Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congresses. Elected by the Congress, the Central Committee emerged as the core nexus of executive and administrative authority in the party, with de facto supremacy over the government of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. It was composed of full members and candidate (non-voting) members. Real authority was often concentrated in smaller, more agile organs elected by the Committee, namely the Politburo, Secretariat, and Orgburo (dissolved in 1952), as well as in the post of General Secretary. Theoretically a collective leadership, the Committee increasingly became a rubber-stamp institution, particularly from the late 1920s onward under the dominance of Joseph Stalin.

The Central Committee originated in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), established in 1898, and continued in the Bolshevik party, established in 1912. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917, the Committee assumed a key leadership role, functioning both as a strategic body and a conduit for implementing party directives in the expanding Soviet state. Stalin used his control over personnel appointments to dominate the Committee and ensure ideological conformity, and during his rule the Committee's composition often reflected factional struggles, purges, and leadership reshufflings. During the Great Purge of 1936 to 1938, a significant portion of its members were executed or imprisoned.

After Stalin's death in 1953, the Central Committee experienced a relative revival as collective leadership attempted to curtail the powers of the General Secretary, playing key roles in the failed attempt to remove Nikita Khrushchev in 1957, and in his removal in 1964. Under Leonid Brezhnev and his successors, the Committee reverted to a more ceremonial function, mirroring the broader bureaucratization of the Soviet system. During the Brezhnev era, the Committee became increasingly vast and unwieldy, consisting of hundreds of full and candidate members, including regional party leaders, military officials, and economic planners. The final years of the Committee were marked by attempts at reform under Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985, which saw it sidelined by the rising influence of state organs and the accelerating disintegration of party control. The Committee was officially disbanded upon the banning of the CPSU in late 1991.