Yoram Gorlizki

University of Manchester

The Soviet Politburo and Decision-Making in the Late Stalin Era

Economic and Social Research Council (grant no. R000222676)

The last years of Stalin's life are widely regarded as the apogee of autocracy in the Soviet Union and as one of the leading examples of one-person rule in the twentieth century. The project sought to test long-held assumptions about the autocratic nature of supreme decision-making in this period. In particular it sought to examine the extent to which collective cabinet decision-making within the Politburo had been replaced by autocratic one-person rule. It aimed to do this by exploring Stalin’s relationship with his Politburo colleagues and by looking at his interactions with the two key decision-making structures around him, the Politburo and the Council of Ministers.

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