Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Съезд Коммунистической партии Советского Союза
Emblem of the CPSU
Type
Type	Party meeting
Term limits	Various, eventually five years
History
Established	1898
Disbanded	1990
Leadership
Authority	Statute of the CPSU
Jurisdiction	Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Elections
First election	First session 1917
Last election	Last session 1990
Meeting place
Kremlin Palace of Congresses Moscow, Soviet Union

The Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Съезд Коммунистической партии Советского Союза, romanized: S"ezd Kommunisticheskoy partii Sovetskogo Soyuza) was the supreme decision-making body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Its meetings served as convention of all party delegates and their predecessors.

Between the congresses the party was ruled by the Central Committee. Over the course of the party's history, the name was changed in accordance with the current name of the party at the time. The frequency of party congresses varied with the meetings being annual events in the 1920s while no congress was held at all between 1939 and 1952. After the death of Joseph Stalin, the congresses were held every five years.

Keys

Abbreviations
CC	Central Committee
CAC	Central Auditing Commission
FM	Full member (a member with voting rights).
CM	Candidate member (a member without voting rights).
VD	Voting delegate (a delegate who can vote).
CD	Consultative delegate (a delegate without voting rights).
Report	CC Report and CAC Report, a document which briefs delegates about the period since the last congress and future work.
Charter	Charter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the fundamental governing document of the CPSU.
PMR	Party members represented at the congress by delegates (the party membership at the time).

