Political Sections

party political organs created by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the Soviet Army and Navy and from 1933 to 1956 in sectors of socialist construction that were especially important for the country’s economy. This was done to strengthen management and political work. There were political sections in machine and tractor stations (MTS’s), sovkhozes, rail and water transport, and certain other departments.

Political sections operated on the basis of special instructions from the Central Committee of the party and had the rights of a party production committee. The political sections were managed directly by the Central Committee through the corre sponding sections of the branches of industry or through specially organized political directorates and sectors. The Statute on Political Sections was included in the Rules of the ACP (Bolshevik) at the Seventeenth Party Congress in 1934.

The political sections were an extraordinary form of organization and management, and as their tasks were accomplished, they were abolished or reorganized into conventional party organs. With the subsequent increase of intraparty democracy and the increased responsibility and management role of party organizations in all sectors of the national economy, the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1957 abolished the political sections in all the departments except the Soviet armed forces.

The political sections at the MTS’s and sovkhozes were established by a decree of the Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission of the ACP(B) in January 1933 when the party was struggling to carry on and complete the socialist reorganization of agriculture. The chief task of the political sections was to transform the MTS’s and sovkhozes into centers of industrial-technical, organizational, and political leadership in order to exert influence over the masses of kolkhoz members and to ensure timely fulfillment by kolkhozes and sovkhozes of their obligations to the state.

The political sections were party organs that directed the production activity of party and Komsomol organizations at the MTS’s and the kolkhozes served by the MTS’s. (In all other matters the Kolkhoz party organizations were subordinate to the party raion committees.) The chief of the political section was at the same time deputy director in charge of political work of the MTS or sovkhoz. Of the 25,000 Communists sent to work in the political sections, 17,000 went to the 3,368 MTS political sections and 8,000 were assigned to the 2,021 sovkhoz political sections. The party committees of primary party organizations at the sovkhozes were abolished simultaneously with the formation of the political sections. In 1934 the party committees were restored. Their secretaries became deputy chiefs in charge of mass party work of the political section of the sovkhoz.

The political sections did a great deal to strengthen the internal organization of the kolkhozes and sovkhozes, creating primary party organizations in them and giving rural workers a communist education. Political and production training for kolkhoz workers was organized at the political sections. The sections made a significant contribution to the organization of socialist competition and to the improvement of party propaganda in the countryside. According to a decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) in November 1934, the political sections of the MTS’s were converted to ordinary party organs and merged with the party raion committees. The sovkhoz political sections continued to operate until March 1940, engaging primarily in party organization and mass political work.

In connection with the reduction in the network of rural party organizations and the difficulties of wartime after the start of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), political sections were reestablished at the MTS’s and sovkhozes in November 1941. (At MTS’s alone, 4,490 sections were formed.) This made it possible to carry out centralized, effective party management of agriculture under the difficult conditions of the first period of the war. In May 1943 the political sections had achieved their goals and were abolished. Between February 1950 and January 1954, political sections at MTS’s were established by a decree of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) and operated in the western oblasts of the Ukraine and Byelorussia, the right-bank regions of Moldavia, and the Baltic republics.

A decree of the Central Committee and Council of People’s Commissars on July 3, 1933, established political sections in rail transport. There were 22 political sections for rail lines, to which the political sections of the traffic service sectors were subordinate. Seven hundred party workers were sent to work in the political sections. Their missions and structure were defined by a decree on July 10, 1933, of the Central Committee of the party. The political sections were called on to raise the level of party political work, lead the struggle to strengthen labor discipline and order in transport, and master the use of equipment. By 1937 there were 41 railroad political sections and 262 sections for the traffic service sectors. In April 1934, political sections were established in water transport. In 1935, 29 steamship-line political sections were functioning. The political sections in rail and water transport were abolished in 1943, restored in 1948, and operated until 1956.