Communist Party of the Soviet Union (TheodoresTomfooleries)

Communist Party of the Soviet Union Коммунистическая партия Советского Союза
Abbreviation	CPSU КПСС
General Secretary	Sabrican Garayev
Founded	January 5, 1912 (1912-01-05)
Preceded by	Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP
Headquarters	4 Staraya Square, Moscow
Newspaper	Pravda
Youth wing	Little Octobrists (Ages 7-9) Young Pioneers (Ages 9-14) Komsomol (Ages 14 - 28)
Membership (2023)	37,192,980
Ideology	Communism Marxism-Leninism Socialist patriotism (Soviet)
Political position	Far-left
National affiliation	Bloc of Communists and Non-Partisans
International affiliation	IMCWP
Subnational affiliation	List Communist Party of Russia Communist Party of Byelorussia Communist Party of Ukraine Communist Party of Kazakhstan Communist Party of Kirghizia Communist Party of Uzbekistan Communist Party of Tajikistan Communist Party of Turkmenia Communist Party of Azerbaijan Communist Party of Armenia Communist Party of Kartvelia Communist Party of Moldavia Communist Party of Estonia Communist Party of Latvia Communist Party of Lithuania
Slogan	"Workers of the world, unite!"
Anthem	"The Internationale"
Supreme Soviet	1,749 / 2,000
Soviet of Nationalities	874 / 1,000
Soviet of the Union	875 / 1,000
Party flag
Website
en.kpss.su

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) is the founding and sole-legal party of the Soviet Union. The Soviet constitution gives the CPSU a monopoly on all political and state power. Soviet press often refer to the CPSU as simply "the Party" (партия). As of 2023, the CPSU has more than 37 million members, which makes it among the largest political parties by membership in the world.

The CPSU was founded as the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1903. Under the leadership of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Provisional Government in October 1917 and established the first communist state in history. It reorganized itself first as the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and then as the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) after the union of the soviet republics, becoming the sole ruling party in the Soviet Union.

The CPSU is a Marxist-Leninist communist party organised on the basis of democratic centralism. The highest institution of the CPSU is the Party Congress, which convenes every five years and elects the Central Committee. The Central Committee oversees party affairs between party congresses and elects the Politburo and Secretariat, and appoints the General Secretary, the highest party office. It considers itself the "party of the entire people", has disavowed class conflict, and emphasizes Soviet patriotism. The CPSU participates in the annual International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Party.

History

Names

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union originated as the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Following the Prague Conference, which the Bolsheviks claimed leadership of the RSDLP, the RSDLP titled itself the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) (Russian: Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия (большевиков), or RSDLP(b). This name continued until 8 March 1918, when the party renamed itself to the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (Russian: Российская коммунистическая партия (большевиков))). Shortly after the creation of the Soviet Union, the party renamed itself again on 31 December 1925 to the All-Union Communist Party (Russian: Всесоюзная коммунистическая партия (большевиков)). Shortly before Stalin's death, on 14 October 1952, the party was renamed finally to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.