Politics of the Soviet Union

The political system of the Soviet Union was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the Constitution.

For information about the government, see Government of the Soviet Union.

The Bolsheviks who took power during the October Revolution, the final phase of the Russian Revolution, were the first Communist Party to take power and attempt to apply the Leninist variant of Marxism in a practical way. Although they grew very quickly during the Revolution, from 24,000 to 100,000 members, and some support, 25% of the votes for the Constituent Assembly in November, 1917, the Bolsheviks were a minority party when they took power by force in Petrograd and Moscow. Their advantages were discipline and a platform supporting the movement of workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors who had seized factories, organized soviets, appropriated the lands of the aristocracy and other large landholders, deserted from the army and mutinied against the navy during the Revolution.

Karl Marx made no detailed proposals for the structure of a socialist or communist government and society other than the replacement of capitalism with socialism, and eventually communism, by the victorious working class. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, had developed the theory that a Communist Party should serve as the vanguard of the proletariat, ruling in their name and interest, but, like Marx, had not developed a detailed economic or political program. The new Communist government of the Soviet Union faced alarming problems: extending practical control beyond the major cities, combatting counter-revolution and opposing political parties, coping with the continuing war, and setting up a new economic and political system.

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