Preparation of the Future Elites of the Communist Party in the Period of Communism in Slovakia

The research is focused on organization and content of education of the future party elites in Slovakia during the period of communism. In 1953, a special Party College of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (renamed to the Political Institute of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1965, further on Political Institute of the CC CPC) was created in Czechoslovakia for the purpose of their training. It was directly managed by the Central Committee. After the suppression of the Prague Spring and the onset of normalization (the beginning of the 1970s), a new faculty called the Faculty of the Political Institute of the CC CPC was established in Bratislava and it began its activities in 1972. The research is based on the study of archival sources of relevant funds of the Slovak National Archive in Bratislava. The research shows that the faculty 1) provided a relatively wide spectrum of graduate and postgraduate education in both full-time and part-time form, 2) also provided higher forms of education (rigorous examination procedures and scientific postgraduate studies), 3) had a well-thought-out and well-organized comprehensive system of education for the future elites of the ruling Communist Party, including spending their leisure time. The faculty disappeared after the fall of communism in 1990.