Governing the Soviet Union's national republics: the Second Secretaries of the Communist Party

Second Secretary of the Central Committee of a Soviet republic does not sound a very important position, but as this book shows it was an extremely important role, one that helped hold the Soviet Union together and helped to keep it going for so long. The key was that Second Secretaries were both members of a Soviet republic's ruling body and at the same time members of the All-Union ruling elite - they were often characterised as Moscow's governor generals. This book examines how the position of Second Secretary was established by Khrushchev in the 1950s, explores how it took on increasingly important political functions representing Moscow's interests in the republics and the republics' interests in Moscow, and discusses how the conflicts, inherent in the role, developed. The book also provides biographical details of the people who held the position and argues that the role was extremely effective in managing what could otherwise have been very difficult relationships between centre and periphery.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 The Origin of the Political Institution of Second Secretaries -- The Institution of the Representative and the VKP(B) CC Bureau -- The Heritage of the Stalinist Period and the Baltic Factor -- 2 The Department of Organizational and Party Work of the CPSU CC -- The Department -- The Sector -- Instructors of the Department -- 'Birds of a Feather' -- 3 The Establishment of the Institution of the Second Secretary -- The Establishment of the Institution of Second Secretaries: The Background and Reasons -- The 'Contract' Between the Centre and the Titular Nomenklatura and the Birth of the Institution of the Second Secretary -- From Transcaucasia to Transcaucasia: Second Secretaries Arrive in Central Asia, Moldavia, Estonia, and Armenia -- 4 A Collective Biography of Second Secretaries -- Age -- Average Length of Service as a Second Secretary -- An Industry Specialist -- Permanence and Mobility -- Geography and Political Impact -- Horizontal Relations -- Career After the Position of the Second Secretary -- Chronological Cross-Sections: Second Secretaries in 1962, 1973, and 1984 -- 5 A Representative of the Centre in a National Republic: Behavioural Contexts and Strategies of the Second Secretary -- Nationalism -- An Intermediary in Ethnic Conflicts -- 'Local Peculiarities' and the Language: Nationalism for Second Secretaries -- Nikolai Belukha's Understanding of Nationalism -- Communication of the Second Secretary with the Centre -- Behaviour of the Second Secretary: Strategies and Practices -- The Perception of Time and the Behaviour of the Second Secretary -- The System of Second Persons -- The Second Secretary and Party Discourse -- 6 Being 'the Second' in a Republic: Concord and Conflicts with the First Secretary.