Governing the interior

Abstract

There has been a vogue over the last twenty years to study the Western peripheries of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. While these studies are valuable, the dynamics of political rule in the Western peripheries were often quite different from those of the Soviet heartland. This essay shifts the focus towards the activities of the regional party committees of the interior during the war. In the first part it looks at the relationship between these committees and the “extraordinary system of administration” that was introduced in the first months of the conflict. It suggests that, despite their powerful mandates, agents of the extraordinary system were often no match for regional first secretaries, who enjoyed strong local followings and extensive support systems. In the second part, the essay suggests that regional party committees were nonetheless often unable to fulfil the mandate placed on them by the 18th Party Conference of 1941 to direct the industrial economy. Lacking the expertise, skills or authority, to coordinate regional-level enterprises, the obkoms were often in effect “captured” by ministerial interests. It was in recognition of this that regional party committees were rechanneled towards “ideological” leadership as the war neared its end.