Convocations

Congress	Duration (start—end)	Delegates	Elected		CC Report (presented by)	CAC Report (presented by)	Charter (amendments)	Program (amendments)	PMR	Place	Location
			CC	CAC
1st Congress 3 days	1 March – 3 March 1898	9	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	Minsk	Russian Empire
2nd Congress 25 days 1903 election	17 July – 10 August 1903	51 VD – 12 CD	3 FM – 2 PM	—	—	—	Amendment	1st Program	—	Brussels	Belgium
									—	London	United Kingdom
3rd Congress 16 days 1905 election	12 April – 27 April 1905	24 VD – 14 CD	4 FM 4 AP 1 PM	—	—	—	Amendment	—	—
4th Congress 16 days 1906 election	10 April – 25 April 1906	112 VD – 22 CD	10 FM – 1 PM	—	—	—	Amendment	—	—	Stockholm	Sweden
5th Congress 20 days 1907 election	30 April – 19 May 1907	343 VD – 41 CD	11 FM 21 CM 6 PM	—	R. Abramovitch A. Bogdanov J. Martov	—	—	—	178,000	London	United Kingdom
6th Congress 9 days 1917 election	26 July – 3 August 1917	157 VD – 110 CD	21 FM – 10 CM	—	None	—	Amendment	2nd Program	177,000	Petrograd	Russian Republic
7th Congress 3 days 1917–1918 election	6 March – 8 March 1918	47 VD – 59 CD	19 FM – 8 CM	—	V. Lenin & Y. Sverdlov	—	—	—	233,000		Soviet Russia
8th Congress 6 days 1918–1919 election	18 March – 23 March 1919	301 VD – 102 CD	19 FM – 8 CM	3	V. Lenin	—	Amendment	—	313,766	Moscow
9th Congress 8 days 1919–1920 election	29 March – 5 April 1920	301 VD – 102 CD	19 FM – 12 CM	None	V. Lenin	—	—	—	611,978
10th Congress 9 days 1921–1922 election	8 March – 16 March 1921	715 VD – 553 CD	25 FM – 15 CM	None	V. Lenin	—	—	—	732,521
11th Congress 7 days 1921–1922 election	27 March – 2 April 1922	694 VD – 296 CD	27 FM – 17 CM	None	V. Lenin	V. Nogin	—	—	532,000
12th Congress 9 days 1922–1923 election	17 April – 25 April 1923	408 VD – 417 CD	40 FM – 17 CM	3	L. Kamenev	V. Nogin	Amendment	—	386,000		Soviet Union
13th Congress 9 days 1923–1924 election	23 May – 31 May 1924	748 VD – 416 CD	53 FM – 34 CM	3	G. Zinoviev	D. Kursky	—	—	735,881 FM – 127,741 CM
14th Congress 14 days 1925 election	18 December – 31 December 1925	665 VD – 641 CD	63 FM – 43 CM	7	J. Stalin	D. Kursky	Amendment	—	643,000 FM – 445,000 CM
15th Congress 18 days 1927 election	2 December – 19 December 1927	898 VD – 771 CD	71 FM – 50 CM	9	J. Stalin	D. Kursky	Amendment	—	887,233 FM – 348,957 CM
16th Congress 18 days 1929–1930 election	26 June – 13 July 1930	1268 VD – 891 CD	71 FM – 67 CM	13	J. Stalin	M. Vladimirsky	—	—	1,260,874 FM – 711,609 CM
17th Congress 16 days 1933–1934 election	26 January – 10 February 1934	1225 VD – 736 CD	71 FM – 68 CM	22	J. Stalin	M. Vladimirsky	Amendment	—	1,872,488 FM – 935,298 CM
18th Congress 12 days 1938–1939 election	10 March – 21 March 1939	1569 VD – 466 CD	71 FM – 13 CM	13	J. Stalin	M. Vladimirsky	Amendment	—	1,588,852 FM – 888,814 CM
19th Congress 10 days 1951–1952 election	5 October – 14 October 1952	1192 VD – 167 CD	125 FM – 111 CM	37	G. Malenkov	P. Moskatov	Amendment	—	6,000,000 FM – 900,000 CM
20th Congress 12 days 1955–1956 election	14 February – 25 February 1956	1349 VD – 81 CD	133 FM – 122 CM	63	N. Khrushchev	P. Moskatov	Amendment	—	6,795,896 FM – 419,609 CM
21st Congress 10 days None	27 January – 5 February 1959	1261 VD – 106 CD	None	None	N. Khrushchev	—	—	—	7,622,356 FM – 616,775 CM
22nd Congress 15 days 1960–1961 election	17 October – 31 October 1961	4394 VD – 405 CD	175 FM – 155 CM	65	N. Khrushchev	A. Gorkin	Amendment	3rd Program	8,872,516 FM – 843,489 CM
23rd Congress 11 days 1965–1966 election	29 March – 8 April 1966	4619 VD – 323 CD	195 FM – 165 CM	79	L. Brezhnev	N. Muravyova	Amendment	Amendment	11,673,676 FM – 797,403 CM
24th Congress 11 days 1970–1971 election	30 March – 9 April 1971	4740 VD – 223 CD	245 FM – 155 CM	81	L. Brezhnev	G. Sizov	—	—	13,810,089 FM – 645,232 CM
25th Congress 10 days 1975–1976 election	24 February – 5 March 1976	4998	287 FM – 139 CM	85	L. Brezhnev	G. Sizov	—	—	15,365,600 FM – 628,876 CM
26th Congress 9 days 1980–1981 election	23 February – 3 March 1981	4994	319 FM – 151 CM	75	L. Brezhnev	G. Sizov	—	—	16,732,408 FM – 698,005 CM
27th Congress 10 days 1985–1986 election	25 February – 6 March 1986	4993	307 FM – 170 CM	83	M. Gorbachev	G. Sizov	Amendment	Amendment	18,975,725 FM – 512,097 CM
28th Congress 12 days 1990–1991 election	2 July – 13 July 1990	4683	412	—	M. Gorbachev	—	Amendment	Failed to approve program	18,856,113 FM – 372,104 CM

See also

• Organization of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

References

General

Information on congresses, number of delegates, number of people elected to CCs, party membership, the individual who presented the Political Report and information on when the congress was convened can be found in these sources:

• "Численный состав КПСС" [Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union] (in Russian). sovtime.ru. Retrieved 7 January 2017.

Bibliography

Articles and journals: