Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project
Leaflet: The CPSU: Stages of History December 1980 Part II
Published in late 1980 in the lead up to the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) this booklet provided an official overview of the party's history and of each of its congresses to that point.
It begins before the first congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898 -- the eventual Bolshevik wing of which evolved into the CPSU after the revolution -- with the formation of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in St. Petersburg, 1895.
Due to length we have divided this post into two parts.
You can read the first part here.
This second part starts at the 21st Congress held in early 1959 and continues until the lead up to the 26th that was held in 1981. It is then followed by an extensive, and very informative, set of indexes that look at the evolution of the party in both size and demographics over the course of its history. There are statistics for overall party membership levels, the national makeup of party members, breakdowns for education levels and employment, the numbers of women in the party and other charts.
The second part, as with the first, has numerous interesting facts, archival photos and illustrations, including of cosmonauts, housing projects, industrial enterprises, etc. There are photos that include historic figures such as Fidel Castro and Ho Chi Minh.
The booklet is told entirely from the line held by the CPSU as the 80s dawned and gives a look at how it saw its own story of revolution, the consolidation of power and, especially in this second part, the struggle to build a socialist society and to reinforce what had been the significant gains of the 1950s through the 70s.
(click on scans to enlarge)
