8. 5 Members Born During or Before 1901 . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8. 6 Slav Percentage of Politburo Membership . . . . . . . . . 134
8. 7 Percentage of Russians in the Politburo for Selected Dates . 136
8. 8 Geographical Origin of Politburo Members . . . . . 137
8. 9 Nationalities of All Politburo Members . . . . . . . 138
8.10 Numbers of Various Nationalities on the Politburo . 139
8.11 Candidates Who Never Made Full Member. . . 141
8.12 Full Members Who Never Served as Candidates 141
8.13 Full Members Who Then Became Candidates 141
8.14 Size of Birthplace . . . . . . . 142
8.15 Father's Job/Education . . . . 142
8.16 Father's Job/Education, Total . 143
8.17 Member's First Job/Education. 144
8.18 Member's First Job/Education, Total 145
8.19 Member's Last Job/Education . . . . 144
8.20 Member's Last Job/Education, Total 146
8.21 Percentage of Members with Manual Work(er) Background . 146
8.22 Highest Educational Attainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.23 Educational Level Attained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.24 Deaths of Politburo Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.25 Percentage of Members According to Branches of Work. 153
8.26 Level of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.27 Stability of Tenure in the Politburo . . . . 156
8.28 Continuous Tenures of Politburo Members 158
Figure
7. 1 Frequency Distribution oflntervals Between Politburo Meetings,
in Days .............................. 110