27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from 25 February to 6 March 1986 in Moscow. This was the first congress presided over by Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In accordance with the pattern set 20 years earlier by Leonid Brezhnev, the congress occurred five years after the previous CPSU Congress. Much had changed in those five years. Key figures of Soviet politics, Mikhail Suslov, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Dmitriy Ustinov, and Konstantin Chernenko had died, and Mikhail Gorbachev had become General Secretary of the Party. For this reason the congress was widely anticipated, both at home and abroad, as an indicator of Gorbachev's new policies and directions. The congress was attended by 4993 delegates. It elected the Central Committee of the 27th term.

1986 USSR Postal Stamp, celebrating the 27th Congress

Gorbachev's ending speech to the 27th Congress

The agenda of the congress:

1. Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee of the 26th Congress
2. On the revised programme of the CPSU
3. On the revised rules of the CPSU
4. Report of the CPSU Central Auditing Commission of the 26th Congress
5. Guidelines for the Economic and Social Development of the USSR for 1986-1990 and for the Period Ending in 2000
6. Elections of the central party organs
   1. Central Committee of the 27th Congress
   2. Central Auditing Commission of the 27th Congress

External links

• Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 27th Party Congress by Mikhail Gorbachev
• Guidelines for the Economic and Social Development of the USSR for 1986-1990 and for the Period Ending in 2000 by Nikolai Ryzhkov
• The Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. A New Edition. Adopted by the 27th Congress of the CPSU on March 1, 1986
• Rules of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approved by the 27th Congress