This volume investigates the nature, recruitment, and functional roles of political leadership within the Soviet Union and Eastern European states during the late 1960s. R. Barry Farrell, a scholar of comparative politics, compiles research from a 1968 Northwestern University conference to analyze how communist party elites maintained power and navigated internal bureaucratic pressures. The work utilizes a comparative framework to contrast the varying degrees of authoritarian control and institutional stability across the Eastern Bloc.

Experts recognize this collection as a significant snapshot of Cold War-era political science research. Scholars frequently cite the text for its detailed documentation of institutional structures within the Soviet sphere during a period of intense geopolitical transition.