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10.01 legislative cohesion
- Not applicable
- 10.02 ideological factionalism
- 3, AC7
- Despite the fact that factions were formally
abolished in 1921 at 13th Party Congress, two trends
became identifiable in party ideology during the
post-Stalin era. Disagreements emerged between those who
espoused the more liberal policies within
Marxism-Leninism. Khrushchev ultimately denounced seven
out of eleven full members of the CPSU as constituting an
anti-party faction. Although this group formed a majority
within the Presidium, there is no evidence that its
supporters were proportionally represented in lower party
echelons.
- 10.03 issue factionalism
- 3, AC8
- Differences within the party have been connected
mainly with economic issues and foreign policy. While it
is difficult to establish accurate estimates of support
for various issues at the lower ranks of the party,
certainly at the Presidium level, leaders’ positions
and those of the opposition are quite well recorded. Thus
in the early post-Stalin era, Malenkov--favoring improved
relations with the west and increasing consumer goods
production domestically--sparred with Khrushchev, who
took a more aggressive stance vis-a-vis the west and
supported the priorities of heavy industry and armaments.
Although by 1956 Khrushchev had shifted his position
somewhat on certain issues, he had gained enough support
within the party to be able to accuse his opposition of
factionalism in deviating from the party line on
industrial reorganization, agricultural policy, and
foreign policy, and also succeeded in linking them with
the traditional line of Stalin.
- 10.04 leadership factionalism
- 5, AC8
- The discussion of membership supporting Khrushchev as
party leader is based on figures for the Central
Committee. During his early years as First Secretary,
Khrushchev, on the basis of raw patronage, was able to
appoint his supporters to key positions within the party.
Of the total 1956 Central Committee membership, it is
estimated that 1/3 was committed to support Khrushchev
and 1/3 was likely to support him. When the majority of
the Presidium tried to unseat him in 1957, the Central
Committee supported him in overwhelming numbers with 215
out of 309 voting and non-voting members of the committee
and central inspection commission speaking on his
behalf.
- 10.05 strategic or tactical factionalism
- 0, AC9
- For our purposes, strategy and tactics relate to the
party’s orientation towards the goal of placing its
members in government positions. This was never a matter
for dispute during our time period.
- 10.06 party purges
- 1 for 1950-56, AC7
- 2 for 1957-1962, AC8
- The term purge is used rather frequently and loosely
in the CPSU literature. In applying the project’s
more restrictive definition of mass expulsion from the
party, the usage is narrowed somewhat. The low score for
the first half of the time period refers to the series of
purges of the early 50’s, when the targets were
Zhdanovites, Beria supporters, and Beria, who likewise
managed to purge a few Georgian officials in the party
and government. Some sources describe the large-scale
reorganizations within the Central Committee and the
replacement of party officials from 1953-1956 as a purge.
There is no evidence, however, showing the actual
expulsion of the ousted members, and references to this
latter occurrence are not included in the codes. In 1957,
the famous "anti-party" purge of more than one half of
the leading members of the Presidium was begun. Although
these members were demoted, thereby losing considerable
influence during the latter part of our time period, they
were not officially expelled until 1964. Liberty was
taken here to include the fact, as the fait accompli was
just a hair’s breadth outside our cut-off year.
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