  Nikiforov-YuS-vestnik-2025-2-ru.pdf |
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- “To eliminate parallelism and to grant rightsˮ: attempt by regional authorities to expand powers in 1954 (the case of Ivanovo regional committee of the Communist Party and the regional executive committee)
- Nikiforov Yu.S. “To eliminate parallelism and to grant rightsˮ: attempt by regional authorities to expand powers in 1954 (the case of Ivanovo regional committee of the Communist Party and the regional executive committee). Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2025, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 55–60 (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-2-55-60
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-2-55-60
- УДК: 94(470.315)“1950/1980”
- EDN: GXQCLN
- Publish date: 2025-03-24
- Annotation: The article analyses the problem of delimitation of power between the centre and the regions in the USSR by the 1st half of the 1950s. The question is raised about the relationship of powers, on the one hand, of the central structures, on the other hand, of regional Communist Party’s and Soviets’ bodies, with the latter ones’, after the death of Joseph Stalin, seeking to significantly expand the scope of their competence. To solve the stated problem, a historical source that had not previously been introduced into scientific circulation, was used – a petition from Ivanovo Regional Committee of the Communist Party and the Regional Executive Committee, addressed to Nikita Khrushchev and dated March 1954. The main attention is focused on the plot related to the proposals of the regional authorities to expand the rights of regional authorities. The memo was sent from Ivanovo to Moscow in response to the resolution of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Party as of January 25, 1954: “On serious shortcomings in the work of the Party’s and the state’s apparatus.ˮ The methodological basis of the study was formed by the principles of historicism and systematicity, as well as by comparative historical method, combination of analysis of archival documents and published sources. The theoretical basis of the article is based on the ideas of Yelena Zubkova, Aleksandr Konovalov, Oleg Khlevniuk, Yoram Gorlizki. The framework of the source base of the study was formed by office documentation, business correspondence deposited in the fund of the State Archives of Ivanovo Region, materials of documentary publications and reference publications. The publication analyses specific proposals of Ivanovo Regional Committee and Regional Executive Committee to expand the powers of regional Party’s and Soviets’ authorities. It is noted that in the petition to Moscow, the regional Party leader Fyodor Titov and the chairman of the regional executive committee Fyodor Kaznov act as formally equal subjects of regional policy. The article concludes about the limited, centre-controlled process of expanding the independence of the regions during Khrushchevian Thaw. It is emphasised that for a short period of time in the 1950s, regional Party committees became significant subjects of regional policy. The significance of the internal political struggle for power in the USSR after the death of Joseph Stalin, which unfolded between Nikita Khrushchev and Georgy Malenkov, and its influence on Soviet regional policy are noted. The publication is a continuation of the study of the problem of interaction between the Upper Volga regions and the centre in the 1950s-1980s at various levels of power and governance – Communist Party’s, the Soviets’, economic ones.
- Keywords: USSR, Ivanovo Region, Upper Volga regions, Georgy Malenkov, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Fyodor Titov, Fyodor Kaznov, Communist Party regional committee, regional executive committee, regional power, Party nomenclature, regional policy, struggle for power, expansion of powers.
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