General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Template:Short description Template:Featured list Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox official post

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionTemplate:Efn was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). From 1924 until the country's dissolution in 1991, the officeholder was the recognized leader of the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Prior to Joseph Stalin's accession, the position was not viewed as an important role in Vladimir Lenin's government<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and previous occupants had been responsible for technical rather than political decisions.Template:Sfn

Officially, the General Secretary solely controlled the Communist Party directly.{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }} However, since the party had a monopoly on political power, the General Secretary de facto had executive control of the Soviet government. Because of the office's ability to direct both the foreign and domestic policies of the state and preeminence over the Soviet Communist Party, it was the de facto highest office of the Soviet Union.

HistoryEdit

Before the October Revolution, the job of the party secretary was largely that of a bureaucrat. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power, the Office of the Responsible Secretary was established in 1919 to perform administrative work.Template:Sfn After the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, the Office of General Secretary was created by Vladimir Lenin in 1922 with the intention that it serve a purely administrative and disciplinary purpose. Its primary task would be to determine the composition of party membership and to assign positions within the party. The General Secretary also oversaw the recording of party events, and was entrusted with keeping party leaders and members informed about party activities.

When assembling his cabinet, Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin to be General Secretary. Over the next few years, Stalin was able to use the principles of democratic centralism to transform his office into that of party leader, and eventually leader of the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn Trotsky attributed his appointment to the initial recommendation of Grigory Zinoviev.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This view has been supported by several historians.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to Russian historian, Vadim Rogovin, Stalin's election to the position occurred after the Eleventh Party Congress (March–April 1922), in which Lenin, due to his poor health, participated only sporadically, and only attended four of the twelve sessions of the Congress.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Some historians have regarded the premature death of prominent Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov to have been a key factor in facilitating the elevation of Joseph Stalin to the position of leadership in the Soviet Union. In part, because Sverdlov served as the original chairman of the party secretariat and was considered a natural candidate for the position of General Secretary.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Prior to Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin's tenure as General Secretary was already being criticized.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Lenin's final months, he authored a pamphlet that called for Stalin's removal on the grounds that Stalin was becoming authoritarian and abusing his power. The pamphlet triggered a political crisis which endangered Stalin's position as General Secretary, and a vote was held to remove him from office. With the help of Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, Stalin was able to survive the scandal and remained in his post. After Lenin's death, Stalin began to consolidate his power by using the office of General Secretary. By 1928, he had unquestionably become the de facto leader of the USSR, while the position of General Secretary became the highest office in the nation. In 1934, the 17th Party Congress refrained from formally re-electing Stalin as General Secretary. However, Stalin was re-elected to all the other positions he held, and remained leader of the party without diminution.<ref name="Izvestia_CC_CPSU">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the 1950s, Stalin increasingly withdrew from Secretariat business, leaving the supervision of the body to Georgy Malenkov, possibly to test his abilities as a potential successor.Template:Sfn In October 1952, at the 19th Party Congress, Stalin restructured the party's leadership. His request, voiced through Malenkov, to be relieved of his duties in the party secretariat due to his age, was rejected by the party congress, as delegates were unsure about Stalin's intentions.Template:Sfn In the end, the congress formally abolished Stalin's office of General Secretary, although Stalin remained the highest-ranked party secretary and maintained ultimate control of the party.<ref>Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939 – 1953 Template:Webarchive, p. 345.</ref>Template:Sfn When Stalin died on 5 March 1953, Malenkov was considered to be the most important member of the Secretariat, which also included Nikita Khrushchev, among others. Under a short-lived troika consisting of Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov, Malenkov became Chairman of the Council of Ministers, but was forced to resign from the Secretariat nine days later on 14 March. This effectively left Khrushchev in control of the government,Template:Sfn and he was elected to the new office of First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the Central Committee plenum on 14 September that same year. Khrushchev subsequently outmanoeuvred his rivals, who sought to challenge his political reforms. He was able to comprehensively remove Malenkov, Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich (one of Stalin's oldest and closest associates) from power in 1957, an achievement which also helped to reinforce the supremacy of the position of First Secretary.Template:Sfn

