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11.01 membership requirements
- 7, AC9
- Party statutes state that "any worker who does not
exploit the labor of another, who is a citizen of the
Soviet Union, who acknowledges the program and statutes
of the party, who actively participates in their
fulfillment, who works in one of the organizations of the
party, and who fulfills all decisions of the party, can
be a member of the party." Before acceptance into the
party as a full-fledged member, the applicant must
undergo at least a year’s probationary period as a
candidate member. During this period he becomes
acquainted with the program, statutes and tactics of the
party. Upon achieving membership status, the member
receives a party card and pays monthly dues based on a
graduated scale according to income.
- 11.02 membership participation
- 6, AC9
- Party statutes declare that the CPSU is a voluntary
militant union of like-thinking Communists, whose
responsibility it is to safeguard the unity of the party
and to be active in fulfilling and introducing party
decisions into life. In addition to propagating party
programs at their place of work or on an informal basis,
the members attend meetings of professional interest
where they can guide decisions along party lines. Their
duties also include the uncovering of maladministration
and breaches of discipline. To maintain a high level of
performance and knowledge, members attend party training
courses given on various levels.
- 11.03 material incentives
- 1, AC3
- Specific data on the motivation of party membership
are not available in the literature. Both references to
careerists and opportunists are not unusual in soviet
sources. Membership in the party is a major means of
achieving status and personal advancement. The party
supplies personnel not only for its own structure, but
preferential treatment is given to its members in the
government bureaucracy, the economy, and the professions.
Party membership is prerequisite for many important
posts, as well as promotion. The party also makes wide
use of material incentives--both monetary and in
benefits--to reward good party members and to attract
successful professionals and technicians to join the
party. In view of the rigid requirements expected of
party members, however, a conservative judgment has been
made in coding approximately one-third of the party
membership as motivated in its activity by material
incentives.
- 11.04 purposive incentives
- 3, AC3
- Despite the increased acceptance of the use of
material incentives within the party in recent years, it
is estimated that approximately two-thirds of the
membership may be motivated by an ideological belief in
the goals of a socialist state.
- 11.05 doctrinism
- 3, AC9
- There is no question about the doctrinaire nature of
CPSU. The principles of Marxism-Leninism form the basis
of the soviet ideology and the works of Marx and Lenin
are, therefore, a continual body of reference.
- 11.06 personalism
- 0, AC5
- Despite Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's cult of
personality, Stalin's leadership was probably based
mainly upon power and fear, rather than on his personal
characteristics.
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