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During its 69-year history, the Soviet Union usually had a de facto leader who would not always necessarily be head of state or even head of government but would lead while holding an office such as Communist Party General Secretary. Under the 1977 Constitution, the chairman of the Council of Ministers was the head of government and the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was the head of state. The office of the chairman of the Council of Ministers was comparable to a prime minister in the First World whereas the office of the chairman of the Presidium was comparable to a president. In the ideology of Vladimir Lenin, the head of the Soviet state was a collegiate body of the vanguard party (as described in What Is to Be Done?).

Following Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s, the post of the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party became synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union, because the post controlled both the Communist Party and, via party membership, the Soviet government. Often the general secretary also held high positions in the government. The post of general secretary lacked clear guidelines of succession, so after the death or removal of a Soviet leader the successor needed the support of the Political Bureau (Politburo), the Central Committee, or another government or party apparatus to both take and stay in power. The President of the Soviet Union, an office created in March 1990, replaced the general secretary as the highest Soviet political office.

Contemporaneously to the establishment of the office of the president, representatives of the Congress of People's Deputies voted to remove Article 6 from the Soviet constitution which stated that the Soviet Union was a one-party state controlled by the Communist Party which in turn played the leading role in society. This vote weakened the party and its hegemony over the Soviet Union and its people. Upon death, resignation, or removal from office of an incumbent president, the Vice President of the Soviet Union would assume the office, though the Soviet Union dissolved before this was actually tested. After the failed coup in August 1991, the vice president was replaced by an elected member of the State Council of the Soviet Union.

Summary

Vladimir Lenin was voted the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union (Sovnarkom) on 30 December 1922 by the Congress of Soviets. At the age of 53, his health declined from the effects of two bullet wounds, later aggravated by three strokes which culminated with his death in 1924. Irrespective of his health status in his final days, Lenin was already losing much of his power to Joseph Stalin. Alexei Rykov succeeded Lenin as chairman of the Sovnarkom, and although he was de jure the most powerful person in the country, in fact, all power was concentrated in the hands of the "troika" – the union of three influential party figures: Grigory Zinoviev, Joseph Stalin, and Lev Kamenev. Stalin continued to increase his influence in the party, and by the end of the 1920s, he became the sole dictator of the USSR, defeating all his political opponents. The post of general secretary of the party, which was held by Stalin, became the most important post in the Soviet hierarchy.

Stalin's early policies pushed for rapid industrialisation, nationalisation of private industry and the collectivisation of private plots created under Lenin's New Economic Policy. As leader of the Politburo, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power by 1938 after the Great Purge, a series of campaigns of political murder, repression and persecution. On 22 June 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, but by December the Soviet Army managed to stop the attack just shy of Moscow. On Stalin's orders, the Soviet Union launched a counter-attack on Nazi Germany, which finally succeeded in 1945. Stalin died in March 1953 and his death triggered a power struggle in which Nikita Khrushchev after several years emerged victorious against Georgy Malenkov.

Khrushchev denounced Stalin on two occasions, first in 1956 and then in 1962. His policy of de-Stalinisation earned him many enemies within the party, especially from old Stalinist appointees. Many saw this approach as destructive and destabilizing. A group known as Anti-Party Group tried to oust Khrushchev from office in 1957, but it failed. As Khrushchev grew older, his erratic behaviour became worse, usually making decisions without discussing or confirming them with the Politburo. Leonid Brezhnev, a close companion of Khrushchev, was elected the first secretary the same day of Khrushchev's removal from power. Alexei Kosygin became the new premier, and Anastas Mikoyan kept his office as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. On the orders of the Politburo, Mikoyan was forced to retire in 1965, and Nikolai Podgorny took over the office of chairman of the Presidium. The Soviet Union in the post-Khrushchev 1960s was governed by a collective leadership. Henry Kissinger, the American National Security Advisor, mistakenly believed that Kosygin was the leader of the Soviet Union and that he was at the helm of Soviet foreign policy because he represented the Soviet Union at the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference. The "Era of Stagnation", a derogatory term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev, was a period marked by low socio-economic efficiency in the country and a gerontocracy ruling the country. Yuri Andropov (aged 68 at the time) succeeded Brezhnev in his post as general secretary in 1982. In 1983, Andropov was hospitalized and rarely met up at work to chair the politburo meetings due to his declining health. Nikolai Tikhonov usually chaired the meetings in his place. Following Andropov's death fifteen months after his appointment, an even older leader, 72-year-old Konstantin Chernenko, was elected to the general secretariat. His rule lasted for little more than a year until his death thirteen months later on 10 March 1985.

