title: Joan Baez

text: Baez dated Apple Computer cofounder Steve Jobs during the early 1980s. A number of sources have stated that Jobs—then in his mid twenties—had considered asking Baez to marry him, except that her age at the time (early 40s) made the possibility of their having children unlikely. Baez mentioned Jobs in the acknowledgments in her 1987 memoir "And a Voice to Sing With" and performed at the memorial for him in 2011. After Jobs's death, Baez spoke fondly about him, stating that even after the relationship had ended, the two remained friends, with Jobs having visited Baez shortly before his death, and stating that "Steve had a very sweet side, even if he was as... erratic as he was famous for being. But he gets genius licence for that, because he was somebody who changed the world."


title: Bulldog

text: The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose. It is commonly kept as a companion dog; in 2013 it was in twelfth place on a list of the breeds most frequently registered worldwide.


title: Bulldog

text: The Bulldog has a longstanding association with British culture; the BBC wrote: "to many the Bulldog is a national icon, symbolising pluck and determination". During the Second World War, the Prime Minister Winston Churchill was likened to a Bulldog for his defiance of Nazi Germany. The Bulldog Club (In England) was formed in 1878, and the Bulldog Club of America was formed in 1890.


title: Bulldog

text: Bulldogs have characteristically wide heads and shoulders along with a pronounced mandibular prognathism. There are generally thick folds of skin on the brow; round, black, wide-set eyes; a short muzzle with characteristic folds called a rope or nose roll above the nose; hanging skin under the neck; drooping lips and pointed teeth, and an underbite with an upturned jaw. The coat is short, flat, and sleek with colours of red, fawn, white, brindle, and piebald.


title: Bulldog

text: In the United Kingdom, the breed standards are for a male and for a female. In the United States, a typical mature male weighs , while mature females weigh about . The Bulldog Club of America recommends the average weight of a bulldog to be .


title: Bulldog

text: Bulldogs are one of the few breeds whose tail is naturally short and either straight, screwed or thin and thus is not cut or docked as with some other breeds. A straight tail is a more desirable tail according to the breed standard set forth by the BCA if it is facing downward, not upward.


title: Bulldog

text: According to the American Kennel Club (AKC), a Bulldog's disposition should be "equable and kind, resolute, and courageous (not vicious or aggressive), and demeanor should be pacifist and dignified. These attributes should be countenanced by the expression and behavior".


title: Bulldog

text: The first reference to the word "Bulldog" is dated 1631 or 1632 in a letter by a man named Preswick Eaton where he writes: "procuer mee two good Bulldogs, and let them be sent by ye first shipp". In 1666, English scientist Christopher Merret applied: "Canis pugnax, "a Butchers Bull or Bear Dog"", as an entry in his "Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum".


title: Bulldog

text: The designation "bull" was applied because of the dog's use in the sport of bull-baiting. This entailed the setting of dogs (after placing wagers on each dog) onto a tethered bull. The dog that grabbed the bull by the nose and pinned it to the ground would be the victor. It was common for a bull to maim or kill several dogs at such an event, either by goring, tossing, or trampling over them. Over the centuries, dogs used for bull-baiting developed the stocky bodies and massive heads and jaws that typify the breed, as well as a ferocious and savage temperament. Bull-baiting was made illegal in England by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835. This amended the existing legislation to protect animals from mistreatment and included (as "cattle") snakes, dogs, owls, and donkeys, so that bull- and bear-baiting, as well as cockfighting, became prohibited. Therefore, the Old English Bulldog had outlived its usefulness in England as a sporting animal and its active or "working" days were numbered. However, emigrants did have a use for such dogs in the New World. In mid-17th century New York, Bulldogs were used as a part of a citywide roundup effort led by Governor Richard Nicolls. Because cornering and leading wild bulls were dangerous, Bulldogs were trained to seize a bull by its nose long enough for a rope to be secured around its neck. Bulldogs as pets were continually promoted by dog dealer Bill George.


title: Bulldog

text: Despite slow maturation so that growing up is rarely achieved by two and a half years, Bulldogs' lives are relatively short. At five to six years of age, they start to show signs of aging.


title: Bulldog

text: Though today Bulldogs look tough, they cannot perform the job they were originally created for, as they cannot withstand the rigors of running after and being thrown by a bull, and also cannot grip with such a short muzzle. Although not as physically capable as their ancestors, decreased levels of aggression associated with modern Bulldogs have resulted in a far calmer temperament.


title: Bulldog

text: In 1864, a group of bulldog breeders under R. S. Rockstro founded the first Bulldog Club. Three years after its opening the Club ceased to exist, not having organized a single show. The main achievement of the Rockstro Bulldog Club was a detailed description of the Bulldog, known as the Philo-Kuan Standard. Samuel Wickens, treasurer of the club, published this description in 1865 under the pseudonym Philo-Kuan.


title: Bulldog

text: On 4 April 1873, The Kennel Club was founded, the first in the world dog breeding club dealing with the registration of purebred dogs and dog breeds. Bulldogs were included in the first volume of the Kennel Club Stud Book, which was presented at the Birmingham Show on 1 December 1874. The first English Bulldog entered into the register was a male dog named Adam (Adamo), born in 1864.


title: Bulldog

text: In March 1875, the third Bulldog Club was founded, which still exists today. Members of this club met frequently at the Blue Post pub on Oxford Street in London. The founders of the club collected all available information about the breed and its best representatives and developed a new standard for the English Bulldog, which was published on 27 May 1875. Also, the club held its first show of the breed in 1875. Since 1878, exhibitions of the club were held annually, except during the Second World War. On 17 May 1894, the Bulldog Club was granted the status of a corporation and since then has carried the official name "The Bulldog Club, Inc.", being the oldest mono-breed dog kennel club in the world.


title: Bulldog

text: In 1894 the two top Bulldogs, King Orry and Dockleaf, competed in a contest to see which dog could walk . King Orry was reminiscent of the original Bulldogs, lighter boned and very athletic. Dockleaf was smaller and heavier set, more like modern Bulldogs. King Orry was declared the winner that year, finishing the walk while Dockleaf collapsed. The Bulldog was officially recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1886.


title: Bulldog

text: At the turn of the 20th century, Ch. Rodney Stone became the first Bulldog to command a price of $5,000 when he was bought by controversial Irish American political figure Richard Croker.


title: Bulldog

text: A 2004 UK survey of 180 Bulldog deaths puts the median age at death at 6 years 3 months. The leading cause of death of Bulldogs in the survey was cardiac related (20%), cancer (18%), and old age (9%). Those that died of old age had an average lifespan of 10 to 11 years. A 2013 UK vet clinic survey of 26 Bulldogs puts the median lifespan at 8.4 years with an interquartile range of 3.2–11.3 years. The UK Bulldog Breed Council website lists the average life span of the breed as 8–10 years.


title: Bulldog

text: Statistics from the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals indicate that of the 467 Bulldogs tested between 1979 and 2009 (30 years), 73.9% were affected by hip dysplasia, the highest amongst all breeds. Similarly, the breed has the worst score in the British Veterinary Association/Kennel Club Hip Dysplasia scoring scheme, although only 22 Bulldogs were tested in the scheme. Patellar luxation affects 6.2% of Bulldogs.


title: Bulldog

text: Some individuals of this breed are prone to interdigital cysts—cysts that form between the toes. These cause the dog some discomfort, but are treatable either by vet or an experienced owner. They may also suffer from respiratory problems. Other problems can include cherry eye, a protrusion of the inner eyelid (which can be corrected by a veterinarian), allergies, and hip issues in older Bulldogs.


title: Bulldog

text: Over 80% of Bulldog litters are delivered by Caesarean section because their characteristically large heads can become lodged in the mother's birth canal. The folds, or "rope", on a Bulldog's face should be cleaned daily to avoid infections caused by moisture accumulation. Some Bulldogs' naturally curling tails can be so tight to the body as to require regular cleaning and ointment. Due to the high volume of skin folds on the Bulldog's body, they have high prevalence of skin-fold dermatitis.


title: Bulldog

text: Like all dogs, Bulldogs require daily exercise. If not properly exercised it is possible for a Bulldog to become overweight, which could lead to heart and lung problems, as well as stress on the joints.


title: Bulldog

text: Like all brachycephalic dogs, bully breeds often suffer from brachycephalic airway obstructive syndrome. The condition manifests in a variety of ways, often in the form of intolerance to heat and physical exertion. The English bulldog is among the breeds that are most severely affected by brachycephalic airway obstructive syndrome. Bulldogs have very small nasal cavities and this makes them have great difficulty keeping their bodies cool. Bulldogs are very sensitive to heat. Extra caution should be practiced in warmer climates and during summer months. Bulldogs must be given plenty of shade and water, and must be kept out of standing heat. Air conditioning and good ventilation are required to keep them healthy and safe. Bulldogs actually do most of their sweating through the pads on their feet and accordingly enjoy cool floors. Like all brachycephalic, or "short faced", breeds, their inefficient and sometimes labored breathing can cause overheating. They can even die from hyperthermia. Bulldog owners can keep these issues under control by staying aware and protecting their Bulldog(s) from these unsafe conditions. They can be heavy breathers and tend to be loud snorers; another indicator of brachycephalic airway obstructive syndrome. In 2019 the Dutch Kennel Club implemented some breeding rules to improve the health of the Bulldog. Among these is a fitness test where the dog has to walk 1 km (0.62 miles) in 12 minutes. Its temperature and heart rate has to recover after 15 minutes.


