Orgburo

(Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the ACP [B]), a former executive organ of the party’s Central Committee (CC). Established in January 1919, the Orgburo was charged with the general supervision of the party’s organizational work. Its basic functions included selection of cadres, assignment of responsibilities to cadres, and verification of the fulfillment of party decisions. In addition, the Orgburo was responsible for the maintenance of correct relations between party organizations, on the one hand, and state organizations, trade unions, youth groups, and other similar organizations, on the other. Finally, it was assigned the tasks of refining the structure of party organs, ensuring that party units reported on their activities, and overseeing the flow of information within the party.

Initially, Orgburo membership was limited to five members of the CC. Beginning in 1921, however, it was expanded, and thereafter it varied in number. The Nineteenth Congress of the CPSU (1952) decided to abolish the Orgburo and to concentrate the ongoing organizational work of the CC in the Secretariat of the CC of the CPSU.