USSR: Communist Party: Orgburo

The next body in the Communist Party hierarchy after the Politburo was the Organizational Bureau (Orgburo) authorized to make key decisions about organizational work. The Orgburo supervised the work of local party committees and was empowered to select and place Communist cadres. The functions of the Orgburo and the Politburo were often intertwined, but the Politburo reserved the right to make final decisions. While the Politburo was mostly preoccupied with strategic planning and general monitoring, the Orgburo helped elaborate tactics by proper distribution of party forces.

The Orgburo was elected in the same manner as the Politburo and the Secretariat by the plenums of the Central Committee. One of the Central Committee secretaries supervised the work of the Orgburo. The first Orgburo of three members (Vladimirsky, Krestinskij and Sverdlov) was elected on 16 Jan 1919, at the Central Committee meeting. The 8th party congress (8 Mar 1919 - 23 Mar 1919) amended the party charter and set up provisions for election of the Politburo, the Orgburo and the Secretariat. The Central Committee plenum elected the new Orgburo of five members and of one candidate member on 25 Mar 1919. Some key Communist politicians such as Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovic and others were both members of the Orgburo and of the Politburo, but most of the Orgburo members were less important figures than those elected to the Politburo and the Secretariat.

The Orgburo existed from 1919 to 1952, until the 19th Congress, when the Orgburo was abolished and its functions were transferred to the enlarged Secretariat.