Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Government ===
{{Main|Government of the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Supreme Soviet 1982.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Grand Kremlin Palace]], the seat of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], 1982]]
The Supreme Soviet (successor of the [[Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union|Congress of Soviets]]) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history,<ref>{{cite book |author1=F. Triska, Jan |author2=Slusser, Robert M. |title=The Theory, Law, and Policy of Soviet Treaties |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=1962 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/theorylawpoli00tris/page/63 63]–64 |url=https://archive.org/details/theorylawpoli00tris |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8047-0122-8 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the [[Five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union|Five-Year Plans]] and the [[government budget]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Deb, Kalipada |title=Soviet Union to Commonwealth: Transformation and Challenges |publisher=M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd |year=1996 |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvK6r-8Ogg0C |isbn=978-81-85880-95-2 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512053347/http://books.google.com/books?id=IvK6r-8Ogg0C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Supreme Soviet elected a [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet|Presidium]] (successor of the [[Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union|Central Executive Committee]]) to wield its power between plenary sessions,<ref name="Benson, Shirley-2001" /> ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the [[Supreme Court of the Soviet Union|Supreme Court]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Communist World |publisher=Ardent Media |year=2001 |page=441 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h9FFVgu-Ff0C |isbn=978-0-271-02170-6 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512051205/http://books.google.com/books?id=h9FFVgu-Ff0C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> the [[Procurator General of the Soviet Union|Procurator General]]<ref>{{cite book |author=Joseph Marie Feldbrugge, Ferdinand |title=Russian Law: The End of the Soviet System and the Role of Law |publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]] |year=1993 |page=205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C |isbn=978-0-7923-2358-7 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041218/http://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers]] (known before 1946 as the [[Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union|Council of People's Commissars]]), headed by the [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society.<ref name="Benson, Shirley-2001">{{cite book |author=Benson, Shirley |title=Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower |publisher=[[Penn State University Press]] |year=2001 |pages=XIV |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQeahlZdM7sC |isbn=978-0-271-02170-6 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910233718/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQeahlZdM7sC&dq |archive-date=10 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> State and party structures of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|constituent republics]] largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into [[Raikom|party committees]], [[Soviet (council)|local Soviets]] and [[executive committee]]s. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.<ref>{{cite book |author1=White, Stephen |author2=J. Gill, Graeme |author3=Slider, Darrell |title=The Politics of Transition: Shaping a post-Soviet Future |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1993 |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsoftransi0000whit/page/108 108] |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsoftransi0000whit |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-521-44634-1 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref>

The state security police (the [[KGB]] and [[:Template:Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies|its predecessor agencies]]) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the [[Red Terror]] and [[Great Purge]],<ref>{{cite book |author1=P. Hoffmann, Erik |author2=Laird, Robin Frederick |title=The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |year=1984 |pages=313–315 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC |isbn=978-0-202-24165-4 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512045329/http://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under [[Yuri Andropov]], the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,<ref>{{cite book |author1=P. Hoffmann, Erik |author2=Laird, Robin Frederick |title=The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |year=1984 |pages=315–319 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC |isbn=978-0-202-24165-4 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512045329/http://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era |journal=[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] |year=2005 |volume=1 |page=742}}</ref>