Regionalism connotes a de facto decentralization of authority in the Soviet system. It amounts to a form of slippage in the implementation of the centre's substantive policies, one which substitutes, as it were, the ongoing modifications of carpenters, bricklayers and so forth for the designs developed by the architect. In so far as cadres policy is concerned, regionalism functions as a countervailing influence on the centralized appointments mechanism through which the content of Moscow's nomenklatura is determined by personnel processes transpiring far from the capital. Behind the appearance of a central personnel office that directs the placement of cadres from the top-down, a number of studies have detected the presence of regionally based pockets of positions through which personnel circulate with little interference from the centre. An upwardly mobile career for the great majority of Soviet politicians seems to hinge on, first, finding one's way into one of those networks which control local appointments and advancing on the basis of the patronage dispensed by holders of important regional posts. Secondly, it involves ascending the regional hierarchies to the point at which connections with potential patrons at higher levels might be cultivated.

The longevity and resilience of the regional factor in Soviet political life is in large measure a consequence of the manner in which that political life is structured. On the one hand, central actors seeking support against their rivals have actively nurtured regionalism through the beneficent extension of patronage to both cronies and potential allies alike.