Congress of the CPSU
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The Congress of the CPSU was the gathering of the delegates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its predecessors. During the history, the name was changed according to the then current name of the party. The frequency of party congresses also varied with the meetings being annual events in the 1920s while no Congress was held at all between 1939 to 1952. After the death of Joseph Stalin the Congresses were held every five years.
The First Congress of RSDLP, was held in 1898, Minsk, Belarus of Imperial Russia.
The Second Congress, 1903, Belgium, resulted into the party's split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions which eventually became parties in their own right.
Theoretically, the Congress was the supreme ruling body of the entire Party. Between the congresses the party was ruled by the Central Committee, abbreviated as ЦК, "Tseka".
In the course of time it had eventually become an organ of rubberstamping, propaganda, and dissemination of the decisions of the Politburo, known from 1952 to 1966 as the Presidium.
See also: Organization of the Communist Party of the USSR
List of Party Congresses
| Number | Dates | Place | Comments
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-3 [14-16] Mar 1898 | Minsk, Russian Empire | RDSLP founding conference | |
| 2 | 17 [30] Jul - 10 [23] Aug 1903 | Brussels, Belgium and London, UK | RDSLP splits into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. | |
| 3 | 12-27 April [25 Apr - 10 May] 1905 | London, UK | Bolsheviks only | |
| 4 ("Unification") | 10-25 April [23 Apr - 8 May] 1906 | Stockholm, Sweden | Bolsheviks and Mensheviks re-unite in the same party, but keep their factions | |
| 5 ("London") | 30 April - 19 May [13 May - 1 June] 1907 | London, UK | Bolsheviks and Mensheviks together | |
| 6 | 26 July - 3 August [8-16 August] 1917 | Petrograd, Russia | Held semi-legally in between revolutions, Bolsheviks merge with the Mezhraiontsy, final break with the Mensheviks | |
| 7 (Extraordinary) | 6-8 March 1918 | Moscow, Russian SFSR | Party becomes All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) | |
| 8 | 18-23 March 1919 | Moscow, Russian SFSR | ||
| 9 | 29 March - 5 April 1920 | Moscow, Russian SFSR | ||
| 10 | 8-16 March 1921 | Moscow, Russian SFSR | Internal party factions banned in a secret resolution | |
| 11 | 27 March - 2 April 1922 | Moscow, Russian SFSR | ||
| 12 | 17-25 April 1923 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 13 | 23-31 May 1924 | Moscow, USSR | First Congress since Lenin's death | |
| 14 | 18-31 December 1925 | Moscow, USSR | Party becomes All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) | |
| 15 | 2-19 December 1927 | Moscow, USSR | Stalin's power consolidated, Trotskyists expelled | |
| 16 | 26 June - 13 July 1930 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 17 | 26 January - 10 February 1934 | Moscow, USSR | Party becomes Communist Party of Soviet Union (Bolshevik)- vote for Politburo shows Kirov most popular member, Stalin least popular. | |
| 18 | 10-21 March 1939 | Moscow, USSR | First congress after Great Purge. | |
| 19 | 5-14 October 1952 | Moscow, USSR | Party becomes Communist Party of the Soviet Union - Stalin's last Congress | |
| 20 | 14-25 February 1956 | Moscow, USSR | Khrushchev's Secret Speech denouncing Stalin | |
| 21 | 27 January - 5 February 1959 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 22 | 17-31 October 1961 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 23 | 29 March - 8 April 1966 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 24 | 30 March - 9 April 1971 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 25 | 24 February - 5 March 1976 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 26 | 23 February - 3 March 1981 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 27 | 25 February - 6 March 1986 | Moscow, USSR | ||
| 28 | 2-13 July 1990 | Moscow, USSR | Party Statute formalizes the end to monopoly on power |