Training of Senior Executives for the National Republics at Gorky Higher Party School (1946—1991)

Abstract

The article discusses training personnel for national republics conducted at Gorky Higher Party School in the 1940–1980s. The basis for establishing Gorky Higher Party School was a one-year party school and inter-regional courses that laid the foundations for the development of party education. The analysis of the documents of the State Socio-Political Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod region makes it possible to trace the evolution of training party and Soviet cadres for forty-five years. On August 12, 1946, a decision was taken to establish Gorky Regional Party School, geared to train top staffers of seven regions and four autonomous republics of the Volga region. The training was conducted with careful preparation on the part of students and teachers. In the early years of the school much attention was paid to the study of the Russian language. By the end of the 1950s, the problem of the shortage of party and Soviet workers was solved. This conditioned the establishment of an age limit for applicants, as well as refusal of admission to Gorky Regional Party School to persons with higher education. Advanced training courses were created for such candidates in the early 1960s. Subsequently, a correspondence department received a significant development, along with the inter-regional courses of party and Soviet workers. Organization of the educational process is also transformed: three new study support centers were opened in the regional centers of the recruitment zone in 1979. The result of opening new educational and consulting centers was a decrease in the number of full-time students from national republics. At the same time, there is an increase in the number of students at the correspondence department and at inter-regional courses. Retraining of personnel at inter-regional courses was carried out in the form of theoretical as well as practical classes, at which representatives of the party and Soviet elite spoke to the audience (for corresponding cohorts). In the 1980s, practical training on the basis of regional government bodies was actively developed as part of coursework. In the 1980s, the area of Gorky Higher Party School was expanded due to training managerial personnel for the Azerbaijanian, Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh and Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republics. Respectively, the composition of students’ nationalities in the school significantly expanded, too. Thus, establishment of Gorky Higher Party School was of great importance for training national senior executives.