Tomsk Provincial Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1920-1925)

The Tomsk Provincial Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks was elected at the final stage of the first Tomsk provincial party conference on July 26, 1920. It consisted of 11 members and three candidates. The Provincial Committee was the highest authority of the Party in the territory of the Tomsk Province and had the right to approve the county and district party organizations, to appoint editors of the press, direct the activities of councils, trade unions, cooperative associations. Current work of the provincial committee was concentrated in its staff which included a number of departments. The structure of the staff changed periodically. One of the first changes was the elimination of the Department for Work in the Countryside in November 1920. Around April 1921 the Provincial Control Commission was formed as a department. By the fall of 1921, the Departments of Accounting Information and Statistics and for Work among the National Minorities ceased operations. The functions of the former department were transferred to the Organization and Instruction Department. The Department for Work among the National Minorities became a subdivision of national minorities in the Agitation and Propaganda Department. In March 1922, the Istpart Bureau was formed for collection, processing, systematization and publication of documents reflecting the history of the local party organization. In September 1922, a Military Bureau was formed as part of the Organization Department of the Provincial Committee, it lasted until May 1923, and a student office. By 1924 the Party Committee structure was stabilized. Over the five-year period of functioning of the Provincial Committee, its leaders were P.A. Verkhoturov (July 1920 - January 1921), A.D. Nikiforov (January 1921 - April 1921), V.M. Pokhlebkin (April 1921 - July 1921), V.A. Stroganov (July 1921 - September 1923), V.S. Kalashnikov (September 1923 -November 1925). Frequent changes of the party committee leaders reflected the center's striving to prevent the emergence of local separatism. Except A.D. Nikiforov, all heads of the Tomsk Provincial Committee were from other regions of the country. They were sent to Tomsk by the decision of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The size of the Tomsk Provincial Committee officials was extremely volatile. There was a trend of constant growth in the number of the committee staff. The main forms of work were the Provincial Committee plenary sessions and meetings of the Bureau elected at the Plenum. However, the work of the plenum was not systemic. The Tomsk Provincial Committee was obliged to report monthly on its activities to the Siberian bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks. However, the reports were not always on time and their quality was also low. In connection with the division of Siberia and the abolition of the Tomsk province on November 2, 1925, the Tomsk Provincial Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks ceased to exist. Instead, the Tomsk District Party Committee was established.

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