ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the entire congress campaign, starting with the decision to hold a congress, then the pre-congress campaign, the congress itself, and its decisions. According to the party statutes of all East European communist parties, the party congress is the supreme party organ. The congresses of the East European communist parties have two very important tacit functions characteristic of the entire East European systems keeping the population in a state of constant mobilization, and keeping the party in a state of constant control and purges. The political activization of party members and ordinary citizens is one of the pre-congress campaign’s main goals. The congress is attended by the delegates elected at the pre-congress accountability-election meetings and delegations of foreign communist and workers’ parties and “progressive” movements. The congresses of the East European communist parties all follow exactly the pattern of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Congresses.
