ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the process of separation of the Party and State with particular reference to the Central Committee. Direct recommendations on questions of economic building, economic reform, scientific and technical policy, and many other things can no longer be made solely at the Party level. At the outset of Perestroika, the central apparatus was deeply involved in the personnel turnover in the government and in administration in general. Prior to the Perestroika, vital areas like the military-industrial complex, agriculture and foreign trade were only formally controlled by the respective ministries and the Council of Ministers. The institution of the executive Presidency was an important step in the direction of the separation of the Party and State. The 28th Party Congress, according to Yakovlev, completed the process of the separation of the Party and the Central Committee from the State. The separation of the Central Committee and the State was at an advanced stage by the 28th Party Congress.
