Party Control Committee (PCC) of the CPSU Central Committee  was a supreme disciplinary organ within the hierarchy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

. The Party Control Committee was to be elected by the Central Committee, usually by its plenary meeting

Plenary session

Plenary session is a term often used in conferences to define the part of the conference when all members of all parties are to attend.These sessions may contain a broad range of content from keynotes to panel discussions and are not necessarily related to a specific style of delivery.The term has...

.

The Party Control Committee oversaw the party discipline of the party members and candidate party members in terms of their observance of the Programme and regulations of the Party, state discipline and Party ethics. It administered punishments, including expulsions from the Party. The Party Control Committee also considered the appeals of party members punished by their local Party organizations.

It was through this committee that Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 consolidated near complete control of the Soviet secret police and eventually of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Stalin was never the official leader of the secret police agencies, but since all secret police leaders were appointed to the Control Committee by Stalin, he was thus able to indirectly control the workings of the secret police.

The chairman of the Party Control Committee was a powerful figure in Party politics, and usually held membership in the Politburo

Politburo

Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...

. Notable chairmen included Andrei Andreyev

Andrei Andreyev

Andrey Andreyevich Andreyev was a Soviet politician....

, Nikolay Shvernik

Nikolay Shvernik

Nikolay Mikhailovich Shvernik was a Russian politician, who was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from March 19, 1946 until March 15, 1953...

, Arvid Pelshe, Mikhail Solomentsev

Mikhail Solomentsev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Solomentsev was a high-ranking Soviet politician. He was born near Yelets and graduated from the Leningrad Technological Institute in 1940. Solomentsev was a leading Communist party functionary in Kazakhstan in 1962–1964 and was in charge of the Rostov-on-Don obkom in 1964–1966...

 and Boris Pugo.

Another control organ was the CPSU Central Auditing Commission.