System of Party Guidance of Local Councils in the Ukrainian SSR (on the Example of Lutsk City Council)
System of Party Guidance of Local Councils in the Ukrainian SSR (on the Example of Lutsk City Council)

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the article is to analyze the forms, mechanisms and procedures for exercising comprehensive control of the Communist Party over the activities of local governments, in particular the Lutsk City Council in 1939–1990. The source of the article consists of the dokuments from the State Archives of the Volhynia region, press publicatiions, and the memories of the events’ participants. It has been proved that the nature of activity, function and order of formation of local self-government institutions in the territory of Volhynia determined the totalitarian political regime of the Soviet Union with a one-party political system. Based on a study of the problem of political and legal consolidation of the institute of local councils, it has been found out that in the Soviet period it was actually implemented an undemocratic state model of local self-government when local councils at constitutional level were recognized by state authorities. Much attention has been paid to the specifics of the formation of local selfgovernment bodies. It has been shown that these were not elections in the ordinary sense, but in fact voting in advance of the candidates for election by the party bodies and at the same time a manifestation of citizens’ loyalty to the dominant political regime. The process of control of the CPSU over self-government institutions in cities was monitored through a system of measures and procedures that included: selection of candidates for deputies on political, social-class, gender grounds, etc., nomenclature principle of selection of city council leadership, their executive committees and other structural units, practice of holding joint meetings of party committees and executive committees, system of co-optation of representative government institutions, and seats of local representative offices.

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