North Korea is slated to convene its Ninth Party Congress any day now, and on paper, it might sound like just another stiff political gathering of fawning officials in Pyongyang. 

In reality, Party Congresses have always been the regime’s favored stage for big announcements, subtle purges and the occasional rewriting of titles, underscoring the importance of paying attention.

To understand why this upcoming meeting matters, we need to go back — way back — to Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and the strange career of “democratic centralism.”

According to Lenin’s doctrine, once the party line was decided, everyone had to fall