At the age of 54, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the general secretariat by Politburo on 11 March 1985. In May 1985, Gorbachev publicly admitted the slowing down of the economic development and inadequate living standards, being the first Soviet leader to do so while also beginning a series of fundamental reforms. From 1986 to around 1988, he dismantled central planning, allowed state enterprises to set their own outputs, enabled private investment in businesses not previously permitted to be privately owned, and allowed foreign investment, among other measures. He also opened up the management of and decision-making within the Soviet Union and allowed greater public discussion and criticism, along with the warming of relationships with the West. These twin policies were known as perestroika (literally meaning "reconstruction", though it varies) and glasnost ("openness" and "transparency"), respectively. The dismantling of the principal defining features of Soviet communism in 1988 and 1989 in the Soviet Union led to the unintended consequence of the Soviet Union breaking up after the failed August 1991 coup led by Gennady Yanayev.

List of leaders

The following list includes those who held the top leadership position of the Soviet Union from its founding in 1922 until its 1991 dissolution. † denotes leaders who died in office.

Portrait	Name (lifespan)	Period	Duration	Congress(es)	Political office	Premier(s)	President(s)	Policies
	Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924)	30 December 1922 ↓ 21 January 1924†	1 year, 22 days	1st–10th 11th 12th	Chairman of Sovnarkom	Himself	Mikhail Kalinin	Leninism • Russian Civil War (1917–23) • War communism (1918–21) • New Economic Policy (1921–28)
		After the Russian Revolution, Lenin became leader of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from 1917 and leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 until his death.
	Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)	21 January 1924 ↓ 5 March 1953†	29 years, 43 days	13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th	General Secretary of the Communist Party (1922–1952) Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Alexei Rykov Vyacheslav Molotov Himself	Mikhail Kalinin Nikolay Shvernik	Stalinism • Socialism in one country • Collectivization (1928–40) • Rapid industrialization (1929–41) • Great Purge (1936–38)
		Following the death of Lenin, Stalin initially ruled as part of a troika alongside Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. However, by April 1925, this arrangement broke down as Stalin consolidated power to become the Soviet Union's absolute dictator. He also held the post of the Minister of Defence from 19 July 1941 to 3 March 1947 and chaired the State Defense Committee during World War II.
	Georgy Malenkov (1902–1988)	5 March 1953 ↓ 7 September 1953	186 days	—	Chairman of the Council of Ministers	Himself	Nikolay Shvernik Kliment Voroshilov
		After Stalin's death, Malenkov ruled as part of a troika alongside Lavrentiy Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov, Despite initially succeeding Stalin in all his titles and positions, he was forced to relinquish most of them within a month by the Politburo. The troika would ultimately break down when Beria was arrested later that year. Shortly thereafter, he found himself locked in a power struggle against Nikita Khrushchev that led to his removal as Premier in 1955.
	Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)	7 September 1953 ↓ 14 October 1964	11 years, 37 days	20th 21st 22nd	First Secretary of the Communist Party	Georgy Malenkov Nikolai Bulganin Himself	Kliment Voroshilov Leonid Brezhnev Anastas Mikoyan	Khrushchev Thaw • De-Stalinization (1956–64) • Anti-religious campaign (1958–64) • Sino-Soviet split (1956–66)
		In January 1955, Khrushchev emerged as first among equals within the Presidium of the Central Committee by securing Malenkov's removal as its chairman and Premier of the Soviet Union. After nearly being ousted in 1957 by the "anti-party group", he consolidated his power even further by naming himself Premier on 27 March 1958. Ultimately, after alienating colleagues through disruptive shake-ups of the country's infrastructure and brinksmanship on the world stage, he was fired from all his posts at a special meeting of the Presidium on 13 October 1964.
	Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982)	14 October 1964 ↓ 10 November 1982†	18 years, 27 days	23rd 24th 25th 26th	General Secretary of the Communist Party	Alexei Kosygin Nikolai Tikhonov	Anastas Mikoyan Nikolai Podgorny Himself	Era of Stagnation • Collective leadership • Kosygin reforms (1965–70) • Brezhnev Doctrine (1968–81) • Cold War détente (1969–79) • 1973 economic reform • 1979 economic reform
		In October 1964, Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party. Despite being the de jure head of the party, he was initially forced to govern the country as part of a troika alongside the Soviet Union's Premier, Alexei Kosygin and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet's Presidium, Nikolai Podgorny. However, by the 1970s, Brezhnev consolidated power to become the regime's undisputed leader. In 1977, Brezhnev officially replaced Podgorny as head of state. At his death in 1982, he received a state funeral.
	Yuri Andropov (1914–1984)	10 November 1982 ↓ 9 February 1984†	1 year, 91 days	—	General Secretary of the Communist Party	Nikolai Tikhonov	Vasily Kuznetsov (acting) Himself
		General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 16 June 1983 to 9 February 1984.
	Konstantin Chernenko (1911–1985)	9 February 1984 ↓ 10 March 1985†	1 year, 29 days	—	General Secretary of the Communist Party	Nikolai Tikhonov	Vasily Kuznetsov (acting) Himself
		General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 11 April 1984 to 10 March 1985. However, due to his health and lack of support within the regime, he governed the country for most of his tenure as part of a troika alongside Andrei Gromyko and Dmitry Ustinov.
	Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022)	10 March 1985 ↓ 25 December 1991	6 years, 290 days	27th 28th	President (1990–1991) General Secretary of the Communist Party	Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Ryzhkov Valentin Pavlov Ivan Silayev	Vasily Kuznetsov (acting) Andrei Gromyko Himself	Perestroika • Glasnost • Uskoreniye • Democratization • New political thinking • 500 Days program (planned)
		Served as General Secretary from 11 March 1985 and resigned on 24 August 1991, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1 October 1988 until the office was renamed to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet on 25 May 1989 to 15 March 1990 and President of the Soviet Union from 15 March 1990 to 25 December 1991. Deposed on 19 August 1991, reinstated on 22 August. The day following Gorbachev's resignation as president, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. Gorbachev was the only head of the USSR to have been born during its existence.

