General line of the party
Encyclopedia
In the terminology of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

, the general line of the party or simply the general line refers to the directives of the governing bodies of a party
Party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, or recreation. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing as well....

 (usually a communist party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

) which define party's politics. The term was in common use by 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...

 (since its early days under other names) and also adopted by many other communist parties of the world. The notion is rooted in the major principle of democratic centralism
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...

, which provided for unconditional obeying the top level decisions at all party levels.

Soviet Union

The term has acquired a significant notoriety in the context of Soviet political repressions
Soviet political repressions
Throughout the history of the Soviet Union millions of people became victims of political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution...

, deviations from the general line have led to severe punishment. The introduction to a collection of the documents from the Stalinist era  says that general line statements produced from the Stalinist leadership were written with great care and exact phrasing in prescribed terminology and with established slogans. The goal was to provide a means of political and social control. Once the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...

 formulated a statement about the party line on a particular issue, it was republished in major newspapers, such as Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....

.
Disagreements with the party line were treated as a political crime: anti-Soviet agitation.
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