CENTRAL CONTROL COMMISSION

The Central Control Commission was the agency of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) responsible for supervising party administration and discipline between 1920 and 1934.

The Ninth Party Congress established the Commission in September 1920 to oversee the party's organization and membership, in particular to act against the growth of bureaucratism. F. E. Dzerzhinskii, E. A. Preobrazhinskii and M. K. Muralov were elected as its first members. There was also a network of subordinate local control commissions. During 1921–1922, the Commission was harshly criticized for its part in suppressing factions within the party. On Vladimir Lenin's initiative, the Twelfth Party Congress in April 1923 expanded the Commission and unified it with the corresponding state control agency Rabkrin (People's Commissariat of the Workers' And Peasants' Inspection).V. V. Kuibyshev, a loyal supporter of General Secretary Josef Stalin, was appointed to head the new joint institution. Meeting in Joint Plenums with the Party's Central Committee, the Commission henceforth played a major role in formulating policy both on internal party organization and general governmental affairs. In 1927 Grigory K. Ordzhonikidze took over leadership of the unified control agency. The Commission proved a highly effective tool in Stalin's consolidation of power, gathering information on support for rival leaders among the party's membership and later conducting disciplinary proceedings and extensive purges to root out oppositionists. Together with Rabkrin, it also played a major role in initiating and supervising economic policy during industrialization. In November 1930, A. A. Andreyev succeeded as head of the party-state control agency. In October 1931 he was replaced by J. E. Rudzutak. Both agencies were dissolved by the Seventeenth Party Congress (January–February 1934), which created a new Commission of Party Control, subordinated to the Central Committee.

See also: central committee; communist party of the soviet union; rabkrin

bibliography

Rees, E. A. (1987). State Control in Soviet Russia. The Rise and Fall of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, 1920-1934. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.

Nick Baron