The New Party Rules

Khufu, builder of Egypt's mightiest pyramid, never dreamed of a structure like the Russian Communist Party. Communists like to make it seem like a pyramid in which power rises from the grass roots up through local and regional committees to the top. The West, on the other hand, usually sees the party as a "monolith," in which Stalin has only to crook his little finger to produce a purge in Krasnoyarsk. The Russian version is nonsense, but the Western idea is not quite right either. The party is in fact a highly complex mechanism which must be kept well oiled if Stalin's finger is to have the desired effect in Krasnoyarsk or anywhere else. There is evidence that since the war a lot of sand has got into the gears.

Party membership has more than doubled (2,500,000 in 1941 to 6,000,000 today), many of the new members being politically "soft" or "unreliable." Many parts of the mechanism have clashed with others or lost their original function. The new party rules seemed designed to 1) tighten party discipline and 2) make the machine run more smoothly by junking some unnecessary parts.

Ever since its humble beginnings in the petty turmoils of 19th century Socialism, the characteristic of the Russian Communist Party has been concentration of power in ever fewer hands. At first, the full Party Congress itself made the major decisions. Then power was delegated to the Central Committee (present probable membership 71), then the Central Committee itself had to give up most of its power to the Politburo (in charge of policy) and the Orgburo (in charge of organization). The present Politburo (twelve members, including Stalin, Molotov, Malenkov) is probably the most powerful group in history. Under the new rules, the Politburo and the Orgburo will be merged and the two ugly Orwellian names replaced by the stern old Latin "Presidium." There is no reason to assume that the new Presidium will be anything but a more efficient Politburo.

Other noteworthy changes:

P: All-Union Party conferences, yearly party meetings which had the power to call the Central Committee to account, are abolished.

P: New members are to be more carefully screened, the probation period for applicants will be longer, and membership is restricted to Russian citizens.

P: Formerly the "All Union Communist Party (Bolshevik)", it will henceforth be called simply the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

P: The list of a member's duties has become much longer, stressing particularly party discipline: members are instructed to report to higher-ups "any shortcomings in work" of their comrades, to "fight against a parading of well-being and the flush of success."

P: A new preamble calls for active defense of the Soviet country against aggressive actions of its enemies.

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