Organization and procedure for training party and Soviet personnel in the higher party schools of the CPSU in 1965-1975 (based on materials from the Leningrad Higher Party School)

This article expands the existing knowledge about the activities of party schools in the Soviet Union and the conditions for organizing the training of party and Soviet personnel. The study is based on the axiological approach, which focuses on analyzing the reasons for the functioning of political regimes, and analyzing archival documents of the Leningrad Higher Party School (LSES), which have not been previously studied in the domestic literature. The Higher Party School as an educational organization providing training for Party-Soviet cadres was an intermediary institution in the maintenance of the political regime in the USSR. The implementation of this intermediation took place through three aspects: the formation of the organizational foundations of the activity of the LSES; the reproduction of historical memory, which included “scientific mimicry”; and elements of control in the organization of LSES activity. The study shows that the leadership and teaching staff of the LVPS played in the period 1965-1975 an important role in forming the frame for the professional training of party and Soviet personnel, often acting autonomously from the directives of the CPSU.