ABSTRACT
The fact that the USSR is a one-party state and that the party in power rules according to Marxist-Leninist principles is so well known that it barely needs additional comment. What is much less understood is that, except at the very top, the political role of the Communist party is minimal. The party's entire mission is centered on administrative and socioeconomic matters, with its purely political activities reduced to enforcing, explaining, and propagandizing policies adopted at the top. The party has developed into a very large institution numbering over 18 million people. A regional party committee is ranked above all these and supervises party committees of the cities and districts of the region. At the top is the central committee of the given republic, headed by a presidium and a secretariat. Party secretaries have always been the bosses of "their" respective domains, permanently condemning their government counterparts to subordinate positions.