title: Bulldog

text: In January 2009, after the BBC documentary "Pedigree Dogs Exposed", The Kennel Club introduced revised breed standards for the British Bulldog, along with 209 other breeds, to address health concerns. Opposed by the British Bulldog Breed Council, it was speculated by the press that the changes would lead to a smaller head, fewer skin folds, a longer muzzle, and a taller thinner posture, in order to combat problems with respiration and breeding due to head size and width of shoulders.


title: Bulldog

text: Based on a study done by Sari Helena Mölsä, Heli Katariina Hyytiäinen, Kaj Mikael Morelius, Maria Katariina Palmu, Tommi Sakari Pesonen, and Anu Katriina Lappalainen, they found that "The English bulldogs carried a mean of 67.3% and 62.1% of their body weight in front limbs while standing and trotting, respectively" They also found that, "Front and hind limb lameness was seen in 20.8% (5/24) and 12.5% (3/24) of dogs, respectively" English bulldogs show more weight distribution in the front limbs of their bodies. This study shows that English bulldogs are prone to having abnormalities with their radiographic findings and many orthopaedic diseases. These studies also found that there are many hip dysplasia being seen within a large number of the English bulldog breed. They also found that English bulldogs have low range of motion because of the way their musculoskeletal function is.


title: Bulldog

text: In 2019, the Dutch government forbade breeding of Bulldogs. In 2022, the Oslo District Court made a ruling that banned the breeding of Bulldogs in Norway due to their propensity for developing health problems. In its verdict the court judged that no dog of this breed could be considered healthy, therefore using them for breeding would be a violation of Norway’s Animal Welfare Act.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Shannon Sharpe (born June 26, 1968) is an American former football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Denver Broncos. Regarded as one of the greatest tight ends of all time, he ranks third in tight end receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. He was also the first NFL tight end to amass over 10,000 receiving yards.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Sharpe played college football at Savannah State and was selected by the Broncos in the seventh round of the 1990 NFL Draft. During his 12 non-consecutive seasons with Denver, he was selected to seven consecutive Pro Bowls and four first-team All-Pros, and won two consecutive Super Bowl titles. In between his Broncos tenure, Sharpe was a member of Baltimore Ravens for two seasons, with whom he received an eighth Pro Bowl selection and won a third Super Bowl title. Sharpe retired as the NFL leader in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns by a tight end. Following his retirement, Sharpe appeared as an analyst for "The NFL Today" on CBS Sports and has co-hosted "" on Fox Sports 1 with Skip Bayless since 2016. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Sharpe, the younger brother of former NFL star wide receiver Sterling Sharpe, grew up in Glennville, Georgia, where he was an all-state player in three sports at Glennville High School. He once joked, "We were so poor, a robber once broke into our house and we ended up robbing the robber." He commented, "I was a terrible student. I didn't graduate magna cum laude, I graduated 'Thank you, Lawdy!'" At Savannah State, he played football and basketball, and also competed in track and field. In track, he competed in jumping and throwing events.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Sharpe was a three-time All-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference selection from 1987 to 1989 and the SIAC Player of the Year in 1987. He was also selected as a Kodak Division II All-American in 1989. He led the Tigers' football team to their best records in the program's history: 7–3 in 1988 and 8–1 in 1989. As a senior, Sharpe caught 61 passes for 1,312 yards and 18 touchdowns, including three games with more than 200 yards. Sharpe finished his college career with 192 receptions for 3,744 yards and 40 touchdowns. He was inducted into the Division II Football Hall of Fame in 2009, Savannah State's athletic Hall of Fame in 2010, and the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Despite his stellar college career, Sharpe was not considered a highly rated prospect in the 1990 NFL Draft. In addition to playing Division II college football, Sharpe's size (6'2", 230 pounds) was considered too large for a receiver and too small for a tight end. He was eventually selected in the seventh round with the 192nd pick by the Denver Broncos. After two mediocre seasons as a receiver in which he caught just 29 passes, Denver converted him to a tight end. This quickly paid off, as Sharpe caught 53 passes in his third season. He remained with Denver until 1999, winning two championship rings at Super Bowl XXXII and Super Bowl XXXIII in the process. After the 1997 season championship – his first – he appeared on General Mills' Wheaties boxes with four other Broncos. After a two-year stint with the Baltimore Ravens, where he won another championship ring at Super Bowl XXXV, he returned to the Broncos. He played there until 2003. From there, he retired to become an NFL analyst for CBS.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens' general manager, said of Sharpe during his career: "I think he's a threat when he's on the field. He has to be double-teamed. He's a great route-runner. He's proven that he can make the big plays. That's what separates him. He's a threat." Sharpe was selected to the All-Pro Team four times, played in eight Pro Bowls (1992–1998, 2001) and amassed over 1,000 receiving yards in three different seasons. In a 1993 playoff game against the Los Angeles Raiders, Sharpe tied a postseason record with 13 receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown. In the Ravens' against the Oakland Raiders, he caught a short pass on third down and 18 from his own four-yard line and took it 96 yards for a touchdown, the only touchdown the Ravens scored, en route to a 16–3 Ravens' win. As of , this remains the Ravens' longest offensive play in team history. Sharpe also caught a 50+ yard pass in each of their other two playoff games. He finished his 14-year career with 815 receptions for 10,060 yards and 62 touchdowns in 203 games.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Sharpe was a commentator for the CBS Sports pregame show "The NFL Today", including the "Sprint Halftime Report" and the "Subway Postgame Show", replacing Deion Sanders and co-hosting with James Brown (formerly with "Fox NFL Sunday"), former NFL quarterbacks Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason, as well as former coach Bill Cowher. In the 2004 NFL regular season, Sharpe defeated Marino and Esiason in the pick 'em game of "The NFL Today" with a 53–21 record. His critics say that his broadcasting skills are hurt by his poor grammar and enunciation of words (Sharpe has a very noticeable lisp and drawl). A satirical article on "The Onion" joked "CBS Producers Ask Shannon Sharpe To Use at Least 3 Real Words Per Sentence." On February 18, 2014, it was announced that Sharpe, along with Dan Marino, were being relieved of their duties as on-air commentators on "The NFL Today" and were being replaced by Tony Gonzalez and Bart Scott.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: In 2013, Sharpe became a columnist and spokesperson for FitnessRX For "Men" magazine and appeared on their September 2013 cover.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Sharpe was among the 17 finalists being considered for enshrinement at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009. However, he was passed over in his first year in a class that included Bruce Smith, Ralph Wilson, Derrick Thomas and Rod Woodson. On October 23, 2009, the NCAA Division II Football Hall of Fame announced that Sharpe would be inducted in December of that year. In addition, Savannah State University also retired Sharpe's No. 2 jersey.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: On November 28, 2010, Sharpe was nominated as a semi-finalist for induction into the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame, along with Art Modell and 24 others, among them Jerome Bettis, Roger Craig, Marshall Faulk, and Deion Sanders. Subsequently, on February 6, 2011, Shannon Sharpe was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Sharpe was escorted to the Hall of Fame ceremony by Canton native Haley Smith, continuing the tradition of pageant winners escorting the inductees.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: After his retirement, Sharpe has been a social media staple, going viral for his antics and sports commentary. He is also notably a huge supporter of NBA player LeBron James, referring to him as the greatest basketball player in NBA history. He also appeared on the "American Dad!" episode "The Scarlett Getter", portraying himself.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Sharpe joined Skip Bayless in FS1's sports debate show "" which premiered on September 6, 2016. In addition to his defense of LeBron James, Sharpe is also known for his criticism of Tom Brady and the Dallas Cowboys on the show.


title: Shannon Sharpe

text: Sharpe also has a podcast called "Club Shay Shay". The episode of "Club Shay Shay" featuring Bubba Wallace was selected by the Apple Podcasts editorial team on their "Apple Podcasts Best of 2021" list.


title: All Creatures Great and Small (2020 TV series)

text: All Creatures Great and Small is a television series, set in 1937, based upon a series of books about a Yorkshire veterinarian written by Alf Wight under the pen name of James Herriot. The series was produced by Playground Entertainment for Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and PBS in the United States.


text: The series is a new adaptation of Wight's books, following the previous BBC series of 90 episodes that ran from 1978 to 1990 and a number of other films and television series based on Herriot's novels. It is filmed in the Yorkshire Dales, and received some funding from Screen Yorkshire.


text: The first series, which consists of six episodes and a special Christmas episode, was filmed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first book in the James Herriot series. The series premiered in the UK on Channel 5 on 1 September 2020 and in the US on PBS as part of "Masterpiece" on 10 January 2021.


text: Following a second series in late 2021, the show was renewed for two further series, each composed of six episodes and a Christmas special, in January 2022. Filming on the third series began in March 2022. The first episode aired in the UK on 15 September 2022 and was scheduled to air in the US on 8 January 2023.


