Points of View. The Personal Opinions of the Central Committee Members and their Influence on the Domestic and Foreign Policy of the Soviet Union, 1964-1985.

Finished Research project of Nikolay Mitrokhin
 

---

 
Research on the Central Committee (CC) of the CPSU underpins any understanding of how the apparatus of power in the USSR worked.

Almost all the evidence from memoirs and diaries indicates that many of the CC members held individual opinions on various aspects of politics, the economy and society. In the bureaucratic jargon of the USSR, these were described as "personal opinions" and sharply distinguished from the official political position of the state leadership – the "party line". The research on these "political opinions" – as well as a series of other terms such a "nomenclature", "party discipline", "cadre", "connections", "blat", "session", "promotion" and "telephone rights" – is extremely important for an understanding of the methods of rule in the USSR. However, it has not yet been the subject of scholarly research.

These "personal opinions" were as a rule not publicised. However, they could be expressed in both official and unofficial contexts. They did not serve as the basis for open opposition to the directives of the leadership or the current "line" of the state. Nevertheless, the members of the CC had numerous opportunities during their everyday work to express their "personal opinions", which almost always offered various alternatives.

This research project will discuss the following questions:

• At what point did an official develop his so-called "personal opinion"?
• What motives led to their appearance and development?
• What caused officials to change their views?
• What specific impact could such personal opinions have?

The hypothesis of this research project is that all officials who served in the CC of the CPSU had a particular social and educational background that was often responsible for the formation of their "personal opinions" on many specific questions. The influence of their education, the circle of their student friends and work colleagues created a certain "understanding" of the political, social and cultural problems with which they worked in their professional roles as CC officials. Hardly anyone was able to distance themselves from the stereotypes that they had developed over the decades of their "pre-party" life. Consequently, the officials of the Central Committee, who came from diverse strata in Soviet society, possessed a broad range of "personal opinions". Within the regime apparatus, the proponents of similar views sought, where possible, to coordinate their activities and lobby for common initiatives and interests – from support for the progressive Taganka theatre to the provision of funds for the construction of a new company in the Krasnodar region.

The project will explicitly focus on the discussion of the factors which made the CC members the way they were – for example, the participation of their parents in the revolution and the civil war, their own time as pionery and komsomol'tsy, repressive measures against their relatives, personal experiences of war in the Second World War, the tendency towards liberal or conservative views during their time as students, their professional careers and their solidarity with industrial or regional interests. Equally relevant is the question of how, alongside his work in the CC, the apparatchik maintained old "connections" and created new ones that supplemented the area he administrated. This also leads to the matter of how these connections helped the CC members find attractive positions after leaving the governmental apparatus.
The project is limited to 1964-1985, the tenure of Leonid Brezhnev and his two successors Iurii Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. Historians have only recently begun to examine these later periods, meaning there are many blank spots. In addition, many of the CC members of the period are still alive and can give extraordinarily valuable testimony about this time.

The sources for this project are interviews with contemporary witnesses conducted as part of this project. In addition, the project uses memoirs, diaries, photographs and notes from the personal archives of former CC members. These materials will be partially supplemented by the files available to scholars in the archive of the CC of the CPSU.