Page "Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" Paragraph 38

The number of Central Committee meetings rose again when Brezhnev was elected First Secretary, but the number of meetings and their duration steadily decreased during Brezhnev's rule.

Before Stalin's consolidation of power, the Central Committee featured open debate, where even leading officials could be criticised.

From 1966 to 1976, Alexei Kosygin, Podgorny and Mikhail Suslov, all leading officials, attended a Central Committee meeting once ; it was in 1973 to ratify the Soviet Union's treaty with West Germany.

No Politburo or Secretariat members during the Brezhnev era were speakers during Central Committee meetings.

The speaker at the Central Committee meeting which elected the Council of Ministers ( the Government ) and the Politburo was never listed during the Brezhnev era.