The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за, abbreviated КПСС), was the organization founded on April 24, 1917 that brought together the vanguard of the Soviet people in the construction of socialist society, as the successor to the Bolshevik Party.
Its predecessor was the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), which split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in 1903.
The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviks) in 1918, the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1925, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) in 1952.