text: The show revolves around a trio of veterinary surgeons working in the Yorkshire Dales beginning in 1937. Siegfried Farnon (described as an "eccentric") hires James Herriot into his veterinary practice at Skeldale House. Besides Siegfried and James, there is Siegfried's younger brother, Tristan, and Mrs Hall, their housekeeper.


text: Actor Nicholas Ralph did a great deal of research on James Herriot ("Alf" Wight) who died in 1995. He also met the vet's son and daughter, Jim and Rosie. "They spoke a lot about Donald and Brian, the real Siegfried and Tristan. They said to me that I had the hardest job because Alf is a kind of observer to these bigger, larger-than-life personalities", he recalled. Naturally, the actor required training in veterinary procedures for authenticity in the show. "Straight off the bat with our on-set vet adviser Andy Barrett, we were up close and personal with horses, sheep, kind of going through the procedures and things that we would be doing. Learning how to approach the animal and everything like that. Using the stethoscope on the cow's heart, then lungs, then stomach" the actor recalled.


text: Although James Herriot/Alf Wight had a "soft, lilting Scottish accent" according to Christopher Timothy who played Herriot in the original TV adaptation, the actor was instructed to keep his speech neutral for universality when the BBC series was being filmed. That did not apply to Nicholas Ralph when filming this adaptation; the actor used his genuine Scottish accent.


text: "The New York Times" indicated that Donald Sinclair actually had more rough edges than the Siegfried character in the books (and in the TV productions). "Sinclair's real-life behaviour was much more eccentric (he once discharged a shotgun during a dinner party to let his guests know it was time to leave)".


text: Significant changes were made from the source material (both the previous television series and the memoir), such as Siegfried Farnon being a heartbroken widower and a dramatically increased role for Mrs Hall, who has been reimagined as a young, live-in housekeeper and a "slightly warmer figure" than in the novels. The role of Helen was also greatly expanded.


text: For his role as a veterinary surgeon, Ralph required training in veterinary procedures. For some scenes, however, the production used animal prosthetics: "the back end of the cow, fully functional and everything". One episode portrayed the birth of a calf; that was filmed separately and "was then spliced in seamlessly with footage of the main actors". Ralph admits that "for 90 percent of those scenes with the animals, the animals actually weren't there. It was just cleverly chosen and prosthetics and extremely well-trained, happy animals when we did see them".


text: Some of Ralph's work involved interaction with live animals, such as a bull in one episode and a horse rearing and kicking in another. "Straight off the bat with our on-set vet adviser Andy Barrett, we were up close and personal with horses, sheep, kind of going through the procedures and things that we would be doing", Ralph said. "Learning how to approach the animal and everything like that. Using the stethoscope on the cow's heart, then lungs, then stomach..." "I have huge respect for... Andy Barrett and the animal handlers who worked on the show", Ralph told an interviewer.


text: In interviews after the filming of series three, Ralph said that the crew had experienced problems with getting cooperation from cats: one bolted off the set while he was trying to examine it. "They are impossible to train!", according to the actor. He was already confident and comfortable working with large animals but spoke of an incident when a cow went out of control after a scene was filmed. "The handlers were holding on to it and had to like roll out of the way as the cow basically galloped, so he had to hit the deck and rolled very professionally out of the way." Ralph was relieved not to have been near the animal when that occurred.


text: The first series was filmed largely in the Yorkshire Dales (often around Nidderdale); the village of Grassington in Upper Wharfedale was used for the fictional village of Darrowby. The BBC series, which was broadcast between 1978 and 1990, had been filmed in the northern part of the Dales, (Wensleydale and Swaledale), with the village Askrigg used for the fictional Darrowby.


text: When discussing the new series, actor Rachel Shenton was enthusiastic about the locations. "We... shot in and around the Dales", she said. "The Dales are miles and miles of beautiful, undulating countryside and it really is breathtaking." Neither the BBC series or the new series was filmed in Thirsk (where the actual vet, Alf Wight, practised) since it had become too large for the small-town feel that the producers wanted. "The nice thing was that there weren't any modern houses in the town centre... so we didn't have to change anything completely. What we did change were all the shop signs and the usual things like aerials, satellite dishes, alarm boxes and all of those things."


text: In Grassington, the Devonshire Inn was rebranded as the Drovers Arms, while the pub interiors were shot at The Green Dragon Inn at Hardraw. The village bakery, Walker's, was used for the Darrowby Cycles property; a private residence was used for the exterior of Skeldale House. The Stripey Badger book store became the greengrocers G F Endleby, the shoe store Helen Midgley was used for Handleys Booksellers and the Rustic Rabbit gift store became Higgins Bakers.


text: The home of Mrs Pumphrey, the owner of Tricki-Woo, was filmed at Broughton Hall in Broughton, Craven; the character was based on Marjorie Warner, a client of Alf Wight,


text: Many of the scenes for the series were filmed in a studio. Parts of the first episode (with the waterfall and pool) were filmed at Janet's Foss near Malham. Other locations included the Barden Bridge at the Bolton Abbey Estate and the Ripon Racecourse. The church featured in the Christmas special is St Wilfrid's at Burnsall, near Grassington, the crossroads are "on the roads above Pateley Bridge" in Nidderdale and the farm is in Airton.


text: The steam train in the first series was filmed on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway line; Keighley Station stands in for a Glasgow station in the first episode, and Oakworth railway station appears in both the first and second episodes.


text: The six episodes and the Christmas special were filmed from 2019 into early 2020. Much of the outdoor work was completed "during winter and autumn, and it was freezing, with long, cold, dark days and rainy days", according to Ralph.


text: Pre-production work had begun on the second set of episodes by early 2021. The production company made appeals for historic artefacts and props, as they prepared to film the next chapters of James Herriot's life. Due to lockdown restrictions, they were struggling to find everything from homeware to farming implements made before 1938. They plan to buy as many artefacts and props as they can because they expect to film multiple series of "All Creatures Great and Small".


text: Executive producer Colin Callender said in early 2021 that filming had been postponed due to restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are using this time to commission Ben Vanstone [the writer] and the writing team to work on season two... we're able to use this lockdown period to work on the development and script development". In February 2021, Vanstone said that most scripts had been written; he expected filming to start in late March (if the restrictions allowed). The writer hinted that the relationship between James and Helen would be developed; "we want to explore why they're together and why they work with one another". In the relationship between Tristan and Siegfried, the latter will be "desperate to move forward in his relationship with his brother". Siegfried's relationship with Dorothy would continue, but "there are still plenty of opportunities for him to mess things up", Vanstone commented.


text: In early 2021, Ralph told PBS that he expected to see all of the principal actors when filming started, saying "The cast will be back of course... and I've heard a lot of the crew are coming back as well". West added that director Brian Percival would also be returning.


text: Actor Diana Rigg died after the first series had been completed. Callender said that the producers were uncertain as to "what we will do with the character of Mrs Pumphrey" (The Mrs Pumphrey character was based on a client of Wight's, Marjorie Warner, who owned a Pekingese named Bambi). In April 2021, an announcement stated that Patricia Hodge had been cast in the role. Other new cast members include Dorothy Atkinson as Diana Brompton, a possible love interest for Siegfried, and James Fleet as Colonel Hubert Merrick, a farmer who appeared in the Herriot book.


text: Filming was underway by March 2021 for the second series of six episodes and a Christmas special. Scheduled locations included the Bradford area (initially in Little Germany, Bradford, standing in for Glasgow), Kettlewell and Grassington (for the fictional village of Darrowby) as well as the Yorkshire Dales.


text: In January 2022, the show was renewed for a further two series. Filming on Series Three took place in locations including Arncliffe, North Yorkshire, Grassington, Harrogate, Summerbridge, North Yorkshire and Pateley Bridge.


text: This series is set in spring 1939 and includes some changes including the following. Tristan is finally fully qualified, James starts a new phase of life after marrying Helen and becomes a partner in the business; the practice gets involved in the new bovine tuberculosis testing programme. By then, World War II is on the horizon and people are being encouraged to enlist. Veterinarians work in a "protected profession" because of the importance of their roles, so are not required to serve but, in the final episode, James decides to enlist.


text: The first episode was watched by 3.3 million viewers overnight and earned an audience share of 20.4%, making "All Creatures Great and Small" Channel 5's highest rated show since February 2016. By using BARB's consolidated ratings for programmes watched live and on catch-up services (within 28 days), "All Creatures Great and Small" became their most popular show ever (until 2021) with the premiere episode having grown to 5.4 million viewers (up from 5.01m over a seven-day period) with a further 1.2 million watching the repeat on the Sunday night. In the United States - where the show is broadcast on PBS - the first series averaged more than 10 million viewers over the course of its run.


text: Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the show a score of 83 out of 100 based on six critics, indicating "universal acclaim". "The Daily Telegraph"'s Michael Hogan gave the show four out of five, and commented "Revisiting the world of "All Creatures Great and Small" felt like meeting old friends. Any viewers missing the classic triumvirate of Robert Hardy, Christopher Timothy and Peter Davison were surely converted by this well-crafted opener, confidently directed by "Downton Abbey" alumnus Brian Percival". Hogan went on to call the show "family-friendly comfort-viewing. A soothing balm in febrile times".


text: As of March 2021, aggregator Rotten Tomatoes indicated that 96% of reviews had been positive. "Variety" was one of the publications that praised the first series. Its chief TV critic Caroline Framke wrote that "All Creatures Great and Small" "finds key ways to distinguish itself from depictions past, especially as it makes the most of a handsome budget and embraces a welcome, earnest warmth in its storytelling" and added that the update made "a beloved property worthwhile".


text: The "Los Angeles Times"'s Mary McNamara was not quite as enthusiastic, disputing the apparent consensus of the show as being a necessary sanctuary in the pandemic zeitgeist, and calling the show "a disappointment" because it deviated too much, and jarringly so, from the source material. Nonetheless, the critic concluded "I was clearly happier with what I considered a very flawed adaptation of "All Creatures Great and Small" than many other television shows of my acquaintance... I found all the joy, solace and gentle but effective drama that had been previously promised".


