How were USSR oblasts and cities governed?
Upvote:3
On paper, the USSR and its subdivisions were "super-parliamentary republics" in that the highest body with direct power was the Supreme Council. It had enormous power and it could do everything in the country, often with simple majority. There was no veto power invested in anybody against the decisions of the Supreme Council. The very Russian word "soviet" means "council".
Given this principle, the supreme body in each village was a village council, in each city, a city council, in each district, a district council, in each oblast, an oblast council. And so forth. There was no separate executive power. The executive body would be called "executive committee of the city council" and was just a part of the council as a whole.
The head (chairman) of the executive committee of the council was also the head of the council as a whole, and the head of the city.
Upvote:9
General Division of Responsibilities
The division of responsibilities was roughly similar to that at the national level: the decisions were made at the party committee (and both Soviet chairman and executive committee chairman were members thereof, together with the police and KGB bosses) under the guidance of the secretary, and the Soviet chairman was responsible for getting the Soviet to rubber stamp the decisions and the executive was responsible for, you guessed it, executing the decisions.
Ethnic Regions
The 1st Party secretary was the supreme boss in the Russian and Ukrainian regions (oblast/krai). In the ethnic regions, the 1st secretary was "the local", representing the ethnic/tribal elites, and the 2nd secretary was a Russian (or, rarely, Ukrainian or even Belorussian) sent in from the Center, and it was the 2nd secretary who (unofficially!) held the supreme power (but not the official prestige and visibility!), because the power in the USSR flowed from Moscow to regional centers, and from those to local centers &c.
The only exception I can recall was Kolbin whose appointment as the 1st Secretary in Kazakhstan in December 1986 lead to riots.
The possible exceptions in the other direction were Aliyev (who had KGB roots and thus did not need a Moscow baby-sitter) and Kunaev who was a personal ally of Brezhnev.
Post-USSR (response to a comment)
When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the 2nd secretaries lost their power source - Moscow was no longer to be reckoned with - and the 1st secretaries landed with all the central power there was.
Source: I lived there and observed the politics first hand.
More post
- 📝 What was the original colour of the Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre)?
- 📝 Could ancient Egyptians have done origami with papyrus?
- 📝 How slowly, if ever, were Thracians Hellenized?
- 📝 How many customs houses were there in 1850 California?
- 📝 What other countries besides the US participated in keeping African slaves?
- 📝 How would the Germans have sent the Zimmerman telegraph if the German-American telegraph line was cut?
- 📝 What defenses did Lee leave behind when the Army of Northern Virginia left for Gettysburg?
- 📝 Which town or village in Britain lost the greatest percentage of men in WWI due to "Pals Battalions"?
- 📝 What is the minimum safe speed when dropping depth charges?
- 📝 Did the British Army burn any capitals other than Washington?
- 📝 Why was the massive Human Wave attack used in WWI?
- 📝 Is this article on Nero even remotely accurate?
- 📝 How did Vasco da Gama know about the Southern Cross?
- 📝 Did men carry talisman on them against threats or to bring luck during Medieval Times?
- 📝 When was bicycle ridership highest in North America?
- 📝 Why do land mines seem to be a more serious problem in the Balkans than the Alps?
- 📝 How did the check pattern help with financial computations?
- 📝 How much food value is a horse to a cavalryman?
- 📝 Have historians offered interpretations on why the disciples claimed they saw a resurrected Jesus?
- 📝 What do citizens of countries that partition do about new anthems?
- 📝 Gaulish logistics during Caesar's invasion
- 📝 Which Kings of France visited England?
- 📝 Why are there so many laws about eye injuries in the Code of Hammurabi?
- 📝 Why did Lincoln wait to issue the Emancipation Proclamation?
- 📝 Were the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
- 📝 What is the oldest state/nation that has abolished the death penalty?
- 📝 Is there any estimate for expected life of 'ordinary' or 'poor' people in middle ages after surviving infancy?
- 📝 Did the Roman testudo protect the sides of the formation?
- 📝 How were army formations deployed in the First World War in trenches?
- 📝 Why did Uesugi Kenshin never marry? Was it common practice for Japanese Buddhists of the time?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How were USSR oblasts and cities governed?
- 📝 How were the cities of Milan and Bruges spared by the Black Death?
- 📝 How were the Burmese able to sack Ayutthaya when it was one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in Asia at the time?
- 📝 Did people from the cities of Uruk, Ur and Sumer have knowledge/recollection of how old their cities were (say, recollection after 2000 BCE)?
- 📝 How did the USSR manage to innovate in an environment characterized by government censorship and high bureaucracy?
- 📝 How were concentration and extermination camp guards recruited?
- 📝 How were drawbridges and portcullises used tactically?
- 📝 How many lives were estimated to have been saved by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs?
- 📝 How were diplomats and their staffs treated when World War II was declared?
- 📝 How expensive were castles? And how were the costs distributed?
- 📝 Were bookshops 'common' in the late 19th century, and how did they differ from modern ones?
- 📝 How accurate and detailed were geographical maps created and updated by the Romans?
- 📝 How were servants to the Kaiser of Imperial Germany treated and where may I find more information on them?
- 📝 How were the British and French armies invited into Belgium in 1914?
- 📝 How did people say “I have to go to the bathroom” before the bathroom and pipes were common?
- 📝 When and how did the West lose its dependency on the USSR for Titanium?
- 📝 Why and how were east Brandenburg, Pomerania and Silesia taken away from Germany after WW2?
- 📝 How many pens were used by MacArthur to end the final chapter of World War II and where are they now?
- 📝 How successful were Einsatzkommando Tunis and how much was Rommel complicit?
- 📝 How many firearms were owned by civilian population between 1836 and 1912 in USA?
- 📝 How were interracial relationships between African-Americans and Latinos treated in Southern states before the Loving decision?
- 📝 How alcoholic were ancient Greek and Roman wines, before and after dilution?
- 📝 How were the Morisco refugees from Europe received in North Africa, given that they were foreigners and Christian?
- 📝 How did it happen that countries and cities got different names in different languages?
- 📝 How different were Labour and Conservative party lines on race immigration and empire in around 1962?
- 📝 How important were Einstein and Szilard and other scientists to the creation and ultimate success of the Manhattan Project?
- 📝 How were the British and French Mandates in the Levantine area involved in WWII?
- 📝 What universities existed in Dutch East Indies, and how available were they to the native population?
- 📝 What were the limitations on possession of wealth in Soviet Russia and how were they enforced?
- 📝 How were maps drawn and printed in the late 19th-early 20th centuries?