The Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...

 existed from 1919–52, until the 19th Congress

19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from October 5–14, 1952. It was the last congress of the Stalin regime and the first to take place since before World War II...

, when the Orgburo was abolished and its functions were transferred to the enlarged Secretariat

Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee

The Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee was a key body within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was responsible for the central administration of the party as opposed to drafting government policy which was usually handled by the Politburo...

.

Role of Orgburo

Orgburo was created to make important decisions about organizational work in the USSR. The Orgburo oversaw the work of local party committees and had the power to select and place Communist members in the positions that they saw fit. The functions of the Orgburo and the Politburo

Politburo

Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...

 were often interconnected, but the Politburo was ultimately the final decision-maker. While the Politburo was mostly concerned with strategic planning and monitoring of the people and status of the USSR, the Orgburo was tasked with overseeing the party cadre and its assignment to various positions and duties, presumably in furtherance of the government's strategic agenda.

Election and Chronology

The Orgburo, in the same manner as the Politburo and the Secretariat, was elected by the plenums of the Central Committee

Central Committee

Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...

. One of the Central Committee secretaries supervised the work of the Orgburo. The first Orgburo of three members (Vladimirsky

Mikhail Vladimirsky

Mikhail Fyodorovich Vladimirsky was a Soviet politician and for a short period of time, the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.He was in office from March 16, 1919 to March 30, 1919...

, Krestinsky and Sverdlov

Yakov Sverdlov

Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov ; known under pseudonyms "Andrei", "Mikhalych", "Max", "Smirnov", "Permyakov" — 16 March 1919) was a Bolshevik party leader and an official of the Russian Soviet Republic.-Early life:...

) was elected on January 16, 1919, at the Central Committee meeting. The 8th party congress

8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

The 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party was held in Moscow 18 - 23 March, 1919.The Congress was attended by 301 voting delegates who represented 313,766 Party members...

 (March 8, 1919 - March 23, 1919) amended the party charter and set up provisions for election of the Politburo, the Orgburo and the Secretariat. The Central Committee plenum elected the new Orgburo of five members and of one candidate member on March 25, 1919. Some key Communist politicians such as Stalin, Molotov

Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...

, Kaganovich

Lazar Kaganovich

Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire...

and others were both members of the Orgburo and of the Politburo, but most of the Orgburo members were less important figures than those elected to the Politburo and the Secretariat.

Date	Event
16 Jan 1919	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Vladimirsky, Krestinsky, Sverdlov (died 25 Mar 1919)
25 Mar 1919	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Beloborodov, Krestinsky, Serebryakov, Stalin, Stasova; candidate member: Muranov
29 Nov 1919	Kalinin elected full member at the Central Committee plenum
5 Apr 1920	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Krestinsky, Preobrazhensky, Rykov, Serebryakov, Stalin
16 Mar 1921	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Komarov, V.Mikhaylov, Molotov, Rykov, Stalin, Tomsky, Yaroslavsky; candidate members: Dzerzhinsky, Kalinin, Rudzutak
28 May 1921	Politburo approved Zalutsky, Kutuzov, Shmidt as candidate members
8 Aug 1921	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Dzerzhinsky, Zalutsky, V.Mikhaylov, Molotov, Rudzutak, Rykov, Stalin; candidate members: Kalinin, Kutuzov, Shmidt
3 Apr 1922	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Andreyev, Dzerzhinsky, Kuibyshev, Molotov, Rykov, Stalin, Tomsky; candidate members: Zelensky, Kalinin, Rudzutak
26 Apr 1923	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Andreyev, Dzerzhinsky, Molotov, Rudzutak, Rykov, Stalin, Tomsky; candidate members: Zelensky, Kalinin, V.Mikhaylov
25 Sep 1923	Zinoviev and Trotsky elected full members, Bukharin and Korotkov candidate members at the Central Committee plenum
02 Jun 1924	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Andreyev, Bubnov, Voroshilov, Dogadov, Zelensky, L.Kaganovich, Kalinin, Molotov, Nikolayeva, Smirnov, Stalin; candidate members: Antipov, Dzerzhinsky, Lepse, Tomsky, Chaplin, Frunze (died 31 Oct 1925)
20 Aug 1924	Zelensky relieved of duties at the Central Committee plenum; Uglanov elected full member
01 Jan 1926	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Andreyev, Artyuhina, Bubnov, Dogadov, Yevdokimov, Kviring, Kosior, Molotov, Smirnov, Stalin, Uglanov; candidate members: Lepse, V.Mikhaylov, Ukhanov, Chaplin, Shmidt
09 Apr 1926	Yevdokimov relieved of duties at the Central Committee plenum; Shvernik elected full member
16 Apr 1927	Shvernik and Kviring relieved of duties at the Central Committee plenum; Kubyak, Sulimov and Rukhimovich elected full members, Lobov elected candidate member
19 Dec 1927	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Andreyev, Artyuhina, Bubnov, Dogadov, Kosior, Kubyak, Molotov, Moskvin, Rukhimovich, Smirnov, Stalin, Sulimov, Uglanov; candidate members: Kotov, Lepse (died 06 Oct 1929), Lobov, V.Mikhaylov, Ukhanov, Chaplin, Shmidt
11 Apr 1928	Andreyev relieved of duties at the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission; Bauman elected full member, Antipov elected candidate member
12 Jul 1928	Kosior relieved of duties at the Central Committee plenum; L.Kaganovich elected full member
29 Apr 1929	Uglanov relieved of duties at the Central Committee plenum
17 Nov 1929	Gamarnik elected full member at the Central Committee plenum; Shvernik elected candidate member
13 Jul 1930	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Akulov, Bauman, Bubnov, Gamarnik, L.Kaganovich, Lobov, Molotov, Moskvin, Postyshev, Stalin, Shvernik; candidate members: Dogadov, Kosarev, Smirnov, Tsikhon
21 Dec 1930	Molotov relieved of duties at the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission
02 Oct 1932	Akulov, Bauman and Dogadov relieved of duties at the Central Committee plenum
12 Jan 1933	Smirnov relieved of duties at the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission
10 Feb 1934	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Gamarnik (committed suicide 31 May 1937), Yezhov, Zhdanov, L.Kaganovich, Kirov (assassinated 01 Dec 1934), Kosarev (arrested 29 Nov 1938, executed 23 Feb 1939), Kuibyshev (died 25 Jan 1935), Stalin, Stetsky (arrested Apr 1938, executed 01 Aug 1938), Shvernik; candidate members: M.Kaganovich, Krinitsky (executed 30 Oct 1937)
10 Mar 1935	Andreyev approved full member by questionnaire
14 Jan 1938	Mekhlis elected full member at the Central Committee plenum
22 Mar 1939	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Andreyev, Zhdanov, L.Kaganovich, Malenkov, Mekhlis, N.Mikhaylov, Stalin, Shvernik, Shcherbakov (died 10 May 1945)
18 Mar 1946	Orgburo elected by the Central Committee: Aleksandrov, Andrianov, Bulganin, Zhdanov (died 31 Aug 1948), A.Kuznetsov, V.Kuznetsov, Malenkov, Mekhlis, N.Mikhaylov, Patolichev, Popov, Rodionov, Stalin, Suslov, Shatalin
24 May 1947	Patolichev relieved of duties by questionnaire
07 Mar 1949	A.Kuznetsov and Rodionov relieved of duties by questionnaire
10 Mar 1949	Chernousov approved full member by questionnaire
Oct 1952	Orgburo abolished at the CPSU 19th Party Congress and duties transferred to Secretariat