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), also known by various other names during its history, was the founding and ruling party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU was the sole governing party of the Soviet Union until 1990 when the Congress of People's Deputies modified Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, which had previously granted the CPSU a monopoly over the political system. The party has its roots in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). The RSDLP was founded in 1898, when Russia was ruled by an absolute monarchy. The broad anti-Tsarist ideology was the driving factor in its initial growth. Russians across the political spectrum flocked to the party, as Marxists, socialists, and centrists made up its ranks. Despite the Tsar's harsh oppression including imprisoning and even executing party members, the RSDLP continued to grow, albeit underground. Initially the party operated in a unified and cohesive manner, but by 1900 cracks within party unity began to show.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Vladimir Lenin, one of the leading Marxists, engaged in fierce debates with others over revolutionary tactic and theory. Lenin believed that the party, led by a small committee, should be the vehicle that mobilizes the working class to carry out a socialist revolution and oust the Tsar. These radical views were initially unpopular and further ostracized him in the RSDLP.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The CPSU was a communist party based on democratic centralism. This principle, conceived by Lenin, entails democratic and open discussion of policy issues within the party, followed by the requirement of total unity in upholding the agreed policies. The highest body within the CPSU was the Party Congress, which convened every five years. When the Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body. Because the Central Committee met twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo, (previously the Presidium), the Secretariat and the Orgburo (until 1952). The party leader was the head of government and held the office of either General Secretary, Premier or head of state, or two of the three offices concurrently, but never all three at the same time. The party leader was the "de facto" chairman of the CPSU Politburo and chief executive of the Soviet Union. The tension between the party and the state (Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union) for the shifting focus of power was never formally resolved.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: A number of causes contributed to CPSU's loss of control and the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the early 1990s. Some historians have written that Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost" (political openness) was the root cause, noting that it weakened the party's control over society. Gorbachev maintained that perestroika without glasnost was doomed to failure anyway. Others have blamed the economic stagnation and subsequent loss of faith by the general populace in communist ideology. In the final years of the CPSU's existence, the Communist Parties of the federal subjects of Russia were united into the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. After the CPSU's demise, the Communist Parties of the Union Republics became independent and underwent various separate paths of reform. In Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation emerged and has been regarded as the inheritor of the CPSU's old Bolshevik legacy into the present day.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The origin of the CPSU was in the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). This faction arose out of the split between followers of Julius Martov and Vladimir Lenin in August 1903 at the Party's second conference. Martov's followers were called the Mensheviks (which means minority in Russian); and Lenin's, the Bolsheviks (majority). (The two factions were in fact of fairly equal numerical size.) The split became more formalized in 1914, when the factions became named the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), and Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks). Prior to the February Revolution, the first phase of the Russian Revolutions of 1917, the party worked underground as organized anti-Tsarist groups. By the time of the revolution, many of the party's central leaders, including Lenin, were in exile.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: With Emperor Nicholas II (1868–1918, reigned 1894–1917), deposed in February 1917, a republic was established and administered by a provisional government, which was largely dominated by the interests of the military, former nobility, major capitalists business owners and democratic socialists. Alongside it, grassroots general assemblies spontaneously formed, called soviets, and a dual-power structure between the soviets and the provisional government was in place until such a time that their differences would be reconciled in a post-provisional government. Lenin was at this time in exile in Switzerland where he, with other dissidents in exile, managed to arrange with the Imperial German government safe passage through Germany in a sealed train back to Russia through the continent amidst the ongoing World War. In April, Lenin arrived in Petrograd (renamed former St. Petersburg) and condemned the provisional government, calling for the advancement of the revolution towards the transformation of the ongoing war into a war of the working class against capitalism. The rebellion proved not yet to be over, as tensions between the social forces aligned with the soviets (councils) and those with the provisional government now led by Alexander Kerensky (1881–1970, in power 1917), came into explosive tensions during that summer.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Bolsheviks had rapidly increased their political presence from May onward through the popularity of their program, notably calling for an immediate end to the war, land reform for the peasants, and restoring food allocation to the urban population. This program was translated to the masses through simple slogans that patiently explained their solution to each crisis the revolution created. Up to July, these policies were disseminated through 41 publications, "Pravda" being the main paper, with a readership of 320,000. This was roughly halved after the repression of the Bolsheviks following the July Days demonstrations so that even by the end of August, the principal paper of the Bolsheviks had a print run of only 50,000 copies. Despite this, their ideas gained them increasing popularity in elections to the soviets.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The factions within the soviets became increasingly polarized in the later summer after armed demonstrations by soldiers at the call of the Bolsheviks and an attempted military coup by commanding Gen. Lavr Kornilov to eliminate the socialists from the provisional government. As the general consensus within the soviets moved leftward, less militant forces began to abandon them, leaving the Bolsheviks in a stronger position. By October, the Bolsheviks were demanding the full transfer of power to the soviets and for total rejection of the Kerensky led provisional government's legitimacy. The provisional government, insistent on maintaining the universally despised war effort on the Eastern Front because of treaty ties with its Allies and fears of Imperial German victory, had become socially isolated and had no enthusiastic support on the streets. On 7 November (25 October, old style), the Bolsheviks led an armed insurrection, which overthrew the Kerensky provisional government and left the soviets as the sole governing force in Russia.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: In the aftermath of the October Revolution, the soviets united federally and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the world's first constitutionally socialist state, was established. The Bolsheviks were the majority within the soviets and began to fulfill their campaign promises by signing a damaging peace to end the war with the Germans in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and transferring estates and imperial lands to workers' and peasants' soviets. In this context, in 1918, RSDLP(b) became All-Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks). Outside of Russia, social-democrats who supported the Soviet government began to identify as communists, while those who opposed it retained the social-democratic label.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: In 1921, as the Civil War was drawing to a close, Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy (NEP), a system of state capitalism that started the process of industrialization and post-war recovery. The NEP ended a brief period of intense rationing called "war communism" and began a period of a market economy under Communist dictation. The Bolsheviks believed at this time that Russia, being among the most economically undeveloped and socially backward countries in Europe, had not yet reached the necessary conditions of development for socialism to become a practical pursuit and that this would have to wait for such conditions to arrive under capitalist development as had been achieved in more advanced countries such as England and Germany. On 30 December 1922, the Russian SFSR joined former territories of the Russian Empire to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), of which Lenin was elected leader. On 9 March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him and effectively ended his role in government. He died on 21 January 1924, only thirteen months after the founding of the Soviet Union, of which he would become regarded as the founding father.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: After Lenin's death, a power struggle ensued between Joseph Stalin, the party's General Secretary, and Leon Trotsky, the Minister of Defence, each with highly contrasting visions for the future direction of the country. Trotsky sought to implement a policy of permanent revolution, which was predicated on the notion that the Soviet Union would not be able to survive in a socialist character when surrounded by hostile governments and therefore concluded that it was necessary to actively support similar revolutions in the more advanced capitalist countries. Stalin, however, argued that such a foreign policy would not be feasible with the capabilities then possessed by the Soviet Union and that it would invite the country's destruction by engaging in armed conflict. Rather, Stalin argued that the Soviet Union should, in the meantime, pursue peaceful coexistence and invite foreign investment in order to develop the country's economy and build socialism in one country.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Ultimately, Stalin gained the greatest support within the party, and Trotsky, who was increasingly viewed as a collaborator with outside forces in an effort to depose Stalin, was isolated and subsequently expelled from the party and exiled from the country in 1928. Stalin's policies henceforth would later become collectively known as Stalinism. In 1925, the name of the party was changed to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), reflecting that the republics outside of Russia proper were no longer part of an all-encompassing Russian state. The acronym was usually transliterated as VKP(b), or sometimes VCP(b). Stalin sought to formalize the party's ideological outlook into a philosophical hybrid of the original ideas of Lenin with orthodox Marxism into what would be called Marxism–Leninism. Stalin's position as General Secretary became the top executive position within the party, giving Stalin significant authority over party and state policy.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: By the end of the 1920s, diplomatic relations with Western countries were deteriorating to the point that there was a growing fear of another allied attack on the Soviet Union. Within the country, the conditions of the NEP had enabled growing inequalities between increasingly wealthy strata and the remaining poor. The combination of these tensions led the party leadership to conclude that it was necessary for the government's survival to pursue a new policy that would centralize economic activity and accelerate industrialization. To do this, the first five-year plan was implemented in 1928. The plan doubled the industrial workforce, proletarianizing many of the peasants by removing them from their land and assembling them into urban centers. Peasants who remained in agricultural work were also made to have a similarly proletarian relationship to their labor through the policies of collectivization, which turned feudal-style farms into collective farms which would be in a cooperative nature under the direction of the state. These two shifts changed the base of Soviet society towards a more working-class alignment. The plan was fulfilled ahead of schedule in 1932.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The success of industrialization in the Soviet Union led Western countries, such as the United States, to open diplomatic relations with the Soviet government. In 1933, after years of unsuccessful workers' revolutions (including a short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic) and spiraling economic calamity, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, violently suppressing the revolutionary organizers and posing a direct threat to the Soviet Union that ideologically supported them. The threat of fascist sabotage and imminent attack greatly exacerbated the already existing tensions within the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. A wave of paranoia overtook Stalin and the party leadership and spread through Soviet society. Seeing potential enemies everywhere, leaders of the government security apparatuses began severe crackdowns known as the Great Purge. In total, hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom were posthumously recognized as innocent, were arrested and either sent to prison camps or executed. Also during this time, a campaign against religion was waged in which the Russian Orthodox Church, which had long been a political arm of Tsarism before the revolution, was targeted for repression and organized religion was generally removed from public life and made into a completely private matter, with many churches, mosques and other shrines being repurposed or demolished.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Soviet Union was the first to warn of the impending danger of invasion from Nazi Germany to the international community. The Western powers, however, remained committed to maintaining peace and avoiding another war breaking out, many considering the Soviet Union's warnings to be an unwanted provocation. After many unsuccessful attempts to create an anti-fascist alliance among the Western countries, including trying to rally international support for the Spanish Republic in its struggle against a fascist military coup supported by Germany and Italy, in 1939 the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany which would be broken in June 1941 when the German military invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, beginning the Great Patriotic War.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Communist International was dissolved in 1943 after it was concluded that such an organization had failed to prevent the rise of fascism and the global war necessary to defeat it. After the 1945 Allied victory of World War II, the Party held to a doctrine of establishing socialist governments in the post-war occupied territories that would be administered by Communists loyal to Stalin's administration. The party also sought to expand its sphere of influence beyond the occupied territories, using proxy wars and espionage and providing training and funding to promote Communist elements abroad, leading to the establishment of the Cominform in 1947.