In 1929, Pokrovsky was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He achieved his highest position in the Communist Party apparatus the following year, when he was named as a member of the presidium of the Central Control Commission, a disciplinary body elected and sitting in parallel to the governing Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party. Pokrovsky was also a member of the All-Union and All-Russian Central Executive Committees of Soviets, officially non-party bodies which atrophied in importance over time.