Stamp for the XXVI congress of the CPSU, 1981,
From the Soviet Press in 1981, a brief look at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1980. Over the coming days we will be featuring a number of posts and speeches about the CPSU in 1980.
Communists in Soviet Society:
In 1980, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had a membership of over 17 million, or 9.3 per cent of the country’s adult population (aged 18 or over). In the past 20 years the numerical strength of the CPSU has doubled.
The CPSU is a working class party, with factory workers comprising over 59 per cent of those joining the Party. In industrial centres the share of workers among the newly admitted is still higher - about 65-70 per cent.
Industrial workers and collective farmers account for more than 50 per cent of the CPSU membership. Nearly 75 per cent of all Communists work in the sphere of material production, including 39 per cent in industry and construction, 8 per cent in transport and communications and 20 per cent in agriculture, 16 per cent of Communists are scientific, medical. educational and cultural workers, eight per cent of party members are managerial personnel.
The CPSU is a party of internationalists not only by its ideology and policy but also by its composition. It includes representatives of more than 100 nations and nationalities inhabiting the USSR.
In 1927 Communists with a higher or secondary education constituted a mere 10 per cent, while in 1947 the figure was 57 per cent and in 1977 it topped 86 per cent. Today every fourth engineer, technician, agronomist, every third teacher and every sixth doctor is a Communist.
Over 1.8 million workers and collective farmers are elected to leading party bodies at all levels. Some 43.2 per cent of the people's deputies to Soviets are Communists, which amounts to one million people.
A quarter of all Communists are women, their share among the newly admitted party members being 32 per cent. This is reflected in the composition of leading party bodies: women make up 23 per cent of members and candidate members of regional, territorial and central committees of the communist parties of union republics and 29 per cent of members and candidate members of district and city party committees. A third of all secretaries of primary party organizations are women.
The Young Communist Leaguers constitute a considerable part of the CPSU replenishments. Today 74 per cent of those joining party ranks are YCLers. Over half of the Soviet Communists are under 40.
The country has 403,000 primary party organizations. In the period between 1976-1979 their number rose by 13,000.
In the USSR Party cadres are trained at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, republican and inter-regional party schools and courses. Besides, the Advanced Training Institute for leading party and government workers has been set up under the auspices of the Academy of Social Sciences, and also over 100 permanent courses. In the past four years nearly 240,000 people have graduated from these institutions.
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