Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was a communist party in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. It was renamed from Social Democratic Workers' Party of Russia (Bolsheviks) (SDAPR (B)) to Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviks) (CPR (B)) in 1918 after the October Revolution in Russia. In 1925 it was given the name Communist All-Union Party (Bolsheviks) (WKP(B)). In 1952, the party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After the failed August coup in Moscow in 1991, which accelerated the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the activity of the CPSU on the territory of the RSFSR was banned by the decree of the Russian President of 6 November 1991.

The party leader from 1912 to 1924 was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. In 1922 Joseph Stalin took over the newly created office of General Secretary of the party, which he increasingly endowed with dictatorial powers tailored to his person after Lenin's death in 1924. After the end of the Stalin era in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev prevailed as First Party Secretary in the ensuing internal party power struggles. In 1964, Khrushchev was overthrown and Leonid Brezhnev succeeded him, again as General Secretary from 1966. From 1977 Brezhnev also served as head of state of the Soviet Union.

After Brezhnev's death in 1982, the rule of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko remained short intermezzi. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev took over the party leadership and tried to modernize the Soviet Union through reforms (glasnost, perestroika) while maintaining socialist structures. However, Gorbachev failed with these reform attempts; he neither succeeded in eliminating the autocratic leadership structures in the Soviet Union, nor was he able to reform the CPSU into a democratic party oriented in a pluralistic sense.

From about 1920 to 1990, the CPSU, as the state party in the Soviet one-party system, was the only relevant political power in the Soviet Union. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) can be considered the successor party of the CPSU for Russia.

The policy of the CPSU was initially characterized by the ideology of Leninism, which was an extension of the Marxism adapted to Russian conditions by Lenin, this was then replaced from 1927 by the Marxism-Leninism or Stalinism created by Stalin. After Stalin's death, a certain de-Stalinization began from 1956 under Nikita Khrushchev. This was broken off by his successor Leonid Brezhnev from 1964, and instead the CPSU pursued a course of Restalinization under him, which in turn was ended from 1985 by Mikhail Gorbachev, who focused on glasnost (openness and transparency) and perestroika (restructuring).

The Soviet youth organization Komsomol was the party's youth organization. In addition, there was the Committee for Youth Organizations of the USSR, in which all youth organizations were represented.

The central party university "V. I. Lenin" existed in Moscow. Many cadres from the communist parties of the friendly socialist countries and so-called people's democracies also studied here.

Organization

Party conferences

According to the statute, the party congresses of the CPSU were the highest organ of the CPSU. They had to be convened since 1919 once per (calendar) year (already in 1926 not observed) and since 1961 at least once in a five-year period. The I Party Congress took place in Minsk in 1898 (foundation of the SDAPR). After the October Revolution on November 7, 1917 (old Russian calendar: October 25) the VII Party Congress was held in Petrograd in March 1918. The XXVIII Party Congress in July 1990 was the last one before the dissolution of the CPSU. The Party Congress laid down the Party's line in domestic and foreign policy. It received the report of the Central Committee and the Control Commission and had the right to change the Party's program and statute. It elected the Central Committee as the highest party body for the period between party congresses (about five years).

