The Operational Code of the Politburo

Abstract : Theoretical frameworks that examine a political actor's personal characteristics and how they affect the foreign policies of their respective states are useful tools for analysts, researchers, and historians. One of the most widely used frameworks has been operational code analysis, introduced by Nathan Leites in this seminal RAND Corporation volume, The Operational Code of the Politburo. Originally published by McGraw-Hill in 1951, it was the inaugural publication in what was then called The RAND Series and later became known as RAND's commercial books series, a collection of monographs which aimed to make RAND's groundbreaking research available to the public. In that spirit, and to celebrate RAND's 60th Anniversary, RAND is proud to bring this classic work back into print in paperback and digital formats. The Operational Code of the Politburo was part of a major effort at RAND to provide insight into the political leadership and foreign policy in the Soviet Union and other communist states; the development of Soviet military strategy and doctrine; and the organization and operation of the Soviet economy. The book presents some of the findings of a still-continuing study of the political strategy of Bolshevism and is based on the writings of Lenin and Stalin. The intention is not to discuss the major theories of Leninism-Stalinism but to discover the rules which Bolsheviks believe to be necessary for effective political conduct. Although a number of these rules can be found through-out Bolshevik literature, many others have only been implied in the political analyses made by Bolsheviks within the last half-century. An attempt has been made to draw explicit and systematic formulations from this wealth of data and to set them down within a meaningful frame of reference. This book deals mainly with the relations between the Party and the outside world rather than with the Party's internal relations.