The regional authorities and civic proto-organizations in the USSR in 1920s-1930s

The article examines the concept of life cycle of organization and proposes a new term - proto-organization, which characterizes the initial stage of the development of public organizations. The author considers the situation in 1928-1934 in the Central Russia region of the USSR, which merge the Voronezh, Kursk, Orel and Tambov provinces into a single Central Black Earth Region with the centralized party-state power. On the example of public organizations operating in the USSR and on the territory of the Central Black Earth region in the 1920s-1930s, proto-organizations are examined, as well as their relationships with the regional party-state power and pro-government public associations. The party-state authorities and pro-government public organizations actively fought against processes of self-organization of society, thereby constraining the development of civil society in the USSR.