Party conference	Date	Location	Summary
I Party Congress of the SDAPR	1-3 March 1898	Minsk	9 delegates at the founding party congress of the SDAPR. In 1903, ideological disputes split the party into Bolsheviks (majority) (Lenin: "Give us an organization of revolutionaries!") and Mensheviks (minority) (Martov: "For a broad people's party!"). In 1913 the split is final. After Lenin's victory through the October Revolution in Russia, the renaming follows.
II Party Congress	17 June-10 August 1903	Brussels and London	Battles between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Decisions on the party statute (including party membership). Elected as central party organs: The Central Committee in Russia (Bolsheviks only), the editorial board of the newspaper Iskra (The Spark) and a five-member Party Council (two CC, two Iskra and one Party Congress representatives).
III Party Congress	April 12-27, 1905	London	No participation of the Mensheviks, who met for themselves in Geneva.
IV. Party Congress	23 April-8 May 1906	Stockholm	Unification Party Congress; attempt at reconciliation between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
V. Party Congress	13 April-19 May 1907	London	The balance of strength between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks is about even, with a slight preponderance of Bolsheviks, who are, however, censured for their practice of "expropriation" in Russia (bank robberies, counterfeiting of bank notes, etc. to raise money). The Central Committee now consists of five Bolsheviks, four Mensheviks, two Bundists, two Polish and one Latvian Social Democrat.
All-Russian Party Conference of the SDAPR (B)	January 1912	Prague	Conference of the Bolsheviks; under Lenin's leadership, the "rump parliament" decides to split the party. The Central Committee elected at the Fifth Party Congress is considered dissolved and replaced by the simultaneous election of a purely Bolshevik Central Committee under the leadership of Lenin, who regards this conference as the VI Party Congress of the SDAPR.
Conference with the powers of a party conference	April 24, 1917	Petrograd	A Central Committee with nine members of the Bolsheviks is elected. Lenin leads the party from now on unchallenged, Sverdlov is the secretary of the party in the revolutionary period.
VI Party Congress	26 July-3 August 1917	Petrograd	New slogan: Instead of a peaceful takeover of power by the Soviets, preparations are now to be made for armed insurrection. The Central Committee is expanded to 21 members.
VII Party Congress of the CPR (B)	6-8 March 1918	Petrograd	First post-revolutionary party congress, 104 delegates (46 voting, 58 advisory). The party changes its name to the Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviks) (CPR (B)). Fierce disputes over the question of a separate peace with Germany.
VIII Party Congress	18-23 February 1919	Moscow	New draft of the party programme adopted. Foundation of the Comintern.
IX. Party Congress	29 March-5 April 1920	Moscow	Fierce clashes with the opposition group of "Democratic Centralism".
X. Party Congress	8-16 March 1921	Moscow	Renunciation of war communism, resolution on the New Economic Policy (NEP). Resolution "On the Unity of the Party" (= ban on faction formation). Struggle against the trade union opposition.
XI. Party Congress	27 March-2 April 1922	Moscow	Change of course on NEP confirmed.
XII Party Congress	April 17-21, 1923	Moscow	Lenin, who is ill, is not present. NEP reconfirmed. Stalin begins to expand his power.
XIII Party Congress	23-31 May 1924	Moscow	After Lenin's death, Stalin fought for more and more power in the party.
XIV Party Congress of the WKP (B)	18-31 December 1925	Moscow	Major factional struggles, decision on the programme for industrialisation; "Party Congress of Industrialisation". In connection with the founding of the Soviet Union, the party is renamed the Communist All-Union Party (Bolsheviks) (WKP (B)).
XV Party Congress	December 2-19, 1927	Moscow	1669 delegates (898 voting, 771 advisory) make party congress a big event, real discussions become impossible, the formative decisions fall elsewhere (especially in the Politburo). Fight against the "kulaks" (medium and large peasants).
XVI Party Congress	25/26 June-13 July 1930	Moscow	Party Congress of the "unfolded offensive of socialism". Decision to implement the first five-year plan at the expense of the population's standard of living. Struggle against the kulaks and, as a consequence, their physical annihilation. "Meeting of broad socialist attacks in all fields" and "realization of collectivization".
