Have you encountered a situation where a word simultaneously evokes a sense of strength and the inability to interpret it accurately? These include the old term "district committee." This word is remembered by the older generation. It caused awe among many and almost all - fear. It was associated with unlimited power, which can bring to the top of success or plunge into the abyss of terrible troubles. Think this is fiction? Ask those relatives and friends who remember the USSR well. In the meantime, they do not answer, let's take a look, district committee - this is what it was before and what it is now.
The direct meaning of the word
Terms usually begin to learn from dictionaries. Raykom is a contraction, says any of them. Composed a word and two, together denoting organization. District committee - this is how our term stands. It was used to designate a collegial body, which was created on a territorial basis.
The district was considered the lower middle link in the division chain of the entire area of the country. Yes, and now the inhabitants of the outback sometimes indicate it in their address. And the mighty USSR was geographically built like this: republic, region, district, specific settlements.
It concerned the countryside. In large cities there was a division into districts, but within the boundaries of a settlement. We write in such detail that the reader understands what the party district committee was for the population. But more on that later. The country was then ruled by a gigantic force - the CPSU. Soviet citizens have not heard of any multi-party system. Power was concentrated in "one hand", extending over the entire vast territory.
A bit of history
Specialists today talk a lot about the USSR. This country has gone through many periods in its development. And all of them, one way or another, were associated with the Communist Party. They say that I.V. Stalin tried to tear the CPSU (b) from the helm, but did not have time. He wanted to give local authority to executive committees, which, as now, are dealing with specific issues of citizens' lives. But the party nomenclature resisted. In each region, there were two bodies that worked out decisions. These were the executive committee and the district (regional) party. But the latter turned out to be more important, since they controlled ideology. The region was led by the first secretary of the district committee. This was the real owner, only desperate people tried to argue with.
District committee secretary: functions
The CPSU is a powerful organization, whose members were many citizens of the country. She was not only the largest in the Union, but also the only political force. Party members obeyed discipline. The management could well get into not only their labor activity, but also vigilantly watched their personal life and everyday behavior.
This circumstance made the district committees so omnipotent. The people were simply afraid of the reaction of the authorities. It must be understood that the party district committee had immense power over every citizen, not only party members. Here, issues of career, training were decided, benefits were distributed and much more. Obtain, for example, a leadership position without the approval of the secretary was unrealistic. We conclude: the district committee is a means of pressure on the population in order to strengthen power.
System extension
In the USSR, not all were members of the CPSU. The state, unreached by discipline, was a little afraid. Therefore, they were actively accepted into trade union organizations. This movement in the country of labor was well developed and also structured.
Primary organizations, like party ones, were created at enterprises. They delegated their representatives to the district trade union committee. By the way, positions in this body were considered the most thieves: you do nothing, but you get a good salary. Naturally, one could get into such an organization only by agreement with the district party committee.
Unions had their own funds. They were distributed by the central authorities, and at the local level by the district committee. That is, the employees of this body had the opportunity to get a ticket to the sanatorium without a queue or go abroad at a limit. There were many miracles in the life of Soviet citizens.
What now?
The district committee system remained in some parties and public organizations, but seriously weakened. Moreover, the nominal functions are not much different from the previous ones. District committees are bodies that coordinate the activities of the social movement that forms them at the territorial level. Primary organizations are subordinate to them. The district committees receive instructions from above.
As a rule, there are also regional committees. This is a higher level of territorial organization of a party or movement. All these bodies are designed to participate in the development of decisions, to bring them to the primary organizations.
Everything, as before, only they are deprived of power. The current organizations do not have the material resources used by the CPSU, so people do not treat them with that trepidation and fear. In addition, employees of modern committees at various levels work on a voluntary basis. And this, you see, is very different from formal employment with a serious salary.
A bit of positive and nostalgia
Citizens, of course, were afraid of the big bosses from the district committees, but found a way to use the situation to their advantage. This omnipotent organization could be very effectively complained about. The offender was waiting for a serious scam with a reprimand on the party line if he was a member of the CPSU.
So, loyal wives wrote to the district committee to keep their husbands tamed. The hard workers complained to the heads of enterprises, and the villagers to the heads of collective farms. Each appeal was not dealt with formally. Believe me, for the party leadership, citizens' letters were like bread. For each significant personality, his own daddy was going to keep him in check. And people received, if not material, then moral satisfaction. So they lived in the USSR!