Soviet Communist Party

The Soviet Communist Party, (PROSE: Revolution Man) also known as the Communist Party of Russia, (PROSE: The Danger Men) or the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were the ruling political party in the Soviet Union. They subscribed to the communist ideology. They were led by a General Secretary, who also led the nation. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive) They were also known as Bolsheviks in the early part of the 20th century. (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs, PROSE: The Clockwise Man)

History
The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia on 7 November 1917, led by Vladimir Lenin, in the October Revolution. Their hold on power was further consolidated in the Russian Civil War, which led to the formation of the Soviet Union. The revolution replaced Russia's monarchy with a communist government, and was noted for being particularly bloody. (PROSE: History 101) The Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, was executed in 1918 along with his entire family. (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs, PROSE: The Death of Empire)

By 1919, the Bolshevik revolution had spread to Uzbekistan. (AUDIO: The Memory Cheats) The Soviet Union also soon encompassed Ukraine and Kazakhstan. (AUDIO: Thin Ice, 1963: The Space Race)

By the 1920s, many Russians were in exile, escaping the Bolshevik hold over the nation. Rose Tyler surmised from a group of Russians in London in 1924 that they wanted to "kick out Lenin and co. and reclaim their lost lands". (PROSE: The Clockwise Man)

The Twentieth Communist Party Congress met in Moscow. (PROSE: The Earwig Archipelago)

Joseph Stalin served as the General Secretary during the 1930s and the 1940s. In 1937, Stalin cemented his power through a series of show trials in which people were accused of "thinking the wrong thing" or "suspected of thinking it". Stalin's will was enforced by a secret police, the NKVD. As a result, millions were killed or disappeared under his rule. (PROSE: History 101)

During Stalin's government, the party was ruled by his allies, known as Stalinists. They were an unforgiving group. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch) Leon Trotsky, a former ally of Lenin and Stalin who had fallen out of favour, died from an ice pick to the head (AUDIO: Last of the Romanovs) in August of 1940. (PROSE: Sometime Never...) Trotsky's followers were known as Trotskyists, (PROSE: History 101) or Trotskyites. (AUDIO: State of Emergency, Artificial Intelligence)

The Politburo was the ruling council for the Communist Party. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) In 1951, it comprised of Beria, Khrushchev, Malenkov, Bulganin, and Molotov. (PROSE: Endgame)

After Stalin, Khrushchev governed the party until his removal from office as General Secretary in 1964. Nevertheless, he continued to exercise considerable control over the Politburo until his health began to fail seven years later. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) He was replaced as General Secretary by Leonid Brezhnev. (PROSE: Revolution Man)

In 1981, American visa waiver forms contained the question: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" (PROSE: Scary Monsters)

Following Brezhnev, Chernenko served as the General Secretary in the 1980s until his death in the 1985.

The moderate Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded Chernenko as General Secretary. He implemented a series of reforms known as "glasnost" and "perestroika". (AUDIO: Thin Ice) His tenure eventually saw the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s along with the ruling party. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)

Dieter Allegro did not sell "one iota of information" to the Communist party of Russia. (PROSE: The Danger Men)

Краснодар contained several Communist Party propaganda posters, including ones of Lenin and Stalin. (TV: Before the Flood)

Other realities
In an alternative timeline created by the Elder Gods in the hope of destroying Earth, Chernenko was succeeded as leader of the party by the militant hardliner Vladimir Kryuchkov. This ultimately led to the outbreak of World War III on 9 November 1989 with the Soviet Union on one side and the United States and its allies, including the United Kingdom, on the other. Given that nuclear weapons were used by both sides, hundreds of millions of people were killed in the conflict. This timeline was ultimately negated by the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)