List of troikas

On four occasions the Soviet Union was governed by a council known as a troika (i.e."triumvirate"), whereby policymaking depended on the consensus of three chief figures within the Politburo. The instances were: 1) the 2- to 3-year period between Vladimir Lenin's incapacitation and Joseph Stalin's leadership; 2) the three months following Stalin's death; 3) the years between Nikita Khrushchev's fall and Leonid Brezhnev's consolidation of power; and 4) the ailing Konstantin Chernenko's tenure as General Secretary.

Members (lifespan)			Tenure	Duration	Notes
			May 1922 ↓ April 1925	2 years, 11 months	When Vladimir Lenin suffered his first stroke in May 1922, a troika was formed to temporarily rule in his place consisting of Deputy Premier Lev Kamenev, General Secretary Joseph Stalin and Comintern Chairman Grigory Zinoviev. In March 1923, the three assumed permanent control over the country after Lenin suffered another stroke leaving him unable to govern. However, by April 1925, the triumvirate broke up due to Kamenev's and Zinoviev's opposition to Stalin's "Socialism in One Country" policy. After Stalin consolidated power in the 1930s, Kamenev and Zinoviev were ultimately murdered in the Great Purge.
Lev Kamenev (1883–1936)	Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)	Grigory Zinoviev (1883–1936)
			13 March 1953 ↓ 26 June 1953	105 days	After Stalin's death on 5 March 1953, a troika assumed power consisting of Council of Ministers Chairman Georgy Malenkov, Minister of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Beria and Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. It dissolved after Beria was arrested and dismissed from the leadership on 26 June 1953. Thereafter, a power struggle ensued between Malenkov and the First Secretary of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, that ended decisively in the latter's favor by 1955.
Lavrentiy Beria (1899–1953)	Georgy Malenkov (1902–1988)	Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986)
			14 October 1964 ↓ 16 June 1977	12 years, 245 days	After Khrushchev's ousting in 1964, he was replaced by a troika comprising Leonid Brezhnev as First/General Secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and CC Secretary Nikolai Podgorny who went on to become Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1965. However, as Brezhnev increasingly consolidated power, the triumvirate's effectiveness as a guarantor of collective leadership steadily declined. It was ultimately dissolved in 1977 after Brezhnev took Podgorny's place as head of state.
Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982)	Alexei Kosygin (1904–1980)	Nikolai Podgorny (1903–1983)
			13 February 1984 ↓ 20 December 1984	311 days	Despite succeeding Yuri Andropov as the nominal leader of the Soviet Union, Konstantin Chernenko was unable to concentrate policymaking in his hands due to his poor health and lack of popularity among the party elite. This compelled him to govern as part of a troika alongside Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov. This arrangement lasted until Ustinov's death in December 1984 which made way for Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power in March 1985.
Konstantin Chernenko (1911–1985)	Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989)	Dmitry Ustinov (1908–1984)

See also

• Index of Soviet Union-related articles
• List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
• List of presidents of the Russian Federation
• Premier of the Soviet Union
• President of Russia

Notes

1. As a revolutionary, then as leader of Soviet Russia.
2. On 14 March 1990, the provision on the CPSU monopoly on power was removed from Article 6 of the Constitution of the USSR. Thus, in the Soviet Union, a multi-party system was officially allowed and the CPSU ceased to be part of the state apparatus.