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: In 1949, the Communists emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War, causing an extreme shift in the global balance of forces and greatly escalating tensions between the Communists and the Western powers, fueling the Cold War. In Europe, Yugoslavia, under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, acquired the territory of Trieste, causing conflict both with the Western powers and with the Stalin administration who opposed such a provocative move. Furthermore, the Yugoslav Communists actively supported the Greek Communists during their civil war, further frustrating the Soviet government. These tensions led to a Tito–Stalin split, which marked the beginning of international sectarian division within the world communist movement.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: After Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev rose to the top post by overcoming political adversaries, including Lavrentiy Beria and Georgy Malenkov, in a power struggle. In 1955, Khrushchev achieved the demotion of Malenkov and secured his own position as Soviet leader. Early in his rule and with the support of several members of the Presidium, Khrushchev initiated the Thaw, which effectively ended the Stalinist mass terror of the prior decades and reduced socio-economic oppression considerably. At the 20th Congress held in 1956, Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes, being careful to omit any reference to complicity by any sitting Presidium members. His economic policies, while bringing about improvements, were not enough to fix the fundamental problems of the Soviet economy. The standard of living for ordinary citizens did increase; 108 million people moved into new housing between 1956 and 1965.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Khrushchev's foreign policies led to the Sino-Soviet split, in part a consequence of his public denunciation of Stalin. Khrushchev improved relations with Josip Broz Tito's League of Communists of Yugoslavia but failed to establish the close, party-to-party relations that he wanted. While the Thaw reduced political oppression at home, it led to unintended consequences abroad, such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and unrest in Poland, where the local citizenry now felt confident enough to rebel against Soviet control. Khrushchev also failed to improve Soviet relations with the West, partially because of a hawkish military stance. In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev's position within the party was substantially weakened. Shortly before his eventual ousting, he tried to introduce economic reforms championed by Evsei Liberman, a Soviet economist, which tried to implement market mechanisms into the planned economy.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Khrushchev was ousted on 14 October 1964 in a Central Committee plenum that officially cited his inability to listen to others, his failure in consulting with the members of the Presidium, his establishment of a cult of personality, his economic mismanagement, and his anti-party reforms as the reasons he was no longer fit to remain as head of the party. He was succeeded in office by Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Brezhnev era began with a rejection of Khrushchevism in virtually every arena except one: continued opposition to Stalinist methods of terror and political violence. Khrushchev's policies were criticized as voluntarism, and the Brezhnev period saw the rise of neo-Stalinism. While Stalin was never rehabilitated during this period, the most conservative journals in the country were allowed to highlight positive features of his rule.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: At the 23rd Congress held in 1966, the names of the office of First Secretary and the body of the Presidium reverted to their original names: General Secretary and Politburo, respectively. At the start of his premiership, Kosygin experimented with economic reforms similar to those championed by Malenkov, including prioritizing light industry over heavy industry to increase the production of consumer goods. Similar reforms were introduced in Hungary under the name New Economic Mechanism; however, with the rise to power of Alexander Dubček in Czechoslovakia, who called for the establishment of "socialism with a human face", all non-conformist reform attempts in the Soviet Union were stopped.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: During his rule, Brezhnev supported "détente", a passive weakening of animosity with the West with the goal of improving political and economic relations. However, by the 25th Congress held in 1976, political, economic and social problems within the Soviet Union began to mount, and the Brezhnev administration found itself in an increasingly difficult position. The previous year, Brezhnev's health began to deteriorate. He became addicted to painkillers and needed to take increasingly more potent medications to attend official meetings. Because of the "trust in cadres" policy implemented by his administration, the CPSU leadership evolved into a gerontocracy. At the end of Brezhnev's rule, problems continued to amount; in 1979 he consented to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan to save the embattled communist regime there and supported the oppression of the Solidarity movement in Poland. As problems grew at home and abroad, Brezhnev was increasingly ineffective in responding to the growing criticism of the Soviet Union by Western leaders, most prominently by US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The CPSU, which had wishfully interpreted the financial crisis of the 1970s as the beginning of the end of capitalism, found its country falling far behind the West in its economic development. Brezhnev died on 10 November 1982, and was succeeded by Yuri Andropov on 12 November.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Andropov, a staunch anti-Stalinist, chaired the KGB during most of Brezhnev's reign. He had appointed several reformers to leadership positions in the KGB, many of whom later became leading officials under Gorbachev. Andropov supported increased openness in the press, particularly regarding the challenges facing the Soviet Union. Andropov was in office briefly, but he appointed a number of reformers, including Yegor Ligachev, Nikolay Ryzhkov and Mikhail Gorbachev, to important positions. He also supported a crackdown on absenteeism and corruption. Andropov had intended to let Gorbachev succeed him in office, but Konstantin Chernenko and his supporters suppressed the paragraph in the letter which called for Gorbachev's elevation. Andropov died on 9 February 1984 and was succeeded by Chernenko. Throughout his short leadership, Chernenko was unable to consolidate power, and effective control of the party organization remained in Gorbachev's control. Chernenko died on 10 March 1985 and was succeeded in. office by Gorbachev on 11 March 1985.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Politburo elected Gorbachev as CPSU General Secretary on 11 March 1985, one day after Chernenko's death. When Gorbachev acceded to power, the Soviet Union was stagnating but was stable and might have continued largely unchanged into the 21st century if not for Gorbachev's reforms.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Gorbachev conducted a significant personnel reshuffling of the CPSU leadership, forcing old party conservatives out of office. In 1985 and early 1986 the new leadership of the party called for "uskoreniye" (). Gorbachev reinvigorated the party ideology, adding new concepts and updating older ones. Positive consequences of this included the allowance of "pluralism of thought" and a call for the establishment of "socialist pluralism" (literally, socialist democracy). Gorbachev introduced a policy of glasnost (, meaning "openness" or "transparency") in 1986, which led to a wave of unintended democratization. According to the British researcher of Russian affairs, Archie Brown, the democratization of the Soviet Union brought mixed blessings to Gorbachev; it helped him to weaken his conservative opponents within the party but brought out accumulated grievances which had been suppressed during the previous decades.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: In reaction to these changes, a conservative movement gained momentum in 1987 in response to Boris Yeltsin's dismissal as First Secretary of the CPSU Moscow City Committee. On 13 March 1988, Nina Andreyeva, a university lecturer, wrote an article titled "I Cannot Forsake My Principles". The publication was planned to occur when both Gorbachev and his protege Alexander Yakovlev were visiting foreign countries. In their place, Yegor Ligachev led the party organization and told journalists that the article was "a benchmark for what we need in our ideology today". Upon Gorbachev's return, the article was discussed at length during a Politburo meeting; it was revealed that nearly half of its members were sympathetic to the letter and opposed further reforms which could weaken the party. The meeting lasted for two days, but on 5 April a Politburo resolution responded with a point-by-point rebuttal to Andreyeva's article.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Gorbachev convened the 19th Party Conference in June 1988. He criticized leading party conservativesLigachev, Andrei Gromyko and Mikhail Solomentsev. In turn, conservative delegates attacked Gorbachev and the reformers. According to Brown, there had not been as much open discussion and dissent at a party meeting since the early 1920s.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Despite the deep-seated opposition to further reform, the CPSU remained hierarchical; the conservatives acceded to Gorbachev's demands in deference to his position as the CPSU General Secretary. The 19th Conference approved the establishment of the Congress of People's Deputies (CPD) and allowed for contested elections between the CPSU and independent candidates. Other organized parties were not allowed. The CPD was elected in 1989; one-third of the seats were appointed by the CPSU and other public organizations to sustain the Soviet one-party state. The elections were democratic, but most elected CPD members opposed any more radical reform. The elections featured the highest electoral turnout in Russian history; no election before or since had a higher participation rate. An organized opposition was established within the legislature under the name Inter-Regional Group of Deputies by dissident Andrei Sakharov. An unintended consequence of these reforms was the increased anti-CPSU pressure; in March 1990, at a session of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the party was forced to relinquish its political monopoly of power, in effect turning the Soviet Union into a liberal democracy.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The CPSU's demise began in March 1990, when state bodies eclipsed party elements in power. From then until the Soviet Union's disestablishment, Gorbachev ruled the country through the newly created post of President of the Soviet Union. Following this, the central party apparatus did not play a practical role in Soviet affairs. Gorbachev had become independent from the Politburo and faced few constraints from party leaders. In the summer of 1990 the party convened the 28th Congress. A new Politburo was elected, previous incumbents (except Gorbachev and Vladimir Ivashko, the CPSU Deputy General Secretary) were removed. Later that year, the party began work on a new program with a working title, "Towards a Humane, Democratic Socialism". According to Brown, the program reflected Gorbachev's journey from an orthodox communist to a European social democrat. The freedoms of thought and organization which Gorbachev allowed led to a rise in nationalism in the Soviet republics, indirectly weakening the central authorities. In response to this, a referendum took place in 1991, in which most of the union republics voted to preserve the union in a different form. In reaction to this, conservative elements within the CPSU launched the August 1991 coup, which overthrew Gorbachev but failed to preserve the Soviet Union. When Gorbachev resumed control (21 August 1991) after the coup's collapse, he resigned from the CPSU on 24 August 1991 and operations were handed over to Ivashko. On 29 August 1991 the activity of the CPSU was suspended throughout the country, on 6 November Yeltsin banned the activities of the party in Russia and Gorbachev resigned from the presidency on 25 December; the following day the Soviet of Republics dissolved the Soviet Union.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: On 30 November 1992, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized the ban on the activities of the primary organizations of the Communist Party, formed on a territorial basis, as inconsistent with the Constitution of Russia, but upheld the dissolution of the governing structures of the CPSU and the governing structures of its republican organizationthe Communist Party of the RSFSR.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian adherents to the CPSU tradition, particularly as it existed before Gorbachev, reorganized themselves within the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). Today a wide range of parties in Russia present themselves as successors of CPSU. Several of them have used the name "CPSU". However, the CPRF is generally seen (due to its massive size) as the heir of the CPSU in Russia. Additionally, the CPRF was initially founded as the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR in 1990 (sometime before the abolition of the CPSU) and was seen by critics as a "Russian-nationalist" counterpart to the CPSU.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The style of governance in the party alternated between collective leadership and a cult of personality. Collective leadership split power between the Politburo, the Central Committee, and the Council of Ministers to hinder any attempts to create a one-man dominance over the Soviet political system. By contrast, Stalin's period as the leader was characterized by an extensive cult of personality. Regardless of leadership style, all political power in the Soviet Union was concentrated in the organization of the CPSU.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Democratic centralism is an organizational principle conceived by Lenin. According to Soviet pronouncements, democratic centralism was distinguished from "bureaucratic centralism", which referred to high-handed formulae without knowledge or discussion. In democratic centralism, decisions are taken after discussions, but once the general party line has been formed, discussion on the subject must cease. No member or organizational institution may dissent on a policy after it has been agreed upon by the party's governing body; to do so would lead to expulsion from the party (formalized at the 10th Congress). Because of this stance, Lenin initiated a ban on factions, which was approved at the 10th Congress.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Lenin believed that democratic centralism safeguarded both party unity and ideological correctness. He conceived of the system after the events of 1917 when several socialist parties "deformed" themselves and actively began supporting nationalist sentiments. Lenin intended that the devotion to policy required by centralism would protect the parties from such revisionist ills and bourgeois deformation of socialism. Lenin supported the notion of a highly centralized vanguard party, in which ordinary party members elected the local party committee, the local party committee elected the regional committee, the regional committee elected the Central Committee, and the Central Committee elected the Politburo, Orgburo, and the Secretariat. Lenin believed that the party needed to be ruled from the center and have at its disposal power to mobilize party members at will. This system was later introduced in communist parties abroad through the Communist International (Comintern).


