Money, property and the demise of the CPSU

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 268-295

  Ogushi, Atsushi ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMUNISM; FINANCIAL CRISIS;

EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; RUSSIAN FEDERATION; WORLD;

EID: 21444458601     PISSN: 13523279     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13523270500108766     Document Type: Review

References (190)

1. This article consists of part of my more extensive study of the disintegration of the CPSU. Some of other parts have appeared as discussion papers. Atsushi Ogushi, 'Party-State Relations During Perestroika', paper presented to the annual conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES), 3 April 2004;
2. Atsushi Ogushi, 'The Communist Party and Military Intervention: The Soviet Communist Party, the Military, and the Attempted Coup in August 1991 Reconsidered', paper presented to the second annual Scottish PSA Postgraduate Conference, 18 June 2004.
3. The argument of the present article is mainly based on my previous article in Japanese: Atsushi Ogushi, 'Sorenkyosanto Hokaikateito Yoinno Bunseki', Roshiakenkyu, Vol.31 (Oct. 2000), pp.114-129. However, the earlier article included some misrepresentations; therefore, I intend that my previous opinion on this topic should be replaced by this article.
4. Representative works on the final period of the CPSU include the following: Graeme Gill, The Collapse of a Single Party System: The Disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994);
5. Gordon M. Hahn, 'Gorbachev versus the CPSU CC Apparat: The Bureaucratic Politics of Reforming the Party Apparat, 1988-1991', Ph.D. Dissertation, Boston University, 1995;
6. Gordon M. Hahn, 'The Politics of the XXVIII CPSU Congress and the Central Committee Open Letter', Russian History, Vol.22, No.4 (1995), pp.375-405;
7. Gordon M. Hahn, 'The First Reorganization of the CPSU: Central Committee Apparat Under Perestroika', Europe - Asia Studies, Vol.49, No.2 (1997), pp.281-302;
8. Ronald J. Hill, 'The CPSU: From Monolith to Pluralist?', Soviet Studies, Vol.43, No.2 (1991), pp.217-35;
9. Gordon M. Hahn, Russia's Revolution From Above: Reform, Transition, and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002);
10. Ronald J. Hill, 'The CPSU: Decline and Collapse', Irish Slavonic Studies, Vol.12 (1991), pp.97-119;
11. Neil Robinson, 'Gorbachev and the Place of the Party in Soviet Reform, 1985-1991', Soviet Studies, Vol.44, No.3 (1992), pp.423-43;
12. Stephen White, 'Rethinking the CPSU', Soviet Studies, Vol.43, No.3 (1991), pp.405-28;
13. Stephen White, 'Communists and Their Party in the Late Soviet Period', Slavonic and East European Review, Vol.72, No.4 (1994), pp.644-63;
14. Stephen White, 'The Failure of CPSU Democratization', Slavonic and East European Review, Vol.75, No.4 (1997), pp.681-97;
15. Stephen White and Ian McAllister, 'The CPSU and Its Members: Between Communism and Postcommunism', British Journal of Political Science, Vol.26, No.1 (1996), pp.105-22;
16. Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White, The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members, 1917-1991 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), esp. Ch.6.
17. In Japanese, Toshihiko Uerio, 'Gorubachofu Seikenka niokeru Sorenpokyosantono Henka' [Changes of the CPSU under Gorbachev], Hogakukenkyu, Vol.63, No.2 (1990), pp.147-90;
18. Toshihiko Ueno, 'Sorenpokyosanto Kaitaikateino Bunseki' [The Analysis of Disintegrating Processes of the CPSU], Kokusaiseiji, Vol.104 (1993), pp.16-34;
19. Toshihiko Ueno, 'Sorenpokyosanto Dai28kaitaikaiwo megum Shomondai' [Problems of the 28th Congress of the CPSU], Hogakukenkyu, Vol.68, No.2 (1995), pp.329-57. Among these works, only Gill, Mawdsley and White spend some pages on the financial aspect of the CPSU.
