COTTON-False Alarm

not enjoy the constitutional sanction for the role till the Brezhnev constitution enacted in 1977. It may sound somewhat paradoxical but the reality is that during the long years of Stalin's rule! the unquestioned authority which the CPSU exercised in the country did not have to seek any constitutional legitimacy. It was only after a lot of reform had encroached upon the powers and prerogatives of the sole ruling party that its authority had to be upheld by constitutional sanction.