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: A central tenet of Leninism was that of the vanguard party. In a capitalist society, the party was to represent the interests of the working class and all of those who were exploited by capitalism in general; however, it was not to become a part of that class. Lenin decided that the party's sole responsibility was to articulate and plan the long-term interests of the oppressed classes. It was not responsible for the daily grievances of those classes; that was the responsibility of the trade unions. According to Lenin, the party and the oppressed classes could never become one because the party was responsible for leading the oppressed classes to victory. The basic idea was that a small group of organized people could wield power disproportionate to their size with superior organizational skills. Despite this, until the end of his life, Lenin warned of the danger that the party could be taken over by bureaucrats, by a small clique, or by an individual. Toward the end of his life, he criticized the bureaucratic inertia of certain officials and admitted to problems with some of the party's control structures, which were to supervise organizational life.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Congress, nominally the highest organ of the party, was convened every five years. Leading up to the October Revolution and until Stalin's consolidation of power, the Congress was the party's main decision-making body. However, after Stalin's ascension, the Congresses became largely symbolic. CPSU leaders used Congresses as a propaganda and control tool. The most noteworthy Congress since the 1930s was the 20th Congress, in which Khrushchev denounced Stalin in a speech titled "The Personality Cult and its Consequences".


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Despite delegates to Congresses losing their powers to criticize or remove party leadership, the Congresses functioned as a form of elite-mass communication. They were occasions for the party leadership to express the party line over the next five years to ordinary CPSU members and the general public. The information provided was general, ensuring that party leadership retained the ability to make specific policy changes as they saw fit.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Congresses also provided the party leadership with formal legitimacy by providing a mechanism for the election of new members and the retirement of old members who had lost favor. The elections at Congresses were all predetermined and the candidates who stood for seats to the Central Committee and the Central Auditing Commission were approved beforehand by the Politburo and the Secretariat. A Congress could also provide a platform for the announcement of new ideological concepts. For instance, at the 22nd Congress, Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union would see "communism in twenty years" a position later retracted.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: A Conference, officially referred to as an All-Union Conference, was convened between Congresses by the Central Committee to discuss party policy and to make personnel changes within the Central Committee. 19 conferences were convened during the CPSU's existence. The 19th Congress held in 1952 removed the clause in the party's statute which stipulated that a party Conference could be convened. The clause was reinstated at the 23rd Congress, which was held in 1966.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Central Committee was a collective body elected at the annual party congress. It was mandated to meet at least twice a year to act as the party's supreme governing body. Membership of the Central Committee increased from 71 full members in 1934 to 287 in 1976. Central Committee members were elected to the seats because of the offices they held, not on their personal merit. Because of this, the Central Committee was commonly considered an indicator for Sovietologists to study the strength of the different institutions. The Politburo was elected by and reported to the Central Committee. Besides the Politburo, the Central Committee also elected the Secretariat and the General Secretarythe "de facto" leader of the Soviet Union. In 1919–1952, the Orgburo was also elected in the same manner as the Politburo and the Secretariat by the plenums of the Central Committee. In between Central Committee plenums, the Politburo and the Secretariat were legally empowered to make decisions on its behalf. The Central Committee or the Politburo and/or Secretariat on its behalf could issue nationwide decisions; decisions on behalf of the party were transmitted from the top to the bottom.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Under Lenin, the Central Committee functioned much as the Politburo did during the post-Stalin era, serving as the party's governing body. However, as the membership in the Central Committee increased, its role was eclipsed by the Politburo. Between Congresses, the Central Committee functioned as the Soviet leadership's source of legitimacy. The decline in the Central Committee's standing began in the 1920s; it was reduced to a compliant body of the Party leadership during the Great Purge. According to party rules, the Central Committee was to convene at least twice a year to discuss political mattersbut not matters relating to military policy. The body remained largely symbolic after Stalin's consolidation; leading party officials rarely attended meetings of the Central Committee.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Central Auditing Commission (CAC) was elected by the party Congresses and reported only to the party Congress. It had about as many members as the Central Committee. It was responsible for supervising the expeditious and proper handling of affairs by the central bodies of the Party; it audited the accounts of the Treasury and the enterprises of the Central Committee. It was also responsible for supervising the Central Committee apparatus, making sure that its directives were implemented and that Central Committee directives complied with the party Statute.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Statute (also referred to as the Rules, Charter and Constitution) was the party's by-laws and controlled life within the CPSU. The 1st Statute was adopted at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Partythe forerunner of the CPSU. How the Statute was to be structured and organized led to a schism within the party, leading to the establishment of two competing factions; Bolsheviks (literally "majority") and Mensheviks (literally "minority"). The 1st Statute was based upon Lenin's idea of a centralized vanguard party. The 4th Congress, despite a majority of Menshevik delegates, added the concept of democratic centralism to Article 2 of the Statute. The 1st Statute lasted until 1919 when the 8th Congress adopted the 2nd Statute. It was nearly five times as long as the 1st Statute and contained 66 articles. It was amended at the 9th Congress. At the 11th Congress, the 3rd Statute was adopted with only minor amendments being made. New statutes were approved at the 17th and 18th Congresses respectively. The last party statute, which existed until the dissolution of the CPSU, was adopted at the 22nd Congress.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: General Secretary of the Central Committee was the title given to the overall leader of the party. The office was synonymous with the leader of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s. Stalin used the office of General Secretary to create a strong power base for himself. The office was formally titled "First Secretary" between 1952 and 1966.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Political Bureau (Politburo), known as the Presidium from 1952 to 1966, was the highest party organ when the Congress and the Central Committee were not in session. Until the 19th Conference in 1988, the Politburo alongside the Secretariat controlled appointments and dismissals nationwide. In the post-Stalin period, the Politburo controlled the Central Committee apparatus through two channels; the General Department distributed the Politburo's orders to the Central Committee departments and through the personnel overlap which existed within the Politburo and the Secretariat. This personnel overlap gave the CPSU General Secretary a way of strengthening his position within the Politburo through the Secretariat. Kirill Mazurov, Politburo member from 1965 to 1978, accused Brezhnev of turning the Politburo into a "second echelon" of power. He accomplished this by discussing policies before Politburo meetings with Mikhail Suslov, Andrei Kirilenko, Fyodor Kulakov and Dmitriy Ustinov among others, who held seats both in the Politburo and the Secretariat. Mazurov's claim was later verified by Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers under Gorbachev. Ryzhkov said that Politburo meetings lasted only 15 minutes because the people close to Brezhnev had already decided what was to be approved.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Politburo was abolished and replaced by a Presidium in 1952 at the 19th Congress. In the aftermath the 19th Congress and the 1st Plenum of the 19th Central Committee, Stalin ordered the creation of the Bureau of the Presidium, which acted as the standing committee of the Presidium. On 6 March 1953, one day after Stalin's death, a new and smaller Presidium was elected, and the Bureau of the Presidium was abolished in a joint session with the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Until 1990, the CPSU General Secretary acted as the informal chairman of the Politburo. During the first decades of the CPSU's existence, the Politburo was officially chaired by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; first by Lenin, then by Aleksey Rykov, Molotov, Stalin and Malenkov. After 1922, when Lenin was incapacitated, Lev Kamenev as Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars chaired the Politburo's meetings. This tradition lasted until Khrushchev's consolidation of power. In the first post-Stalin years, when Malenkov chaired Politburo meetings, Khrushchev as First Secretary signed all Central Committee documents into force. From 1954 until 1958, Khrushchev chaired the Politburo as First Secretary, but in 1958 he dismissed and succeeded Nikolai Bulganin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. During this period, the informal position of Second Secretarylater formalized as Deputy General Secretarywas established. The Second Secretary became responsible for chairing the Secretariat in place of the General Secretary. When the General Secretary could not chair the meetings of the Politburo, the Second Secretary would take his place. This system survived until the dissolution of the CPSU in 1991.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: To be elected to the Politburo, a member had to serve in the Central Committee. The Central Committee elected the Politburo in the aftermath of a party Congress. Members of the Central Committee were given a predetermined list of candidates for the Politburo having only one candidate for each seat; for this reason, the election of the Politburo was usually passed unanimously. The greater the power held by the sitting CPSU General Secretary, the higher the chance that the Politburo membership would be approved.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Secretariat headed the CPSU's central apparatus and was solely responsible for the development and implementation of party policies. It was legally empowered to take over the duties and functions of the Central Committee when it was not in the plenum (did not hold a meeting). Many members of the Secretariat concurrently held a seat in the Politburo. According to a Soviet textbook on party procedures, the Secretariat's role was that of "leadership of current work, chiefly in the realm of personnel selection and in the organization of the verification of fulfillment of party-state decisions". "Selections of personnel" () in this instance meant the maintenance of general standards and the criteria for selecting various personnel. "Verification of fulfillment" () of party and state decisions meant that the Secretariat instructed other bodies.