Leningrad City Committee of All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

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LENINGRAD CITY COMMITTEE OF THE ALL-UNION COMMUNIST PARTY (BOLSHEVIKS) - Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Leningrad City Committee) was the leading organ of the Leningrad City Organization of the Communist Party. It was elected on 12 December 1931 at the first city party conference after Leningrad was made a separate administrative and economic centre with its own budget and independent party and Soviet organs (at the same time the most important issues of economic development of Leningrad and Leningrad Region, as well as staffing issues before 1941 had been attended to by joint plenums and joint meetings of the Bureau of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee and Leningrad City Committee). From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 and till 1950, the functions of the Leningrad City Committee were widened, including the permission to submit proposals to the Central Committee of All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), bypassing the Regional Committee of the Party. In December 1931 - January 1950, leaders of the Regional Party Committee concurrently served as leaders of Leningrad City Committee. In January 1950, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) cancelled this combination of posts because it did not allow the Regional Committee to criticize the City Committee. The practice of appointing leading members of Leningrad City Committee without the knowledge of the Regional Party Committee was recognized wrong. In February 1950, the Leningrad City Committee was subordinated to the Regional Party Committee and was required to report to the latter, and not to the Central Committee of the Party, like other City Committees of Leningrad Region. The structure of the Leningrad City Committee changed repeatedly. In 1931, the departments of the Committee included the General Department, Organization and Instruction Departments and Culture and Propaganda Department which functioned during the entire period of existence of the Leningrad City Committee changing their names and forming new structures, as well as the Department of Work with the Masses (1931-34) and Department of Staffing (1931-34, 1939-48). Further changes in the structure of the Leningrad City Committee were implemented concurrently with the reorganization of the structure of the Central Committee of the Party merging together functional and industrial and branch organization principles. The Leningrad City Committee was dissolved in February 1990, when the decision was adopted to create the united staff office of two party committees was adopted at the joint plenum of the Regional Party Committee and the Leningrad City Committee. It was preceded by the decision to combine the posts of the First Secretary of the Regional Party Committee and the First Secretary of the Leningrad City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from November 1989 on. The joint Committee was housed in Smolny.

References: Центральный государственный архив историко-политических документов Санкт-Петербурга: Путеводитель. М., 2000. С. 133-137, 461-462, 464-470.

N. B. Lebedeva. Центральный государственный архив историко-политических документов Санкт- Петербурга: Путеводитель. М., 2000 Smolny Architectural Ensemble