Petrograd Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist

a leading body of the party from March 1918 to March 1919. Organized in connection with the transfer of the Central Committee of the RCP(B) and the Soviet government to Moscow, its purpose was to direct the central institutions and party organizations of Severnaia Oblast, which had remained in Petrograd. (Severnaia Oblast included Arkhangel’sk, Vologda, Novgorod, Olonets, Petrograd, and Pskov provinces, and later, the provinces of Severnaia Dvina and Cherepovets.)

The Petrograd Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(B) consisted of five members of the Central Committee (G. E. Zinoviev, N. N. Krestinskii, M. M. Lashevich, I. T. Smilga, and E. D. Stasova [secretary of the bureau]) and one candidate member (A. A. Ioffe). The Bureau’s tasks also included completing the Central Committee’s work and providing all party organizations with necessary literature. (Priboi, the publishing house of the Central Committee, had remained in Petrograd.) In establishing and consolidating provincial and district party organizations in Severnaia Oblast, the Petrograd Bureau met with a great deal of success. The Severnaia Oblast Committee of the RCP(B) cooperated with the Petrograd Bureau. In March 1919, Severnaia Oblast was eliminated as an administrative unit, and the Petrograd Bureau ceased to function.