XVIIth Party Congress	26 January to10 . February 1934	Moscow	So-called "victory over the resistance of the peasants". Stalin: "Party Congress of the victors". Party apparatus and people are separated.
XVIIIth Party Congress	March 10-21, 1939	Moscow	The opposition is completely destroyed. Stalin: "Transition from socialism to communism" as justification for strengthening the state apparatus.
XIX Party Congress of the CPSU	5-14 October 1952	Moscow	First party congress after the war, boundless homage to Stalin. Adoption of the (already ongoing) 5th Five-Year Plan (1951-1955), amendment of the party statute (tightened duties for the functionaries). The term Bolsheviks is dropped from the party name and the party is renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Further decisions at an immediately following CC plenum: The Politburo and the Orgburo are replaced by a "Presidium". It has 25 full members and 11 candidates from party and state leadership; in addition, all 10 CC secretaries, all 13 deputy prime ministers, and important party representatives from the regions, the trade union, the Komsomol, and other bodies are represented in the Presidium.
XX. Party Congress	14-25 February 1956	Moscow	Khrushchev announces that the main task of the party is to ensure economic recovery (party work = economic work). Anastas Mikoyan criticizes Stalin publicly for the first time. Nikita Khrushchev's "secret speech" in a closed session immediately following the Party Congress initiates the de-Stalinization of the CPSU against the resistance of Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich and Malenkov.
XXI Party Congress	27 January-5 February 1959	Moscow	Extraordinary Party Congress of "the Builders of Communism" on economic policy: abandonment of the Five-Year Plan and adoption of a Seven-Year Plan (1959-1965) with the aim of surpassing the USA in per capita production of consumer goods by 1970 at the latest. Continuation of the de-Stalinization campaign. Khrushchev at the peak of his power and authority; beginning of a new "personality cult" around Khrushchev.
XXII Party Congress	17-31 October 1961	Moscow	More than 4800 delegates in the newly built Congress Palace of the Kremlin. Khrushchev's leadership position remains undisputed. New party programme and party statute (regular re-election of party functionaries is made more difficult). Renewed reckoning with Stalinist opponents by Podgorny and Spiridonov, among others. A liberalization in the treatment of writers is initiated. On 31 October Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin mausoleum and buried on the Kremlin wall.
XXIII Party Congress	29 March-8 April 1966	Moscow	The Presidium is again renamed the Politburo. Leonid Brezhnev is given the title of General Secretary of the Central Committee, as in Stalin's time (instead of "First Secretary of the Central Committee" as before). Various Khrushchev reforms within the party (including in the party statute) are withdrawn, giving functionaries security of office. A tougher line is taken in domestic policy → neo-Stalinism.
XXIV Party Congress	30 March-9 April 1971	Moscow	The keynote speech was given by Brezhnev. Alexei Kossygin explained the Gosplan 1971-1975.
XXV Party Congress	February 24-March 5, 1976	Moscow	The keynote speech is again given by Brezhnev.
XXVI Party Congress	23 February-3 March 1981	Moscow	Party Congress of Stagnation with about 5,000 party congress delegates. No changes in the leadership, Leonid Brezhnev is confirmed as General Secretary of the CC. Mandate to the Central Committee (CC) for a revision of the party programme. The disarmament and détente proposals outlined at the Party Congress are sent to the USA and the Western states on 6 March.
XXVII Party Congress	February 25-March 6, 1986	Moscow	Introduction of the party reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) by Gorbachev: "Without glasnost there is no democracy ... The important thing is to let glasnost become a system that functions without disturbances."
XXVIII Party Congress	July 2-13, 1990	Moscow	Last party congress of the CPSU before party dissolution. Alongside the CPSU, the CP of the Russian Soviet Republic for the Russian SFSR (today Russia) is founded, from which the CPRF emerges in 1993.

