Until Stalin's consolidation of power, there were regular meetings of the Politburo. Although there was a requirement adopted in 1923 that verbatim transcripts of the major agenda items were to be kept, few transcripts were actually prepared, and only thirty-one are preserved. They have been published as Stenograms of the Politburo of the Communist Party in Russian as a joint project of the Hoover Institution and the Russian Archival Service1 along with an analysis of these transcripts, The Lost Transcripts of the Politburo, in English.2
Stenographic accounts were taken of Politburo meetings at the request of Politburo members. After Stalin's consolidation of power, they were made only when he so decided. Before his ascendancy, any member of the Politburo could request such a transcript. Those in the minority often requested a transcript to have a written record of speeches and remarks.
Politburo stenographic accounts were made to inform the party about Politburo decisions. After the meeting, each speaker was given a copy of his remarks for editing. Thereafter, the edited version of the meeting was bound in red-covered pamphlets for distribution to the party's Central Committee members or to an even broader group. These red pamphlets gave party members their marching orders with respect to the latest twists and turns in party policy.
Transcripts of Politburo meetings whose contents were judged too sensitive (such as revealing wide splits within the party leadership) were not distributed or were limited to a select few party leaders. The transcript of the September 8, 1927, meeting was prepared for distribution but then withheld as too sensitive. Stalin insisted on preparing the transcripts of the November 22, 1932, meeting to send the word to party members that not the slightest criticism of his policies was to be permitted.
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