The People's Control was a semi-civic, semi-governmental organisation in 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....

 with the purpose of putting under scrutiny the activities or government, local administrations and enterprises. It traces its roots back to Rabkrin

Rabkrin

Rabkrin, RKI or Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate was a governmental establishment in Soviet Russia and the early Soviet Union responsible for scrutinizing the state, local and enterprise administrations during 1920-1934. It was established on February 7, 1920 to replace the People's...

 (the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate), established in 1920.

When 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...

 rose to power, he merged Rabkrin with the CPSU Party Control Committee

CPSU Party Control Committee

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

, only to un-merge them in the 1930s. Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

, seeking to emulate the Bolsheviks but as part of his de-Stalinization

De-Stalinization

De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...

 efforts, merged them again and created the Committee of Party-State Control of the Central Committee of the CPSU and of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, putting the ambitious Alexander Shelepin

Alexander Shelepin

Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin was a Soviet state security officer and party statesman. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its Politburo and was the head of the KGB from 25 December 1958 to 13 November 1961.Shelepin was born in Voronezh...

 in charge. In 1965, Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev  – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...

 and the collective leadership around him separated them once more to restrain Shelepin's ambitions.

The 1979 USSR Law on People's Control established committees of people's control in each Soviet republic

Republics of the Soviet Union

The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...

 under the supervision of the central Committee of People's Control. These committees had the authority to audit government and economic administration records. Officials found guilty of illegalities could be publicly reprimanded, fined for damages, or referred to the procurator for prosecution. In the late 1980s, the committees of people's control had been an invaluable instrument in Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

's efforts at reform and perestroika

Perestroika

Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

.

The committees of people's control extended throughout the Soviet Union. In 1989, of the more than 10 million citizens who served on these organs, 95 percent were volunteers. General meetings of work collectives at every enterprise and office elected the committees for tenures of two and one-half years. The chairman of the Committee of People's Control and a professional staff served for five years. The chairman sat on the USSR Council of Ministers.

Chairmen

• Alexander Shelepin
  Alexander Shelepin
  Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin was a Soviet state security officer and party statesman. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its Politburo and was the head of the KGB from 25 December 1958 to 13 November 1961.Shelepin was born in Voronezh...
  
   (...-1965)
• Pavel Kovanov
• Gennady Voronov
  Gennady Voronov
  Gennady Ivanovich Voronov was a Soviet-Russian statesman who was from 1962 to 1971 the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR, literally meaning Premier or Prime Minister....
  
   (1971-)
• Alexey Shkolnikov (1974-)
• Sergey Manyakin (1987-)
• Gennady Kolbin
  Gennady Kolbin
  Gennady Kolbin was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakh SSR from December 16, 1986 to June 22, 1989.Kolbin had not worked in the Kazakh SSR prior to his appointment...
  
  (1989-)