Central Committee

The Central Committee (CC) of the CPSU was elected by the Party Congress and was accountable to it. It was required by the statutes to meet in plenary session at least once every six months. For the time between the meetings the policy was determined by the Politburo and the General Secretary (1922 to 1952 and 1966 to 1991) or 1st Secretary (1952 to 1966) of the CC (from 1922). Among other things, the CC dealt with the party's cadre policy (nomenklatura) and elected the general secretary, the members and candidates of the Politburo, and the secretaries of the CC Secretariat. It directed the work of the central state organizations.

Initially, the CC, which was manageable in size, was the decisive collective leadership organ of the party. However, after the Politburo and the CC Secretariat were established (1917-1919) and the CC grew considerably in size, it lost all power under Stalin. After 1953, at Khrushchev's instigation, it was able to gain in importance for a time, but then, through its constant enlargement to ultimately 412 members, it once again became meaningless as an organ of power.

Historical development of the CC

• 1903 (II Party Congress): The SDAPR Party Congress established as central organizations, still relatively on an equal footing: The Party Council (5 members: two CC, two Iskra and one Party Congress representative), the Central Committee in Russia and the editorial board of the newspaper Iskra (The Spark).
• 1906 (IVth Party Congress): The CC consisted of 7 Mensheviks, 3 Bolsheviks, the editorial board of the party newspaper, and representatives of the Jewish Workers' League and the Polish and Latvian Social Democrats.
• 1907 (V Party Congress): The CC, with 14 members, consisted of five Bolsheviks, four Mensheviks, two Bundists, two Polish and one Latvian Social Democrat.
• 1917 (April Conference) The CC had 9 - only Bolshevik - members (and 4 representatives): Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Miliutin, Nogin, Sverdlov, Smilga, Stalin, Fedorov.
• 1917 (VI Party Congress): The CC with 21 members (including Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Nogin, Kollontai, Stalin, Sverdlov, Rykov, Bukharin) and 10 representatives elected the first Politburo in October. The secretariat of the CC was built.
• 1919 (VIII Party Congress): The CC was instructed by the Party Congress to create a Politburo with 5 members and an Organizational Bureau (headed by Stalin) with 5 members and a Secretariat with a Secretary-in-Charge (Krestinsky) and up to 5 other secretaries. The leadership of the party increasingly shifted to these organizations.
• The number of members of the CC increased steadily from party congress to party congress. 1921: 25 members and 15 candidates; 1923: 40 members and 17 candidates; 1924: 53 members and 34 candidates; 1925: 63 members and 43 candidates.
• 1934: The CC had 139 members and candidates, 98 of whom were arrested and liquidated between 1937 and 1939. The CC was powerless under Stalin.
• 1952: the CC had 125 members and 111 candidates; 1956: 133 members and 122 candidates; 1961: 175 members and 155 candidates. After Stalin's death (1953), plenary sessions of the CC were held every six months. Despite its size, it initially regained massive importance because Khrushchev, in the internal power struggle after Stalin's death, upgraded the CC vis-à-vis the state apparatus and used it for his own advancement.
• On March 14, 1953, Khrushchev was elected 1st Secretary of the CC in place of Malenkov.
• In June 1957, the CC prevented Khrushchev's overthrow by a conservative presidium majority. In the following years, Khrushchev began to rein in the power of the CC, which had grown through his own efforts (by inflating the bodies and again upgrading the previously demoted state apparatus), in order to retain more political freedom of movement himself. Above all, with the amendment of the party statute in 1961 and a party reform in 1962, he massively disgruntled the CC members.
• On October 14, 1964, the CC supported Khrushchev's dismissal by the Presidium without further debate, thus finally settling into its role as a nodding-off body.
• In the Brezhnev era (1964-1982) and after, the CC grew in size and lost the last vestige of importance. In 1990, the last CC finally had 412 members.

Secretariat of the Central Committee

The Secretariat of the Central Committee existed since 1917 and was then formally established by the VIII Party Congress in 1919. From 1919 to 1952, there was also the "Orgbüro" (Organization Office). The Secretariat directed the day-to-day work of the CC. It was responsible for the selection of cadres and for supervising the implementation of the CC's directives. In 1987, the CC Secretariat, including General Secretary Gorbachev, consisted of eleven people.

The Secretariat of the Central Committee directed the day-to-day tasks of the Party leadership, especially the selection of personnel, the supervision of the execution of Central Committee decisions, and the supervision of the activities of the Central Committee's salaried staff. It had the following organization:

• Initially there were six to nine departments for general affairs, cadres, organization and instruction, propaganda, training, agriculture, and special affairs, most of which were headed by Central Committee secretaries.
• In 1948, the Secretariat was divided into eleven departments for General, Organs, Propaganda and Agitation, Heavy Industry, Light Industry, Agriculture, Transport, Planning and Finance, Foreign, Armed Forces, and Special.
• In 1987 there were eleven CC secretaries, including the General Secretary.

The CC secretaries were mostly men; only rarely were women (Ekaterina Furtseva, Galina Semyonova, Yelena Stassova, Alexandra Biryukova) serving as CC secretaries. Most secretaries were also full members or candidates of the Politburo of the Communist Party.

Setup and initial management

From August 1917 to 1919, by decision of the VI Party Congress, there was already a Secretariat of the Central Committee as an institution of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Bolshevik) under the leadership, or from 1918 under the chairmanship, of Sverdlov, who died on March 16, 1919. In February 1919, the VIII Party Congress created the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (B) as a permanent party institution. As secretaries now in charge were:

• from March 1919 to April 1920 Yelena Stasova
• from April 1920 to March 1921 Nikolai Krestinski
• from March 1921 to April 1922 Vyacheslav Molotov

In April 1922, by decision of the XI Party Congress, the designation General Secretary of the CC of the CPR (B) was introduced and Josef Stalin was elected General Secretary. Until 1991 the Secretariat was headed by the General Secretary, and between 1952 and 1966 by the First Secretary.

The Org Office

In addition to the more important secretariat of the CC, the so-called Orgbüro existed for a time from the spring of 1919. The party's Orgbüro was elected by the Plenum of the Central Committee and was composed of CC members. Some ZK members served on both bodies. The XIX Party Congress of 1952 transferred the purely organizational powers of the Orgburo to the CC Secretariat.

