Page "Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" Paragraph 48

By 1988, several people demanded reform within the Communist Party itself.

At the 19th Conference, the first party conference held since 1941, several delegates asked for the introduction of term limits, and an end to appointments of officials, and to introduce multi-candidate elections within the party.

Some called for a maximum of two term-periods in each party body, including the Central Committee, others supported Nikita Khrushchev's policy of compulsory turnover rules, which had been ended by the Brezhnev leadership.

Other people called for the General Secretary to either be elected by the people, or a " kind of party referendum ".

There was also talk about introducing age limits, and decentralising, and weakening the party's bureaucracy.

The nomenklatura system came under attack ; several delegates asked why the leading party members had rights to a better life, at least materially, and why the leadership was more-or-less untouchable, as they had been under Leonid Brezhnev, even if their incompetence was clear to everyone.

Other complained that the Soviet working class was given too large a role in party organisation ; scientific personnel and other white-collar employees were legally discriminated against.