ABSTRACT
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was dramatically transformed during Perestroika. From being a ruling institution it no longer remained the centre of power and authority towards the terminal years of the Soviet political system. The Central Committee of the CPSU was the designated supreme authority between congresses. Prior to the revolution, the Central Committee had been the decision-making body of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party. One of the key functions of the Central Committee was its guidance of the economy. The Central Committee would lay down the instructions under which Gosplan would issue the guidelines regulating the plan and economic life. The key leaders of both representative and administrative institutions of the State at various levels were elected under the authority of the Party. The M. Gorbachev reforms were therefore an attempt to reassert the position of the Party and rein in the State, particularly its executive wing.