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The powers of the Secretariat were weakened under Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Central Committee Commissions took over the functions of the Secretariat in 1988. Yegor Ligachev, a Secretariat member, said that the changes completely destroyed the Secretariat's hold on power and made the body almost superfluous. Because of this, the Secretariat rarely met during the next two years. It was revitalized at the 28th Party Congress in 1990, and the Deputy General Secretary became the official head of the Secretariat.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Organizational Bureau, or Orgburo, existed from 1919 to 1952 and was one of three leading bodies of the party when the Central Committee was not in session. It was responsible for "organizational questions, the recruitment, and allocation of personnel, the coordination of activities of the party, government and social organizations (e.g., trade unions and youth organizations), improvement to the party's structure, the distribution of information and reports within the party". The 19th Congress abolished the Orgburo and its duties and responsibilities were taken over by the Secretariat. At the beginning, the Orgburo held three meetings a week and reported to the Central Committee every second week. Lenin described the relation between the Politburo and the Orgburo as "the Orgburo allocates forces, while the Politburo decides policy". A decision of the Orgburo was implemented by the Secretariat. However, the Secretariat could make decisions in the Orgburo's name without consulting its members, but if one Orgburo member objected to a Secretariat resolution, the resolution would not be implemented. In the 1920s, if the Central Committee could not convene the Politburo and the Orgburo would hold a joint session in its place.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Central Control Commission (CCC) functioned as the party's supreme court. The CCC was established at the 9th All-Russian Conference in September 1920, but rules organizing its procedure were not enacted before the 10th Congress. The 10th Congress formally established the CCC on all party levels and stated that it could only be elected at a party congress or a party conference. The CCC and the CCs were formally independent but had to make decisions through the party committees at their level, which led them in practice to lose their administrative independence. At first, the primary responsibility of the CCs was to respond to party complaints, focusing mostly on party complaints of factionalism and bureaucratism. At the 11th Congress, the brief of the CCs was expanded; it became responsible for overseeing party discipline. In a bid to further centralize the powers of the CCC, a Presidium of the CCC, which functioned in a similar manner to the Politburo in relation to the Central Committee, was established in 1923. At the 18th Congress, party rules regarding the CCC were changed; it was now elected by the Central Committee and was subordinate to the Central Committee.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: CCC members could not concurrently be members of the Central Committee. To create an organizational link between the CCC and other central-level organs, the 9th All-Russian Conference created the joint CC–CCC plenums. The CCC was a powerful organ; the 10th Congress allowed it to expel full and candidate Central Committee members and members of their subordinate organs if two-thirds of attendants at a CC–CCC plenum voted for such. At its first such session in 1921, Lenin tried to persuade the joint plenum to expel Alexander Shliapnikov from the party; instead of expelling him, Shliapnikov was given a severe reprimand.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The leader of a department was usually given the title "head" (). In practice, the Secretariat had a major say in the running of the departments; for example, five of eleven secretaries headed their own departments in 1978. Normally, specific secretaries were given supervising duties over one or more departments. Each department established its own cellscalled sectionswhich specialized in one or more fields. During the Gorbachev era, a variety of departments made up the Central Committee apparatus. The Party Building and Cadre Work Department assigned party personnel in the nomenklatura system. The State and Legal Department supervised the armed forces, KGB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the trade unions, and the Procuracy. Before 1989, the Central Committee had several departments, but some were abolished that year. Among these departments was the Economics Department that was responsible for the economy as a whole, one for machine building, one for the chemical industry, etc. The party abolished these departments to remove itself from the day-to-day management of the economy in favor of government bodies and a greater role for the market, as a part of the perestroika process. In their place, Gorbachev called for the creations of commissions with the same responsibilities as departments, but giving more independence from the state apparatus. This change was approved at the 19th Conference, which was held in 1988. Six commissions were established by late 1988.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: "Pravda" ("The Truth") was the leading newspaper in the Soviet Union. The Organizational Department of the Central Committee was the only organ empowered to dismiss "Pravda" editors. In 1905, "Pravda" began as a project by members of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party. Leon Trotsky was approached about the possibility of running the new paper because of his previous work on Ukrainian newspaper "Kyivan Thought". The first issue of "Pravda" was published on 3 October 1908 in Lvov, where it continued until the publication of the sixth issue in November 1909, when the operation was moved to Vienna, Austria-Hungary. During the Russian Civil War, sales of "Pravda" were curtailed by "Izvestia", the government run newspaper. At the time, the average reading figure for "Pravda" was 130,000. This Vienna-based newspaper published its last issue in 1912 and was succeeded the same year by a new newspaper dominated by the Bolsheviks, also called "Pravda", which was headquartered in St. Petersburg. The paper's main goal was to promote Marxist–Leninist philosophy and expose the lies of the bourgeoisie. In 1975, the paper reached a circulation of 10.6 million. It is currently owned by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The Higher Party School (HPS) was the organ responsible for teaching cadres in the Soviet Union. It was the successor of the Communist Academy, which was established in 1918. The HPS was established in 1939 as the Moscow Higher Party School and it offered its students a two-year training course for becoming a CPSU official. It was reorganized in 1956 to that it could offer more specialized ideological training. In 1956, the school in Moscow was opened for students from socialist countries outside the Soviet Union. The Moscow Higher Party School was the party school with the highest standing. The school itself had eleven faculties until a 1972 Central Committee resolution demanded a reorganization of the curriculum. The first regional HPS outside Moscow was established in 1946 and by the early 1950s there were 70 Higher Party Schools. During the reorganization drive of 1956, Khrushchev closed 13 of them and reclassified 29 as inter-republican and inter-oblast schools.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The lowest organ above the primary party organization (PPO) was the district level. Every two years, the local PPO would elect delegates to the district-level party conference, which was overseen by a secretary from a higher party level. The conference elected a Party Committee and First Secretary and re-declared the district's commitment to the CPSU's program. In between conferences, the "raion" party committeecommonly referred to as "raikom"was vested with ultimate authority. It convened at least six times a year to discuss party directives and to oversee the implementation of party policies in their respective districts, to oversee the implementation of party directives at the PPO-level, and to issue directives to PPOs. 75–80 percent of raikom members were full members, while the remaining 20–25 were non-voting, candidate members. Raikom members were commonly from the state sector, party sector, Komsomol or the trade unions.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Day-to-day responsibility of the raikom was handed over to a Politburo, which usually composed of 12 members. The district-level First Secretary chaired the meetings of the local Politburo and the raikom, and was the direct link between the district and the higher party echelons. The First Secretary was responsible for the smooth running of operations. The raikom was headed by the local apparatthe local agitation department or industry department. A raikom usually had no more than 4 or 5 departments, each of which was responsible for overseeing the work of the state sector but would not interfere in their work.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: This system remained identical at all other levels of the CPSU hierarchy. The other levels were cities, oblasts (regions) and republics. The district-level elected delegates to a conference held at least held every three years to elect the party committee. The only difference between the oblast and the district level was that the oblast had its own Secretariat and had more departments at its disposal. The oblast's party committee in turn elected delegates to the republican-level Congress, which was held every five years. The Congress then elected the Central Committee of the republic, which in turn elected a First Secretary and a Politburo. Until 1990, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was the only republic that did not have its own republican branch, being instead represented by the CPSU Central Committee.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The primary party organization (PPO) was the lowest level in the CPSU hierarchy. PPOs were organized cells consisting of three or more members. A PPO could exist anywhere; for example, in a factory or a student dormitory. They functioned as the party's "eyes and ears" at the lowest level and were used to mobilize support for party policies. All CPSU members had to be a member of a local PPO. The size of a PPO varied from three people to several hundred, depending upon its setting. In a large enterprise, a PPO usually had several hundred members. In such cases, the PPO was divided into bureaus based upon production-units. Each PPO was led by an executive committee and an executive committee secretary. Each executive committee is responsible for the PPO executive committee and its secretary. In small PPOs, members met periodically to mainly discuss party policies, ideology, or practical matters. In such a case, the PPO secretary was responsible for collecting party dues, reporting to higher organs, and maintaining the party records. A secretary could be elected democratically through a secret ballot, but that was not often the case; in 1979, only 88 out of the over 400,000 PPOs were elected in this fashion. The remainder were chosen by a higher party organ and ratified by the general meetings of the PPO. The PPO general meeting was responsible for electing delegates to the party conference at either the district- or town-level, depending on where the PPO was located.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Membership of the party was not open. To become a party member, one had to be approved by various committees, and one's past was closely scrutinized. As generations grew up having known nothing before the Soviet Union, party membership became something one generally achieved after passing a series of stages. Children would join the Young Pioneers and, at the age of 14, might graduate to the Komsomol (Young Communist League). Ultimately, as an adult, if one had shown the proper adherence to party disciplineor had the right connections, one would become a member of the Communist Party itself. Membership of the party carried obligations as it expected Komsomol and CPSU members to pay dues and to carry out appropriate assignments and "social tasks" ().