Politburo

The Politburo (from 1952 to 1966 "Presidium") was the - since 1917 provisional and 1919 by the VIII Party Congress firmly established - closer leadership body of the party. It was elected by the Central Committee. It had between 5 and 24 full members.

It was created as a permanent governing body by decision of the VIII Party Congress in 1919. In the period from 1917 to 1919, there was already a Politburo appointed by the Central Committee, which had the task of organizing the uprising in Russia.

The task of the Politburo from 1919 was to lead the party between the plenary sessions of the Central Committee and the party congresses. It was thus the real power and leadership body of the party and the state.

In the years from 1936 to 1940, during the Stalinist purges, twelve former Politburo members (Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov, Krestinsky, Sokolnikov, Serebryakov, Tomsky, Rudsutak, Kosior, Chubar) and three candidates were executed or murdered; one member committed suicide (Ordzhonikidze). In 1949, another Politburo member (Vosnessensky) was shot without trial.

In 1952 the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau were merged into the "Presidium of the CC of the CPSU" in order - according to Stalin - to enlarge the leading body and to initiate a rejuvenation. Long-serving Politburo members saw this as an omen of a renewed threat of purges and feared for their lives. Immediately after Stalin's death, the Presidium/Politburo was therefore reduced in size again.

In 1961 (at the XXII Party Congress) a new party statute imposed a limit on the re-election of presidium/political bureau members. A quarter of all members had to be replaced by new members. What was intended by Khrushchev as a measure against inertia in office was (rightly) perceived by the functionaries as a threat to their security of office. At the next party congress after Khrushchev's fall (XXIII Party Congress, 1966) this passage in the party statute was therefore changed again (in addition to the renaming of the Presidium back to Politburo) - the obsolescence of the Politburo in the coming decades under Brezhnev and his successors was thus preordained.

Composition

The Politburo consisted of full members (see the list of full members) and candidates of the Politburo. It was composed of secretaries of the Central Committee and leading members of the USSR government. It was occasionally supplemented, for example, by the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (nominal head of state), or the chairman of the trade union or some first secretaries of the party from larger Union republics, or the chairman of the Party Control Commission.

In 1919 - at the time of Lenin - there were only five full members of the Politburo, in the years from 1940 to 1949 nine to 13, in 1952 then even 25, after Stalin's death in 1953 only nine, in the time of Khrushchev ten to twelve, in the Brezhnev period eleven (1964) to 14 (1980) and in the end 24 full members (9 elected and 15 CP chairmen of the Union republics).

The only women full members of the Politburo were Ekaterina Furtseva and Galina Semyonova.

politburo candidates

Politburo candidates (1952-1966 Presidium) were non-voting members of this body. Most of the candidates later became full members of the Politburo. Their number varied considerably from a maximum of eleven (1952-1953) to four (after 1953) or again nine (1957).

Party leadership

The Communist Party was initially led by Lenin, who headed the Central Committee and the Politburo. After his death, the Central Committee Secretariat became the center of power, and its head, usually called the General Secretary, became the leader of the party.

Incumbent	Tenure	Offices
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin	1917 - 21 January 1924
Joseph Stalin	2 April 1922 - 5 March 1953	Secretary General
After Stalin's death, the post of General Secretary remained vacant. The business of the Secretariat was initially headed by Georgi Malenkov, who had already largely represented Stalin during his lifetime. Malenkov became Stalin's successor as prime minister, but had to resign from the Secretariat on March 14, whose business was now headed by Nikita Khrushchev.
Nikita Khrushchev	14 September 1953 - 14 October 1964	First Secretary
Leonid Brezhnev	14 October 1964 - 10 November 1982	First Secretary (1964-1966) General Secretary (1966-1982)
Yuri Andropov	10 November 1982 - 9 February 1984	Secretary General
Constantine Chernenko	13 February 1984 - 10 March 1985	Secretary General
Mikhail Gorbachev	11 March 1985 - 24 August 1991	Secretary General
Vladimir Ivashko	24 - 29 August 1991	Executive Secretary General (Deputy Secretary General since 11 July 1990)

