View source for Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

{{Short description|Administration organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2008}}
{{Infobox communist organ
| name               = Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
| native_name        = Секретариат ЦК КПСС
| image              = КПСС.svg
| imagesize          = 200
| imagecaption       = 
| leader             = {{ubl|[[Joseph Stalin]] (1922-1953){{small|(first)}}|[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] (1985-1990) {{small|(last)}}}}
| leader_title       = [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]]
| responsible_to     = [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]]
| elected_by         = [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]]
| seats              =Varied 
| picture            = Wiki Staraya Square 4 by Vladimir Sherwood Jr.jpg
| meeting_place      = [[Staraya Square]], [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bazhanov|first1=Boris|title=Борис Бажанов. Воспоминания бывшего секретаря Сталина|date=1992|publisher=Всемирное слово|location=St. Petersburg|url=http://lib.ru/MEMUARY/BAZHANOW/stalin.txt_with-big-pictures.html|access-date=1 March 2018}}</ref>
of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]]
}}
The '''Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union''' ('''CPSU''') was responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], while the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] was charged with the policy-making aspects of the party. The Secretariat was a component agency of the party's [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]].

==Overview==
The members of the Secretariat were elected by the [[Central Committee of the CPSU|Communist Party's Central Committee]], although in all but the first years of its existence the elections were a formality since decisions were made by the senior leadership before the voting.{{Citation needed|reason= this may very well be true, but what is the reference for this assertion?|date= September 2018}} The [[General Secretary of the CPSU]], who was also a Politburo member, was the leader of the Secretariat and of the Party. Dual membership in the Secretariat and the Politburo was in practice reserved for two or three very senior members of the Soviet leadership, and in the post-[[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] era (after March 1953) was a stepping-stone to ultimate power. The last five Soviet leaders ([[Nikita Khrushchev]], [[Leonid Brezhnev]], [[Yuri Andropov]], [[Konstantin Chernenko]] and [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]) were all senior Secretaries before becoming [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|First or General Secretaries]].  Additionally, [[Georgy Malenkov]] was briefly the leader of the Party for around a week after Stalin's death by virtue of being the top member of the Secretariat.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rees |first1=Edward Arfon |editor-first1=E. A. |editor-last1=Rees |title=The nature of Stalin's dictatorship: the Politburo, 1928-1953 |date=2003 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Basingstoke |isbn=1403904014 |page=33 |doi=10.1057/9780230524286 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230524286 |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref>

The Central Committee established the Secretariat on 6 August 1917; it initially comprised [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]], [[Matvei Muranov]] and [[Yakov Sverdlov]] as full members and [[Adolph Joffe]] and [[Elena Stasova]] as candidate members (or alternates). Following the [[October Revolution]] of November 1917, Sverdlov and Stasova in effect handled the work of the Secretariat as the other members of the body assumed other duties. At the time, the Secretariat was<ref>[[Alan Bullock]], ''[[Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives]]'', pp. 121–124.</ref> responsible for technical issues such as coordination of the activities of regional Party organizations and handling routine administrative affairs of the Party. Its staff increased from just 30 in 1919 to 600 in 1921 and to 767 by 1925.

By 1922, the body had transformed from a technical committee to become one of the most important components of the Party, and from that point on it was responsible for day-to-day operations of the Communist Party. Also in 1922, the position of [[General Secretary of the CPSU|General Secretary]] was created, the General Secretary became the head of the Secretariat and, in the years following Lenin's death in 1924, became the most important figure in the Party and in the Soviet Union.

==See also==
* [[Organization of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
* [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War]]
* [[Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union]]
* [[Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union|Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union]]

{{Structure of the CPSU}}
{{Soviet Union topics}}

[[Category:1917 establishments in Russia]]
[[Category:1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]