20. The latest study on the party apparat is Jonathan Harris, Subverting the System: Gorbachev's Reform of the Party's Apparat, 1986-1991 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
21. Unfortunately, my research on this point is limited; the argument in this section includes inferences from fragmented information.
22. See the statement of Gennadii Veselkov, chairman of the permanent commission of Central Control Commission (CCC), 'On Control for implementation of the budget of the CPSU and auditing of financial-economic activity' at that time. Pravda, 8 Jan. 1991, p.3.
23. Compare the draft 'Instruction on the membership dues and financial economic activity of the CPSU', Pravda, 30 Oct. 1990, p.3, article I.11,
24. with the resolution adopted at the joint plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Committee (CCC) in January 1991, Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.3 (1991), p.48, article I.11. These seem to suggest that PPOs directly sent money to the obkom-level party organizations.
25. However, Alla Nizovtseva, deputy chairman of the Central Auditing Commission, stated in the twenty-eighth party congress, 'Some party organizations - mainly PPOs but also gorkoms and raikoms - announced their refusal to transfer (fully or partially) the collected party dues to the party committees' accounts': Pravda, 4 July 1990, p.4;
26. XXVIII s"ezd Kommunisticheskoi Partii Sovetskogo Soyuza: Stenograficheskii otchet, Vol.1 (Moscow: Politizdat, 1991), p.220. This may suggest that some gorkoms and raikoms collected membership dues; still, it seems that my argument is basically accurate.
27. Hereafter my use of the word 'obkom' includes its equivalents.
28. See Pravda Ukrainy, 26 June 1990, p.4;
29. FBIS Soviet Union, 1 Aug. 1990, p.79. Vladimir Ivashko, first secretary of the Ukrainian CP at that time, reported to the twenty-eighth Congress of the Ukrainian CP that the Ukrainian party had transferred 48 million roubles in 1988 and 51 million roubles in 1989 to the CC CPSU; the rate of transfer, according to Ivashko, depended on the balance of the republican party's budget.
30. Pravda, 5 July 1990, p.5;
31. XXVIII s"ezd, Vol.1, p.232.
32. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.8 (1990), p.91;
33. an excerpt appeared in Uchitel'skaya gazeta, 28 July 1990, p.1.
34. At that time, 'autonomous republics' were called simply 'republics'.
35. Pravda, 6 Feb. 1991, p.4.
36. Ronald J. Hill and Peter Frank, The Soviet Communist Party, 3rd edn. (Winchester, MA: Allen & Unwin, 1986), p.57.
37. Pravda, 10 Feb. 1989, p.3; it is not clear whether letters from readers were genuine or written by editorial staff.
38. Pravda, 12 March 1990, p.3.
39. Pravda, 4 July 1990, p.4;
40. XXVIII s"ezd, Vol.1, p.219 (income), p.222 (expenditure).
41. Tsentr Khraneniya Sovremennoi Dokumentatsii (TsKhSD), f.89 (fond), p.9 (perechen'), d.88 (delo), p.1.
42. As the accompanying tables show, the details of the budget of 1990 were changed several times; although it is important to investigate what and how indexes were changed, these operations were so complicated that the analysis requires another article.
43. Izvestiya Ts KPSS, No.8 (1990), p.93;
44. an excerpt appeared in Uchitel'skaya gazeta, 28 July 1990, p.1.
45. TsKhSD, f.89, p.8, d.43, pp.1-14. This document was presented on 21 Sept. 1990 to Boris Pugo, chairman of the Central Control Commission (CCC) of the CPSU, by Kruchina, Administrator of Affairs (business manager) of the CC CPSU.
46. Ibid., pp. 2-3.
47. Nezavisimaya gazeta, 8 Aug. 1991, p.5.
48. Pravda shows only total sums: see Pravda, 29 July 1991, p.2.
49. However, Nezavisimaya gazeta argued that this total sum included the apparently unimplemented decision of twenty-eighth congress to support Chernobyl' victims; later Pravda responded that the financing for victims was implemented: Pravda, 12 Aug. 1991, p.1. I cannot confirm which was the case.
