Central Committee elected by the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
The Central Committee composition was elected by the 16th Congress, and sat from 13 July 1930 until 10 February 1934. Its 1st Plenary Session renewed the composition of the Politburo, Secretariat and the Orgburo of the All-Union Communist Party. The 16th Congress was the first party convention since the 13th Congress which saw no organized opposition, and the first congress in party history in which there was no opposition to the party leadership. Ukrainian historian Oleg Khlevniuk considers the period 1930–1934 to be a "transitional period" between collective leadership and Joseph Stalin's personal dictatorship. The removal of Alexei Rykov, the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, from the Politburo at the 1st Joint Plenary Session of the CC and the Central Control Commission has been marked in historic literature as "the definitive Stalinization of that body " according to Khlevniuk.
The Central Committee elected Stalin General Secretary of the Central Committee at its 1st Plenary Session. Vyacheslav Molotov served as Stalin's deputy, an informal post referred to by Sovietologists as Second Secretary, and was empowered to manage party business and sign Politburo resolutions when Stalin was away from Moscow. Upon Molotov's appointment as SNK Chairman in December 1930, Lazar Kaganovich took his place as Second Secretary.
This Central Committee composition led the party and the country through the first five-year plan, Syrtsov–Lominadze affair, dekulakization, collectivization of agriculture, Ryutin Affair, Soviet famine of 1932–33, the beginning of the second five-year plan, purges of the last oppositional elements within the party and heightened repression.
Keys
Plenums
The Central Committee was not a permanent institution. It convened plenary sessions. Seven CC plenary sessions and two plenary sessions held in conjunction with the convening of the Central Control Commission were held between the 16th Congress and the 17th Congress. When the CC was not in session, decision-making power was vested in the internal bodies of the CC itself; that is, the Politburo, Secretariat and Orgburo. None of these bodies were permanent either; typically they convened several times a month.| Plenum | Start–end |
| 1st Plenary Session | 13 July 1930 |
| 2nd Plenary Session | 1 December 1930 |
| 1st Joint Plenary Session | 17–21 December 1930 |
| 3rd Plenary Session | 11–15 June 1931 |
| 4th Plenary Session | 28–31 October 1931 |
| 5th Plenary Session | 4 February 1932 |
| 6th Plenary Session | 28 September – 2 October 1932 |
| 2nd Joint Plenary Session | 7–12 January 1933 |
| 7th Plenary Session | 25 January 1934 |
Apparatus
Individuals employed by the Central Committee's bureaus, departments and newspapers made up the apparatus between the 16th Congress and the 17th Congress. The bureaus and departments were supervised by the Secretariat, and each secretary supervised a specific department. The leaders of departments were officially referred to as Heads, while the titles of bureau leaders varied between chairman, first secretary and secretary.| Institutions | Head Cyrillic | Took office | Left office | Tenure | Ethnicity |
| Accounting Department | Тимофей Самсонов | 1932 | 10 February 1934 | Russian | |
| Administrative, Enterprise and Trade Union Cadres Department | Иван Москвин | 13 July 1930 | 14 November 1930 | Russian | |
| Administrative, Enterprise and Trade Union Cadres Department | Николай Ежов | 14 November 1930 | 10 February 1934 | Russian | |
| Agitation and Mass Campaign Department | Григорий Каминский | 13 July 1930 | August 1930 | Russian | |
| Agitation and Mass Campaign Department | Клавдия Николаева | August 1930 | 1933 | Russian | |
| Agriculture Department | Лазарь Каганович | 15 December 1932 | 10 February 1934 | Russian | |
| Bolshevik | Вильгельм Кнорин | 13 July 1930 | 10 February 1934 | Latvian | |
| Central Asian Bureau | Исаак Зеленский | 13 July 1930 | January 1931 | Russian | |
| Central Asian Bureau | Карл Бауман | January 1931 | 10 February 1931 | Latvian | |
| Chief Administrator | Тимофей Самсонов | 13 July 1930 | 10 February 1934 | Russian | |
| Culture and Propaganda Department | Алексей Стецкий | 13 July 1930 | 10 February 1934 | Russian | |
| Institute of Marx–Engels–Lenin | Владимир Адоратский | November 1931 | 10 February 1934 | Russian | |
| Organizational-Instruction Department | Дмитрий Булатов | 13 July 1930 | July 1931 | Russian | |
| Organizational-Instruction Department | Жозеф Меерзон | July 1931 | 1932 | Russian | |
| Organizational-Instruction Department | Григо́рій Петро́вський | 1932 | January 1933 | Russian | |
| Organizational-Instruction Department | Владимир Полонский | January 1933 | August 1933 | Russian | |
| Pravda | Лев Мехлис | 13 July 1930 | 10 February 1934 | Ukrainian | |
| Secret Department | Иван Товстуха | 13 July 1930 | 22 July 1930 | Ukrainian | |
| Secret Department | Александр Поскрёбышев | 22 July 1930 | 10 February 1934 | Russian |