Partmaximum (russian: Партмаксимум) was a limit on the salary of a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, a

maximum wage A maximum wage, also often called a wage ceiling, is a legal limit on how much income an individual can earn. It is a prescribed limitation which can be used to effect change in an economic structure, but its effects are unrelated to those of minim ...

. Partmaximum was introduced in 1920 by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (ВЦИК) for all communists that held executive positions in Party, industry, government and Soviet trade unions. Their salary was not supposed to exceed that of a highly qualified industrial worker. If a communist had other incomes, e.g., honoraria or royalties, he had to transfer a specified percentage from the amount above the partmaximum into the Party funds. Partmaximum was cancelled by a secret resolution of the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contracti ...

of February 8, 1932; however, it was bypassed with benefits in kind before.Мервин Мэтьюз
Становление системы привилегий в Советском государстве
1992, № 2-3, с. 45-61. "Сами по себе эти ограничения денежных доходов партийных чиновников, сколь бы значительными они ни казались, не шли ни в какое сравнение с доступными им материальными благами." This cancellation is thought to mark the onset of the formation of the privileged

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' ( rus, номенклату́ра, p=nəmʲɪnklɐˈturə, a=ru-номенклатура.ogg; from la, nomenclatura) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key admin ...

class of Soviet

apparatchik __NOTOC__ An apparatchik (; russian: аппара́тчик ) was a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the Soviet government ''apparat'' ( аппарат, apparatus), someone who held any positio ...

s, whose well-being no longer depended on the well-being of subordinated workers.

References

External links

V.I. Lenin, ''The Salaries of High-Ranking Office Employees and Officials''

Soviet phraseology Economy of the Soviet Union {{Soviet-stub