References

Citations

1. ^ Armstrong 1986, p. 169.
2. ^ Armstrong 1986, p. 165.
3. ^ Armstrong 1986, p. 98.
4. Armstrong 1986, p. 93.
5. Armstrong 1986, p. 22.
6. Ginsburgs, Ajani & van den Berg 1989, p. 500.
7. Brown 1996, p. 195.
8. Brown 1996, p. 196.
9. Brown 1996, p. 275.
10. Gorbachev, M. (5 September 1991). ЗАКОН Об органах государственной власти и управления Союза ССР в переходный период [Law Regarding State Governing Bodies of the USSR in Transition] (in Russian). Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Retrieved 2015-07-14.
11. Lenin 1920, p. 516.
12. Clark 1988, p. 373.
13. ^ Brown 2009, p. 59.
14. Brown 2009, p. 62.
15. Brown 2009, p. 63.
16. Brown 2009, p. 72.
17. Brown 2009, p. 90.
18. Brown 2009, p. 148.
19. Brown 2009, p. 194.
20. Brown 2009, pp. 231–33.
21. Brown 2009, p. 246.
22. ^ Service 2009, p. 378.
23. ^ Brown 2009, p. 402.
24. Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 13.
25. ^ Brown 2009, p. 403.
26. Brown 2009, p. 398.
27. Zemtsov 1989, p. 146.
28. Brown 2009, p. 481.
29. Brown 2009, p. 487.
30. Brown 2009, p. 489.
31. Brown 2009, p. 503.
32. ^ Brown 2009, p. 53.
33. Sakwa 1999, pp. 140–143.
34. ^ Service 2009, p. 323.
35. Service 2009, pp. 231–32.
36. Green & Reeves 1993, p. 196.
37. ^ "Georgi Malenkov Dies at 86; Stalin Successor". The New York Times. 2 February 1988. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
38. Service 2009, p. 331.
39. ^ Service 2009, p. 332.
40. ^ Fursenko, A.A; Naftali, Timothy J. (2006). Khrushchev's Cold War : The Inside Story of an American Adversary. W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-0-393-05809-3.
41. ^ Marlowe 2005, p. 140.
42. Cook 2001, p. 163.
43. ^ Taubman 2003, p. 258.
44. Hill 1993, p. 61.
45. ^ Service 2009, p. 377.
46. Service 2009, p. 426.
47. ^ Service 2009, p. 428.
48. Service 2009, p. 433.
49. Paxton 2004, p. 234.
50. ^ Service 2009, p. 434.
51. ^ Europa Publications Limited 2004, p. 302.
52. ^ Paxton 2004, p. 235.
53. Service 2009, p. 435.
54. ^ Paxton 2004, p. 237.
55. Service 2009, p. 503.
56. Paxton 2004, p. 236.
57. "Указ Президента СССР от 25.12.1991 N УП-3162 "О сложении Президентом СССР полномочий Верховного Главнокомандующего Вооруженными Силами СССР и упразднении Совета обороны при Президенте СССР"".
58. Gorbachev 1996, p. 771.
59. Tinggaard & Svendsen 2009, p. 460.
60. Saxon, Wolfgang (12 March 1985). "Succession In Moscow: Siberian Peasant Who Won Power; Konstantin Chernenko, A Brezhnev Protege, Led Brief Regime". The New York Times.
61. Reim 2002, pp. 18–19.
62. Rappaport 1999, pp. 141 & 326.
63. Rappaport 1999, p. 140.
64. Rappaport 1999, p. 325.
65. Andrew & Gordievsky 1990, pp. 423–24.
66. Bacon & Sandle 2002, pp. 13–14.
67. Service 2015, p. 105.
68. Miles 2020, p. 100 " Chernenko delegated increasing amounts of responsibility and decision-making to his inner circle because of his health. Gorbachev, for example, chaired politburo meetings in Chernenko's (frequent) absence. In public, inspired by his initials K.U.Ch., Soviet citizens had taken to calling him kucher, or 'coachman,' to evoke the image of an old man struggling to control his team of horses."
