ABSTRACT
An analysis of the statistical data on the appointment of second secretaries reveals that they would receive this appointment at about 50 years of age and their average stay in a republic was about five years, on an average. Over a half of all second secretaries possessed an industry-related education. Upon graduation from a university or a technical institute they started their careers as engineers in plants and factories. Territorial sectors of the Department of Organizational and Party Work ensured control of the republics they supervised. During the rule of Nikita Khrushchev, the documents of the Department show how the information on the situation in various Soviet republics used to be exchanged through horizontal channels between sectors inside the Department. The Department of Organizational and Party Work that maintained control over the republics stood out for its considerable power in the apparatus of the center, and its relationship with the nomenklaturas of republics points to the essence of democratic centralism.
