[3] According to Ukrainian historian Oleg Khlevniuk the "procedures followed by the Politburo became increasingly simplified as it was transformed from a collective body into an appendage of a decision-making system that rested on Stalin's sole authority.

[5] When looking back, Nikita Khrushchev lamented the situation; "by 1938, the earlier democracy in the Central Committee had already been greatly undermined.

[7] Of the 24 reelected at the 18th Party Congress, four would be subject to violent repression (Mikhail Kaganovich in 1941, Solomon Lozovsky in 1952, Lavrentiy Beria in 1953 and Mir Jafar Baghirov in 1956).

[9] When asked in an interview how the Central Committee approved its own destruction (the decision to expel a member from the CC or for a member to be arrested by the authorities had to be approved by the CC itself through a plenary session), Vyacheslav Molotov replied; "In the first place, on democratic centralism—Listen, it did not happen that a minority expelled a majority.

Essentially, it happened that a minority of the composition of the TsK [CC] remained of this majority, but without formal violation [of democratic centralism].

"[10] According to J. Arch Getty and Oleg Naumov the CC "In the name of party unity and with a desperate feeling of corporate self-preservation, the nomenklatura committed suicide.