50. Pravda, 14 Sept. 1990, p.3.
51. Pravda, 5 Feb. 1991, p.4.
52. Pravda, 6 Feb. 1991, p.6.
53. The draft of resolution is TsKhSD, f.89, p.23, d.3, pp.1-3; this draft was approved in the Politburo meeting of 30 Jan. 1991: see TsKhSD, f.89, p.42, d.31, p.25.
54. Pravda, 29 July 1991, p.2. During the time between the January joint CC and CCC plenum and July CC plenum, some information on the budget was presented by party journals: see Glasnost', No.9 (28 Feb. 1991), p.7;
55. Partiinaya zhizn', No.7 (April 1991), pp.37-42.
56. Nezavisimaya gazeta, 8 Aug. 1991, pp. 1, 5;
57. FBIS Soviet Union, 15 Aug. 1991, pp.31-4, 16 Aug. 1991, pp.13-16;
58. TsKhSD, f.89, p.23, d.28; f.89 shows more detailed items than Nezavisimaya gazeta.
59. Pravda, 13 Dec. 1990, p.4;
60. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.51 (21 Dec. 1990), p.36.
61. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.3, No.36 (6 Sept. 1991), pp.80-81.
62. On the more detailed study of decrease of party members, see Ueno, 'Sorenpokyousanto'; Gill, The Collapse, pp.153-4;
63. Philip Hanson and Elizabeth Teague, 'Soviet Communist Party Loses Members', RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.20 (18 May 1990).
64. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.2 (1989), p.138.
65. Ibid., No.4 (1990), p.113.
66. Partiinaya zhizn', No.11 (1991), p.31.
67. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.15 (13 April 1990), p.36.
68. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.31 (3 Aug. 1990), p.34; this source does not state Sylenko's first name.
69. Some arguments insist that appropriation from the state budget was quite common: see Stephen Handelman, Comrade Criminal (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), pp.98-100.
70. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.32 (10 Aug. 1990), pp.34-5.
71. Pravda, 18 Oct. 1990, p.5;
72. FBIS Soviet Union, 18 Oct. 1990, p.31;
73. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.43 (26 Oct. 1990), p.36.
74. Pravda, 12 Oct. 1990, p.3.
75. Pravda, 5 Feb. 1991, p.4.
76. Rabochaya tribuna, 2 March 1991, p.2;
77. FBIS Soviet Union, 7 March 1991, p.44.
78. Komsomol' skaya pravda, 12 Sept. 1990, p.2.
79. Pravda, 14 Sept. 1990, p.2.
80. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No. 3 (1991), pp.46-55.
81. Pravda, 30 Oct. 1990, p.3, is on the draft;
82. Partiinaya zhizn', No. 13 (July 1991), pp.22-7, is on the further explanation.
83. TsKhSD, f.89, p.11, d.184. pp. 1-4;
84. see also White, 'Communists and Their Party', p.658.
85. Pravda, 12 Oct., p.6.
86. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.40 (5 Oct. 1990), pp.31-2.
87. TsKhSD, f.89, p.9, d.88, p.1.
88. Mikhail Gorbachev, Zhizn' i reformy, Vol.1 (Moscow: Novosti, 1995), p.410;
89. see also Ogushi, 'Party - State Relations', p.24.
90. TsKhSD, f.89, p.8, d.42, pp.10-16.
91. TsKhSD, f.89, p.5, d.10, pp.1-3.
92. Pravda, 12 March 1990, p.2.
93. Pravda, 12 March 1990, p.3.
94. On the resolution on the party budget, Pravda, 12 July 1990, p.1;
95. on new Party Rules, see Pravda, 13 July 1990, p.2.
96. Pravda, 12 July 1990, p.1.
97. Pravda, 28 June 1991, p.2;
98. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.7 (1991), pp.17-21.
99. The draft of the 'mechanism' is in Pravda, 17 Dec. 1990, p.2.
100. Pravda, 8 Jan. 1991, p.3.
101. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.8 (1990), p.93.
