ARTICLE 6 OF 1977 CONSTITUTION

Article 6 of the 1977 Brezhnev Constitution established the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as the sole legitimate political party in the country. The Party was declared to be the "leading and guiding force of Soviet society and the nucleus of its political system, of all state organizations and public organizations," and it imparted a "planned, systematic, and theoretically substantiated character" to the struggle for the victory of communism.

As Gorbachev's reforms of glasnost, perestroika, and demokratizatsiya unfolded in the late 1980s and early 1990s, interest groups became increasing active, and proto-political parties began to organize. Pressures built to revoke Article 6. Bowing to these pressures and with Gorbachev's acquiescence, the USSR Congress of People's Deputies voted in February 1990 to amend Article 6 to remove the reference to the Party's "leading role" and prohibitions against forming competing parties. The amended Article 6 read: "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union [and] other political parties, as well as trade union, youth, and other public organizations and mass movements, participate in shaping the policies of the Soviet state and in running state and public affairs through their representatives elected to the soviets of people's deputies and in other ways." Article 7 was also amended to specify that all parties must operate according to the law, while Article 51 was altered to insure all citizens the right to unite in political parties and public organizations.

Within months of the Congress's action amending Article 6, fledgling political parties began to register themselves. Within one year, more than one hundred political parties had gained official recognition. The proliferation of political parties itself became problematic as reformers sought to establish stable democratic governing institutions and voters were presented with a bewildering array of choices of parties and candidates in national, regional, and local elections.

See also: constitution of 1977; democratization

bibliography

Sakwa, Richard. (2001). "Parties and Organised Interests." In Developments in Russian Politics 5, eds. Stephen White, Alex Pravda, and Avi Gitelman. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave.

White, Stephen. (2000). Russia's New Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Gordon B. Smith