Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union governed the country from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991, exercising political power through a one-party system.

Politburo: The senior executive body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, responsible for major political decisions. It concentrated top-level authority within the party.
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party: A Marxist political party founded in the Russian Empire in 1898, later divided into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. The Soviet party emerged from its Bolshevik faction.
Joseph Stalin: A Soviet political leader who ruled the country from the late 1920s until his death in 1953. He built a highly centralized party-state and ruled through party institutions.
Collectivization in the Soviet Union: The forced consolidation of Soviet farms into collective and state-run units, chiefly during the 1930s. Party policy transformed agriculture and contributed to famine and upheaval.
Mensheviks: A socialist faction that split from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party’s Bolsheviks and opposed their approach to revolution and party organization. Their rivalry with the Bolsheviks shaped the party’s revolutionary origins.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: The leading office in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, especially powerful under Stalin and his successors. Its holders often became the country’s dominant political leaders.
Bolsheviks: The revolutionary faction led by Vladimir Lenin that seized power in Russia in 1917. They formed the core of the party that ruled the Soviet state.
Nikita Khrushchev: A Soviet leader who headed the Communist Party from 1953 to 1964 and denounced Stalin’s rule. His reforms challenged Stalin’s legacy without ending party supremacy.
Great Purge: A campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, involving executions, imprisonment, and forced confessions. The party leadership used repression to eliminate perceived threats and enforce obedience.
Socialist Revolutionary Party: A Russian socialist party with a strong peasant base that competed with the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolutions. Its suppression narrowed political competition after the Bolsheviks took power.

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