Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU

a session of all members and candidate members of the Central Committee (CC) of the CPSU. According to the party rules approved by the Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU in 1971, the Central Committee must meet in plenary session at least once every six months. At the first plenum after each party congress, the Central Committee elects the general secretary of the CC of the CPSU, the Politburo, and the Secretariat. Candidate members of the Central Committee have a consultative vote in the work of the plenum. Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU also attend.

The convocation of regular plenary sessions is one of the most important conditions for putting into practice the Leninist principle of collective leadership. Plenums discuss the major issues in the life and work of the party, people, and state. They discuss problems in perfecting the functioning of party bodies and organizations, regular tasks of economic development, cultural work, Soviet democracy, and foreign policy. The plenums devote considerable attention to strengthening the unity of the world communist and workers’ movement and intensifying the struggle against bourgeois ideology. Plenum resolutions are binding for all party organizations. In accordance with plenum decisions party organizations and workers’ collectives strive to fulfill the concrete tasks of building communism.