number of new activists. As demonstrates, there is a significant variation in the rates of
recruitment across the republics, although the end of the period is marked with convergence,
probably due to increasing pressure from the central party leadership.
Party budget, available from archival sources (RGASPI), records total expenditures of
the Central Committee (actually, including a number of affiliated central bodies) and
territorial organizations. The latter are the aggregate numbers for all administrative units
below the national level. The breakdowns by particular republics and oblasts are available
only for 1962 and 1964. No data for lower-level units are available. Notwithstanding its
limitations, this source is indispensable and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been
published, let alone used for analytical purposes.
Party bureaucracy. Numbers of bureaucratic positions and salaries are available for
most years from 1940 to 1965 separately for each hierarchical level. Breakdowns by republic
are available for 1950, 1962, and 1964. Comparison of national aggregates of party payrolls
and total expenditure by territorial party organizations shows that payrolls constituted an
almost fixed percentage of party budgets: 5.8 ± 0.3% in 1955-65. Since no budget data on any
units below the national level is available, I use the data on salaries (averages by republic and
by level in the hierarchy) as a proxy for bureaucratic earnings/rents. The same sources
provide office size data (the number of bosses per administrative unit).
Salaries vary significantly (30%) with the level in the hierarchy but exhibit very low
variation across republics - 2-3% within each hierarchical level. Therefore, the territorial
structure of a republic (numbers of units in each level) is likely to be the most important
determinant of variation in the party payroll and, consequently, in the average salaries by
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