Dualism of the CPSU and government bodies in the USSR governance system in the 1980s: historical and legal aspect

Almost the entire period of the existence of the Soviet state, the guiding force in the system of its governance was the monopoly ruling VKP(b)-CPSU, which was enshrined at the constitutional level (in the USSR Constitutions of 1936 and 1977). With this approach, the decisions of party structures (from CPSU congresses to CPSU district committees at the local level) were mandatory for government bodies, which formalized them in the form of laws, government decrees, etc. and directly took measures to implement them. However, after 1980, when the failure of the grandiose plan to create the material and technical basis of communism by this point became obvious, the relationship between the CPSU and government bodies began to gradually change, and during the years of Gorbachev's perestroika (1985-1991), they became extremely aggravated against the background of a deep crisis in Soviet society, and as a result, the USSR collapsed. The article examines the features of this dualism of the CPSU and government bodies in the system of the Soviet state in the last decade of its existence, with an emphasis on historical and legal aspects. The relevant documents of the CPSU, constitutional norms, and scientific works that touch on the stated topic are analyzed. It is noted, in particular, that the CPSU was never able to assess the negative potential of the crisis in which the USSR found itself, and did not make decisions that would allow it to get out of the crisis, and following the party, the government structures also entered into an insurmountable crisis.