The People's Control was a semi-civic, semi-governmental organisation 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 national ...

with the purpose of putting under scrutiny the activities of government, local administrations and enterprises. It traces its roots back to

Rabkrin The People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection, also known as Rabkrin (; РКИ, RKI; Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, WPI) was a governmental establishment in the Soviet Union of ministerial level (people's commissariat) re ...

(the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate), established in 1920. When

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

rose to power, he merged Rabkrin with the

CPSU Party Control Committee The Central Control Commission (russian: Центральная Контрольная Комиссия, ''Tsentral'naya Kontrol'naya Komissiya'') was a supreme disciplinary body (since 1934 within the Central Committee of the Communist Party of t ...

, only to un-merge them in the 1930s.

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

, seeking to emulate the Bolsheviks but as part of his

de-Stalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...

efforts, merged them again and created the Committee of Party-State Control of the Central Committee of the CPSU and of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, putting the ambitious

Alexander Shelepin Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin (; 18 August 1918 – 24 October 1994) was a Soviet politician and security and intelligence officer. A long-time member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he served as First Depu ...

in charge. In 1965,

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...

and the collective leadership around him separated them once more to restrain Shelepin's ambitions. The 1979

USSR 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 ...

Law on People's Control established committees of people's control in each Soviet republic under the supervision of the central Committee of People's Control. These committees had the authority to audit government and economic administration records. Officials found guilty of illegalities could be publicly reprimanded, fined for damages, or referred to the procurator for prosecution. In the late 1980s, the committees of people's control were an invaluable instrument in Soviet general secretary

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

's efforts at reform and ''

perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

''.A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former), section "Committees of People's Control"
/ref> The committees of people's control extended throughout the Soviet Union. In 1989, of the more than 10 million citizens who served on these organs, 95 percent were volunteers. General meetings of work collectives at every enterprise and office elected the committees for tenures of two and one-half years. The chairman of the Committee of People's Control and a professional staff served for five years. The chairman sat on the

USSR Council of Ministers The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ɛsɛsɛˈsɛr; sometimes abbreviated to ''Sovmin'' or referred to as the '' ...

Chairmen

(...-1965) * Pavel Kovanov * Gennady Voronov (1971-) * Alexey Shkolnikov (1974-) * Sergey Manyakin (1987-) *

Gennady Kolbin Gennady Vasilyevich Kolbin (; 7 May 1927 – 15 January 1998) was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR from 16 December 1986 to 22 June 1989. Early life Kolbin was born in 1927 in Nizhny Tagil. Fr ...

(1989-)

References

*Adams, Jan S. (1978). "Institutional Change in the 1970s: The Case of the USSR People's Control Committee." Slavic Review 37(3):457 - 472. *Adams, Jan S. (1989). "USSR People's Control Committee and Perestroika." Radio Liberty Report on the USSR 1(4):1 - 3. {{authority control Soviet state institutions 1934 establishments in the Soviet Union 1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union

Chairmen

See also

References