Training of Personnel for the Chuvash Republic at Gorky Higher Party School (1946–1991)

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of personnel training for the Chuvash ASSR, held at Gorky Higher Party School from 1946 to 1991. It is stated that Gorky one-year party school and interregional courses established during the Great Patriotic War laid the foundations for the development of party education, became the base of creating Gorky Higher Party School. The analysis of documents kept at the State Social and Political Archive of Nizhny Novgorod region demonstrates that on August 12, 1946, the Bureau of Gorky Regional Committee of the VKP (b) made the decision to create Gorky Regional Party School, which was to train top staffers for seven regions and four autonomous republics of the Volga region, including the Chuvash region. Already in 1951 the Chuvash regional committee of the ACP (b) sent 15 Soviet employees who, in accordance with the nomenclature of positions, were the closest reserve of the party leadership at the municipal and regional level. In the future, their number increased to 20–25 people annually. By the end of the 1950s, the problem of staff shortage in party and Soviet workers is replaced by the need for advanced training through the course system for a part of party and Soviet workers, which was implemented in the early 1960s. This resulted at first in a slight decrease in the number of attendees from the Chuvash ASSR in party school, but beginning with the mid-1960s the number of Chuvash attendees steadily increased. The following years are marked by a significant development of the correspondence department, as well as inter-regional courses of party and Soviet workers. In 1979, a study support center was opened in Cheboksary. In connection with this, in the subsequent 1970–1980s the contingent of attendees from the Chuvash ASSR significantly decreased. At the same time, training through correspondence department and inter-regional courses increased. Retraining of personnel at interregional courses was carried out, including in the form of practical classes, where the Party and Soviet establishment figures of the Chuvash ASSR spoke to the attendees in the relevant specialties. In the 1980s, the flow of interregional courses was practiced on the basis of regional governing bodies, including in the Chuvash regional party organization. This form of training facilitated the exchange of managerial experience and was welcomed by the attendees.