Membership development

• Initially, the number of members was understandably small for a party that was still banned.
• In 1906, some 36,000 workers elected the 111 voting delegates (62 Mensheviks and 49 Bolsheviks) to the IV. Unification Party Congress. Membership is likely to have been just over 40,000.
• In 1917 (in March), only the Bolsheviks counted 23,600 members for their part of the party, of which only 7.6% were rural workers.
• In 1918 there were 115,000 members, of whom only 14.5% were agricultural workers, but 57% were manual workers and 28.5% were white-collar workers and others.
• In 1919 there were 251,000 members, in 1920 there were 431,000 and in 1921 there were already 576,000 members.
• The new party statute of December 1919 tightened the admission to the party and introduced a candidate period (two months for workers and peasants, six months for the other strata). In 1922, therefore, 410,430 members and 117,924 candidates were registered.
• In 1926 there were 639,652 members and 440,162 candidates. The proportion of youth was strikingly high at 25%, but the level of education was very low. The proportion of women, although increasing, was low at about 15 % with a stagnating proportion thereafter.
• In 1930 there were 1,184,651 members and 493,259 candidates, of whom about 62% were workers, 21% farmers and 17% others.
• In 1933 there were 2.2 million members and 1.3 million candidates.
• As a result of the party revision and the Stalinist purges, the number of members fell steadily to 1.4 million by 1938. The level of education increased considerably as a result of the inclusion of the "technical intelligentsia".
• During World War II, as many new members as possible were indiscriminately admitted; between March 1939 and October 1952, the number of full members and candidates (according to Malenkov at the XIX Party Congress) had risen from 2,477,666 to 6,882,145.
• From 1949 onwards (3.9 million members and 1.8 million candidates), but especially after the death of Stalin and a revision of the membership policy, membership increased rapidly.
• In 1965, 10.8 million members and 0.9 million candidates. The social composition broadened, which party ideologist Suslov criticized in 1956. But in line with general social change, there were fewer blue-collar workers and more white-collar workers in the party in the 1960s. The proportion of women remained consistently low. The level of education continued to rise, as it did in society as a whole. The average age was significantly higher than in the 1920s. The proportion of party members was highest in the RSFSR (now Russia), at 6% of the population, and lowest in Lithuania and Tajikistan, at 3% (Ukraine 4.1%, Belarus 3.7%, Kazakhstan 3.8%, USSR total 5.2%).
• In 1987, the CPSU finally had 19 million members.
• From 1990 until the August putsch of 1991, after which the party's activities on the territory of the RSFSR were banned, an increasing number of members left the party; many joined the newly founded CPR.

Membership card (1989)

International Relations of the CPSU

• The SDAPR became a member of the II International, which did not recognize the split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks and sought to promote the reunification of the two groups into one party.
• 1914 to 1918: The world war furthered the Bolsheviks' break from worldwide social democracy and widened the gap with the Mensheviks. Besides the Serbian Socialists, the Bolsheviks were the only socialist party to refuse to cooperate with their government in the world war by agreeing to war credits. In this Lenin held that in this situation the best option for the socialists was not to end the war by negotiation, but to turn it into a civil war against the ruling classes of the respective countries. The socialist opponents of the world war met at the conferences of Zimmerwald and Kienthal, at each of which Lenin took the most radical position without being able to fully assert himself.
• In 1919, the Bolshevik Party leadership took the initiative to found the Communist (III) International-a project Lenin had been pursuing since the World War. The RKP (B) was the most important communist party alongside the young KPD. Its delegation initially opposed the immediate founding of the III. In the course of the meeting, however, Lenin prevailed.
• In 1925, at the suggestion of the RKP (B), the Executive Committee of the Comintern adopted theses on the "Bolshevization" of the member parties of the International.
• In 1928, at the VI World Congress of the Comintern, the interests of the world communist movement were finally and unequivocally subordinated to the interests of the Soviet Union and its industrialization policy.
• In 1943, the Comintern was dissolved. Its apparatus and relations with communist parties worldwide were transferred to the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee. The influence of the CPSU as the leading communist party in the world remained unaffected until Stalin's death (1953).
• In 1947, the Cominform was founded. It was intended to ensure closer control of the parties in the Soviet bloc, but was not a continuation of the Comintern.
• In 1960, after a prolonged crisis, the conflict between the CPSU and the CCP broke out openly at a meeting of the communist parties in Bucharest. The result in the following years was a further split in the world communist movement between parties loyal to Moscow and those oriented toward Beijing.
• Eurocommunism in the Italian and French communist parties meant their integration into the political system of their countries, and thus at the same time the loosening of relations with the CPSU. Eurocommunism was clearly criticized by the CPSU.