69. Mitchell 1990, pp. 121–122 "It was well recognized that Chernenko would be a stopgap leader, probably weaker than any previous one. The condition of his health pointed in this direction, and further assurance was provided by the giving of additional power to the two likeliest candidates for long-term leadership, hemming in Chernenko in his exercise of authority over the party apparat in a way not experienced by any previous general secretary."
70. Bialer 1986, p. 103 "While in office Chernenko labored under major constraints. He was supposed to lead a Politburo that only fifteen months before had rejected him in favor of Andropov. The new members of the Politburo and the score of high officials who joined the central Party apparatus after Brezhnev's death were all Andropov loyalists. They shared their patron's position on the issues. Almost all belonged to the younger generation. Many had replaced Brezhnev loyalists who were close to Chernenko. Moreover, Chernenko did not enjoy the respect of the older generation, all of whom had had more illustrious careers and more independent positions than he. They controlled major bloc of bureaucratic support from the hierarchies they supervised. Nor was Chernenko personally respected by the younger generation. For them he represented the past, and particularly the years of paralysis at the end of Brezhnev's rule... Most important, however, Chernenko's power and his independence were sharply circumscribed by the widely recognized fact that he was a transitional leader who was keeping the seat of the general secretary warm for the real successor to come. The lame-duck nature of Chernenko's leadership meant that officials were not likely to become preoccupied with an effort to please him, or to identify themselves with him."
71. Mitchell 1990, pp. 121–122 " Chernenko's lack of political support... an insuperable obstacle. The Brezhnevites might rally around him to save their political skin, but his personal 'organizational tail' was weaker than Andropov's, consisting of no more than the Moldavian party and the General Department of the Central Committee."
72. Saxon, Wolfgang (12 March 1984). "Succession In Moscow: Siberian Peasant Who Won Power; Konstantin Chernenko, A Brezhnev Protege, Led Brief Regime". The New York Times.
73. Thatcher, Gary (24 December 1984). "Moscow's 'Safe Choice' Kremlin Reaffirms Preference for Seasoned Officials by Naming Sokolov to Top Soviet Defense Post". The Christian Science Monitor.
74. Zemtsov 1989, p. 184.
75. Zemtsov 1989, p. 185.

Sources

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• Bacon, Edwin; Sandle, Mark (2002). Brezhnev Reconsidered. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333794630.
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External links

• Succession of Power in the USSR from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
• Heads of State and Government of the Soviet Union (1922–1991)

• Lists of political office-holders in Russia
• Lists of political office-holders in the Soviet Union
• Leaders of the Soviet Union