SUMMARY:

This article focuses on the institution of second secretaries of republican party committees in the political structure of nominal Soviet federalism. Initially, this institution had been introduced in the Baltic republics during Stalin’s tenure in power. In the course of the 1950s, the experiment became universal and included all of the Soviet republics. This led to important changes in the institutional landscape and political behavior of the nomenklatura in both Moscow and the regions. Compared to its predecessors − plenipotentiaries of the Central Committee of the VKP(b), and later of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the VKP(b) – the appointment of the second secretary seemed to be a more delicate instrument of control. Still, this institution was quite imperial: representatives of the center selected on the basis of their professional training, ethnicity, and social origin were sent to occupy high positions in the Soviet republics. Officially, this was presented as routine work aimed at strengthening local cadres. In reality, the institution reflected the existing contract between the Kremlin and the republics’ titular nomenklaturas, which regulated the loyalty, nationalism, and economic interests of the elites.