102. Pravda Ukrainy, 26 June 1990, p.4;
103. FBIS Soviet Union, 1 Aug. 1990, p.79. Graeme Gill's account on this point is misleading. First, he miscounts party organizations as 11. Secondly, he writes as if the '11' party organizations made profits at the All-Union level. However, Ivashko was first secretary of the Ukrainian CP at that time and stated this at the twenty-eighth Ukrainian CP congress; therefore, it is natural to think his report concerned only the Ukrainian republic:
104. see Gill, The Collapse, p.155.
105. FBIS Soviet Union, 18 Oct. 1990, p.31;
106. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.43 (26 Oct. 1990), p.36. Shenin's statement apparently excluded oblast'-level party organizations in union republics other than the RSFSR, since his report differed from Ivashko's statement mentioned above too much if it included them. These organizations in republics other than RSFSR would not be within the jurisdiction of the CC CPSU, as Figure 1 shows. Incidentally, although Shenin did not suggest whether this 'Moscow' meant Moscow city or oblast', it would be reasonable to infer Moscow gorkom from Veselkov's comment; see the next note. In the case of Leningrad, it seems, city and oblast' organizations had been merged:
107. see RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.9 (2 March 1990), p.39.
108. Rabochaya Tribuna, 2 March 1991, p.2;
109. FBIS Soviet Union, 7 March 1991, p.44.
110. TsKhSD, f.89, p.11, d.78, pp.1-2. Ivashko's agreement was signed on 20 Feb. 1991.
111. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.4 (1991), p.115.
112. Partiinaya zhizn', No.11 (1991), p.32.
113. RL/Report on the USSR, 2-35 (31 Aug. 1990), p.33.
114. FBIS Soviet Union, 27 Sept. 1990, p.95.
115. Pravda, 12 Oct. 1990, p.3.
116. Rabochaya Tribuna, 2 March 1991, p.2;
117. FBIS Soviet Union, 7 March 1991, p.44.
118. The 1991 budget of the Cps of union republics is Pravda, 6 Feb. 1991, p.2;
119. TsKhSD, f.89, p.236, d.3.
120. The 1991 budget of the CPSU is Pravda, 29 July 1991, p.2.
121. Although TsKhSD, f.89, p.23 d.25, also deals with the 1991 budget of the CPSU, it does not refer to discipline.
122. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.8 (1990), p.93.
123. Pravda, 12 July 1990, p.1.
124. Pravda, 14 Sept. 1990, p.3.
125. FBIS Soviet Union, 27 Sept. 1990, pp.94-5.
126. Pravda, 12 Oct. 1990, p.3.
127. Pravda, 13 Dec. 1990, p.4;
128. RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.51 (21 Dec. 1990), p.36. The statement 'earning money ...' was published only in RL.
129. On the draft 'instruction', see Pravda, 30 Oct. 1990, p.3;
130. the resolution is published in Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.3 (1991), pp.46-55.
131. The 'mechanism' is in Pravda, 28 June 1991, p.2;
132. and Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.7 (1991), pp.17-20.
133. Pravda, 6 Feb. 1991, p.2.
134. Rabochaya tribuna, 2 March 1991, p.2;
135. FBIS Soviet Union, 7 March 1991, p.44.
136. Pravda, 29 July 1991, p.2.
137. Pravda, 30 Sept. 1991, p.3;
138. Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol.43, No.39 (1991), p.16.
139. TsKhSD, f.89, p.39, d.29, pp.1-9.
140. TsKhSD, f.89, p.11, d.6, p.1.
141. TsKhSD, f.89, p.21, d.46, pp.1-3. In this document, Kruchina sought approval to send party workers:
142. see ibid., p.1; Ivashko's agreement can be found on the same page.
143. Komsomol'skaya pravda, 31 Oct. 1991, p.1;
144. see also Elizabeth Teague and Vera Tolz, 'CPSU R.I.P.', RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.3, No.47 (22 Nov. 1991), p.5;
145. Hahn, Russia's Revolution From Above, p.218.
146. Komsomol'skaya pravda, 7 Dec. 1991, p.1;
147. see also Hahn, Russia's Revolution From Above, p.253.