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: In 1918, party membership was approximately 200,000. In the late 1920s under Stalin, the party engaged in an intensive recruitment campaign, the "Lenin Levy", resulting in new members referred to as the Lenin Enrolment, from both the working class and rural areas. This represented an attempt to "proletarianize" the party and an attempt by Stalin to strengthen his base by outnumbering the Old Bolsheviks and reducing their influence in the Party. In 1925, the party had 1,025,000 members in a Soviet population of 147 million. In 1927, membership had risen to 1,200,000. During the collectivization campaign and industrialization campaigns of the first five-year plan from 1929 to 1933, party membership grew rapidly to approximately 3.5 million members. However, party leaders suspected that the mass intake of new members had allowed "social-alien elements" to penetrate the party's ranks and document verifications of membership ensued in 1933 and 1935, removing supposedly unreliable members. Meanwhile, the party closed its ranks to new members from 1933 to November 1936. Even after the reopening of party recruiting, membership fell to 1.9 million by 1939. Nicholas DeWitt gives 2.307 million members in 1939, including candidate members, compared with 1.535 million in 1929 and 6.3 million in 1947. In 1986, the CPSU had over 19 million membersapproximately 10% of the Soviet Union's adult population. Over 44% of party members were classified as industrial workers and 12% as collective farmers. The CPSU had party organizations in 14 of the Soviet Union's 15 republics. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic itself had no separate Communist Party until 1990 because the CPSU controlled affairs there directly.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: The All-Union Leninist Communist Youth League, commonly referred to as Komsomol, was the party's youth wing. The Komsomol acted under the direction of the CPSU Central Committee. It was responsible for indoctrinating youths in communist ideology and organizing social events. It was closely modeled on the CPSU; nominally the highest body was the Congress, followed by the Central Committee, Secretariat and the Politburo. The Komsomol participated in nationwide policy-making by appointing members to the collegiums of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education, the Ministry of Education and the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports. The organization's newspaper was the "Komsomolskaya Pravda". The First Secretary and the Second Secretary were commonly members of the Central Committee but were never elected to the Politburo. However, at the republican level, several Komsomol first secretaries were appointed to the Politburo.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Marxism–Leninism was the cornerstone of Soviet ideology. It explained and legitimized the CPSU's right to rule while explaining its role as a vanguard party. For instance, the ideology explained that the CPSU's policies, even if they were unpopular, were correct because the party was enlightened. It was represented as the only truth in Soviet society; the party rejected the notion of multiple truths. Marxism–Leninism was used to justify CPSU rule and Soviet policy, but it was not used as a means to an end. The relationship between ideology and decision-making was at best ambivalent; most policy decisions were made in the light of the continued, permanent development of Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism as the only truth could notby its very naturebecome outdated.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Despite having evolved over the years, Marxism–Leninism had several central tenets. The main tenet was the party's status as the sole ruling party. The 1977 Constitution referred to the party as "The leading and guiding force of Soviet society, and the nucleus of its political system, of all state and public organizations, is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union". State socialism was essential and from Stalin until Gorbachev, official discourse considered that private social and economic activity retarding the development of collective consciousness and the economy. Gorbachev supported privatization to a degree but based his policies on Lenin's and Nikolai Bukharin's opinions of the New Economic Policy of the 1920s, and supported complete state ownership over the commanding heights of the economy. Unlike liberalism, Marxism–Leninism stressed the role of the individual as a member of a collective rather than the importance of the individual. Individuals only had the right to freedom of expression if it safeguarded the interests of a collective. For instance, the 1977 Constitution stated that every person had the right to express his or her opinion, but the opinion could only be expressed if it was in accordance with the "general interests of Soviet society". The number of rights granted to an individual was decided by the state, and the state could remove these rights if it saw fit. Soviet Marxism–Leninism justified nationalism; the Soviet media portrayed every victory of the state as a victory for the communist movement as a whole. Largely, Soviet nationalism was based upon ethnic Russian nationalism. Marxism–Leninism stressed the importance of the worldwide conflict between capitalism and socialism; the Soviet press wrote about progressive and reactionary forces while claiming that socialism was on the verge of victory and that the "correlations of forces" were in the Soviet Union's favor. The ideology professed state atheism; party members were not allowed to be religious.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: Marxism–Leninism believed in the feasibility of a communist mode of production. All policies were justifiable if it contributed to the Soviet Union's achievement of that stage.


title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

text: In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organization of a revolutionary vanguard party and the achievement of a dictatorship of the proletariat as a political prelude to the establishment of the socialist mode of production developed by Lenin. Since Karl Marx rarely, if ever wrote about how the socialist mode of production would function, these tasks were left for Lenin to solve. Lenin's main contribution to Marxist thought is the concept of the vanguard party of the working class. He conceived the vanguard party as a highly knit, centralized organization that was led by intellectuals rather than by the working class itself. The CPSU was open only to a small number of workers because the workers in Russia still had not developed class consciousness and needed to be educated to reach such a state. Lenin believed that the vanguard party could initiate policies in the name of the working class even if the working class did not support them. The vanguard party would know what was best for the workers because the party functionaries had attained consciousness.