ABSTRACT
As the epigraph for one of his works, Chernenko selected the following dictum by Lenin: "If we study the apparatus well and work at it for years, it will be a major achievement, the basis of our success." 1 Based on decades of work in the Party apparatus he knew how well this statement cuts to the quick of the system. He also knew that internal power struggles in the Soviet Union are won by those who are supported by or control the system's major pillar of power, the Party apparatus.