148. However, no completed form of this document was found: Moscow News, No.20 (16-22 May 2001), p.5.
149. TsKhSD, f.89, p.23, d.7, p.8.
150. TsKhSD, f.89, p.12, d.28, pp.1-3;
151. Istoricheskii arkhiv, 1992-1, pp.7-8.
152. TsKhSD, f.89, p.22, d.22, pp.1-8.
153. Rather a lot of cases are introduced by Handelman, Comrade Criminal, esp. Ch.6.
154. See TsKhSD, f.89, p.11, d.186; p.8, d.17-19; p.23, d.1; p.11, d.8; p.11, d.27.
155. TsKhSD, f.89, p.5, d.3, pp.1-2.
156. TsKhSD, f.89, p.21, d.40, pp.1-5.
157. TsKhSD, f.89, p.11, d.18, pp.1-2.
158. TsKhSD, f.89, p.21, d.13, pp.1-2.
159. Ogonek, No.46 (9-16 Nov. 1991), p.4;
160. TsKhSD, f.89, p.5, d.15, p.1;
161. see also RL/Report on the USSR, Vol.2, No.42 (19 Oct. 1990), p.48.
162. TsKhSD, f.89, p.11 d.19, pp.1-3. Although it is not clear where Kruchina sent his memo, it is reasonable to think it was sent to the Secretariat, inferred from the style of this document.
163. TsKhSD, f.89, p.11, d.84, pp.1-5.
164. TsKhSD, f.89, p.33, d.14, pp.1-3.
165. Ogonek, No.46 (9-16 Nov. 1991), pp.4-5.
166. Mary McAuley, 'Politics, Economics, and Elite Realignment in Russia: A Regional Perspective', Soviet Economy, Vol.8, No.1 (1992), p.75.
167. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.8 (1991), pp.96-8.
168. Stephen White, Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.112.
169. Moscow News, No.37 (15-22 Sept. 1991), p.7.
170. Moscow News, No.38 (22-29 Sept. 1991), p.7.
171. Argumenty i fakty, No.31, 4-10 Aug. 1990, p2;
172. FBIS Soviet Union, 14 Aug. 1990, p.32.
173. TsKhSD, f.89, p.11, d.86, pp.1-3; this memorandum was agreed by Ivashko on 13 May 1991.
174. Komsomol'skaya Pravda, 31 Oct. 1991, p.1;
175. see also Hahn, Russia's Revolution From Above, p.218.
176. Ogonek, No.46 (9-16 Nov. 1991), pp.4-5.
177. TsKhSD, f.89, p.20, d.64, pp.1-13.
178. Steven L. Solnick, Stealing the State: Control and Collapse in Soviet Institutions (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998); Solnick states that his argument on the CPSU is not intended to be rigorous:
179. ibid., p.228.
180. Rossiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Sotsial'no-Politicheskoi Istorii (RGSPI), f.582, opis' 6, ed. khr.16, p.39.
181. Materialy Uchreditel'nogo s"ezda Kommunisticheskoi Partii RSFSR (Moscow: Politizdat, 1990), p.133.
182. FBIS Soviet Union, 27 Sept. 1990, p.94.
183. Pravda, 28 June 1991, p.2;
184. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.7 (1991), pp.17-20, esp. III, 'Organization of Control for the Party Budget'.
185. TsKhSD, f.89, p.12, d.28, pp.1 -3;
186. Istoricheskii Arkhiv, 1992-1, pp.7-8.
187. Izvestiya TsK KPSS, No.8 (1991), pp.96-8.
188. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. by Talcott Parsons (London: Routledge, 1992).
189. Alexis de Tocqueville, Recollections, trans. by J.P. Mayer (London: Macdonald, 1970), p.61.
190. Joseph A. Schumpeter, 'The Crisis of the Tax State', in Richard Swedberg (ed.), Joseph A. Schumpeter: The Economics and Sociology of Capitalism (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), p.100.