The leading role of the party is a constitutional principle of

communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

s. It holds that the

ruling party The ruling party or governing party in a democratic parliamentary or presidential system is the political party or coalition holding a majority of elected positions in a parliament, in the case of parliamentary systems, or holding the executive ...

leads the state by virtue of being the vanguard of the proletariat.

Origin and Soviet constitutional presence

The leading role of the party was first enshrined in Article 126 of the

1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union, also known as the Stalin Constitution, was the constitution of the Soviet Union adopted on 5 December 1936. The 1936 Constitution was the second constitution of the Soviet Union and replaced the 1924 C ...

, which described the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

(CPSU) as "the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system and is the leading core of all organizations of the working people, both public and state." Article 6 of the 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union reiterated the role of the CPSU as the "leading and guiding force of the Soviet society". The text of the article follows in English translation.

The leading and guiding force of the Soviet society and the nucleus of its political system, of all state organisations and public organisations, is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU exists for the people and serves the people. The Communist Party, armed with Marxism–Leninism, determines the general perspectives of the development of society and the course of the home and foreign policy of the USSR, directs the great constructive work of the Soviet people, and imparts a planned, systematic and theoretically substantiated character to their struggle for the victory of communism. All party organisations shall function within the framework of the Constitution of the USSR.

Other Communist states

Similar articles are or were in constitutions of many other countries. For example, the

constitution of the People's Republic of China The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the supreme law of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted the Common Progr ...

states that "The defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China", while the constitution of the Chinese Communist Party declares the party to be the "highest force for political leadership". In Communist states where other parties were nominally allowed to exist, such as in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, those parties were largely subservient to the Communists, and were required to accept the Communists' leading role as a condition of their continued existence.

1990 amendment under Gorbachev

On 15 March 1990 Article 6 was amended by the 3rd Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union, to read as follows:

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, other political parties as well as labor, youth and other public organisations and mass movements, through their representatives elected to the Councils of People's Deputies and in other forms participate in the policy-making of the Soviet state, in the management of state and public affairs.

This move was introduced by

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

in tandem with the creation of the office of the president of the USSR (which he viewed largely as an office for himself), and as a means to formalize the transition to a multi-party political system. After the amending of Article 6 of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

, the CPSU effectively lost its right to rule the Soviet Union's government apparatus; paving the way towards a multi-party democracy.

References

{{Marxism–Leninism Constitutions of the Soviet Union 1977 in law 1977 in the Soviet Union Communist parties Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party

Origin and Soviet constitutional presence

Other Communist states

1990 amendment under Gorbachev

See also

References