Most Equal of the Equals

The political system that eventually will choose Leonid Brezhnev's successor as leader would appear to be a model democracy. It is headed by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., which is composed of 1,500 members and which elects a select body of 39 representatives known as the Presidium. In fact, political power rests with a gigantic, self-protecting and self-selecting bureaucracy that is effectively controlled by a small and cautious elite. The constitution adopted in 1977 --the fourth in the history of the U.S.S.R.--was the first to assert the primacy of the Communist Party in Soviet government and life. The country's only legal party is identified as the "nucleus" of the system and its sole authority on ideology. To maintain control, the party tightly restricts its membership: a candidate must have been a member of Komsomol, the Communist youth organization, be recommended by three people who have each been members for three years, and pass other screening procedures, including serving a year on probation. Of the 193 million citizens who were 18 and older in 1979, only 16 million, or 9%, were party members. (In Khrushchev's day the figure was 6%.) Except for a few scientific administrators, virtually every responsible official in the Soviet government is a party member. Although it is impossible to separate party from government, one point is clear: the party makes policy.

At the top of the party pyramid is the Central Committee, whose 287 members include the most powerful individuals in the nation. Fourteen of the most equal among the equals on the Central Committee constitute the policy-setting Politburo, which has been carefully controlled for most of the past 16 years by Brezhnev and his circle.

The Central Committee chooses the General Secretary of the Communist Party, the most powerful position in the nation. The authority of the office that Brezhnev now holds is not defined by the constitution, nor is its term. Stalin, who never held the presidency, was a dictator from 1929 until he died in 1953; Khrushchev was largely able to run things his way until he made a number of blunders (harming Soviet agriculture, widening the split with China) and the Central Committee threw him out. Brezhnev has relied on a coterie of allies and exercised his power much more discreetly.

Decisions of the Politburo are, in effect, adopted and carried out by an elaborate system of local, regional and national governments whose apex is the Supreme Soviet, an elected parliament. This body consists of the Soviet of the Union, composed of 750 members, each of whom represents a district of about 350,000; and the Soviet of the Nationalities, also composed of 750 members, including 32 from each of the 15 republics. The Supreme Soviet, which meets twice a year in the Kremlin, can raise and debate issues, and hence may affect the decisions of the Central Committee. Officials claim that the general attitudes of a newly elected Supreme Soviet sometimes influence the Politburo. But the legislators would never advocate a position known to be at variance with the views of the leadership. Indeed, members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet often also belong to the Central Committee.

The Soviet masses who are not party members can work through local organizations, such as trade "unions" and newspapers, to influence policy; but these too are controlled by the party. The Supreme Soviet is elected every five years; there is just one slate of candidates: the party's. In March 1979, when the Supreme Soviet was last chosen, 99.99% of the eligible voters were said to have cast their ballots. TASS, the Soviet news agency, declared: "By their unanimous voting for the candidates, the Soviet people expressed complete support for the domestic and foreign policies of the Communist Party and the Soviet state."

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