19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The 19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a party conference held by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 28 June to 1 July 1988.[1] The conference was attended by 4,991 delegates.[2]

The Conference

The General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared in his opening speech that political reform was the key issue.[2][3] Gorbachev wanted to achieve the "democratization of the life of the state and society", and wanted the Soviet Union to "move along the path of the creation of a socialist state under the rule of law".[4]

The Conference called for elections for the governmental soviets at all levels, with secret ballots and multiple candidacies, and it established the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union.[2]

Although Gorbachev had to compromise on some of his several objectives because of conservative resistance, the conference was a significant victory for Gorbachev.[2]

References
  1. Kurban, Vefa (2017). Russian-Turkish Relations from the First World War to the Present. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 194. ISBN 978-1443869263.
  2. Garthoff, Raymond L. (1994). The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. p. 360–361. ISBN 0-8157-3060-8.
  3. "Key Sections of Gorbachev Speech Given to Party Conference". The New York Times. 29 June 1988. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  4. Quigley, John (1990). "The Soviet Union as a State under the Rule of Law: An Overview". Cornell International Law Journal. 23 (2): 205. ISSN 0010-8812.
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