In 1964, opposition within the Politburo and the Central Committee, which had been increasing since the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, led to Khrushchev's removal from office. Leonid Brezhnev succeeded Khrushchev as First Secretary, but was initially obliged to govern as part of a collective leadership, forming another troika with Premier Alexei Kosygin and Chairman Nikolai Podgorny.Template:Sfn The office was renamed to General Secretary in 1966.Template:Sfn The collective leadership was able to limit the powers of the General Secretary during the Brezhnev Era.Template:Sfn Brezhnev's influence grew throughout the 1970s as he was able to retain support by avoiding any radical reforms.Template:Sfn After Brezhnev's death, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko were able to rule the country in the same way as Brezhnev had.Template:Sfn Mikhail Gorbachev ruled the Soviet Union as General Secretary until 1990, when the Communist Party lost its monopoly of power over the political system. The office of President of the Soviet Union was established so that Gorbachev could still retain his role as leader of the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn Following the failed August coup of 1991, Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary.Template:Sfn He was succeeded by his deputy, Vladimir Ivashko, who only served for five days as Acting General Secretary before Boris Yeltsin, the newly elected President of Russia, suspended all activity in the Communist Party.Template:Sfn Following the party's ban, the Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP–CPSU) was established by Oleg Shenin in 1993, and is dedicated to reviving and restoring the CPSU. The organisation has members in all the former Soviet republics.Template:Sfn

List of officeholdersEdit

Portrait	Name Template:Small	Term			Notes
Portrait	Name Template:Small	Took office	Left office	Duration	Notes
Chairman of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Template:Small
File:Yakov Sverdlov crop.jpg	Yakov Sverdlov Template:Small Template:Sfn	8 March 1918	16 March 1919 †	Template:Ayd	Sverdlov was one of five secretaries elected to the first Secretariat at the 6th Party Congress on 19 August 1917, and rose to first among them before being elected chairman at the 7th Congress. Until Stalin, the office was mainly responsible for technical rather than political matters.Template:Sfn
Responsible Secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Template:Small
File:Stasova2.jpg	Elena Stasova Template:Small Template:Sfn	25 March 1919	29 November 1919	Template:Ayd	Stasova previously served as the original secretary of the Central Committee, appointed on 13 March 1917, and as a member of the first Secretariat, where her title was Technical Secretary. She was elected Responsible Secretary at the 8th Party Congress.Template:Sfn
File:Nikolai Krestinsky.jpg	Nikolay Krestinsky Template:Small Template:Sfn	29 November 1919	16 March 1921	Template:Ayd	When Krestinsky was elected Responsible Secretary, Stasova was demoted to Secretary.Template:Sfn
File:Vyacheslav Molotov.jpg	Vyacheslav Molotov Template:Small Template:Sfn	16 March 1921	3 April 1922	Template:Ayd	Molotov was elected Responsible Secretary at the 10th Party Congress. The Congress decided that the office of Responsible Secretary should have a presence at Politburo plenums. As a result, Molotov became a candidate member of the Politburo.Template:Sfn
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Template:Small
File:JStalin Secretary general CCCP 1942.jpg	Joseph Stalin Template:Small Template:Sfn	3 April 1922	16 October 1952	Template:Ayd	Stalin, elected General Secretary at the 11th Party Congress, used the office to appoint loyalists to positions in the party and create a strong power base for himself. He was not formally re-elected as General Secretary at the 17th Party Congress in 1934,Template:Sfn and the office was rarely mentioned after that.Template:Sfn On October 16, 1952, Stalin formally abolished the position at the 19th Party Congress, but he retained ultimate power and his position as Chairman of the Council of Ministers until his death on 5 March 1953.Template:Sfn At a tenure of 30 years, 7 months, Stalin was the longest-serving General Secretary, serving almost half of the USSR's entire existence.
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Template:Small
File:Khrushchev Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0121-0010-053, Berlin, VI. SED-Parteitag, 6.Tag.jpg	Nikita Khrushchev Template:Small Template:Sfn	7 September 1953	14 October 1964	Template:Ayd	After Stalin's death, Georgy Malenkov briefly ranked first in the Secretariat until he was forced to give up his position to Khrushchev on 14 March 1953. In September, Khrushchev was elected First Secretary, reestablishing the office.Template:Sfn Khrushchev was removed as leader in 1964, and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev.Template:Sfn
File:Staatshoofden, portretten, Bestanddeelnr 925-6564.jpg	Leonid Brezhnev Template:Small Template:Sfn	14 October 1964	8 April 1966	Template:Ayd	Brezhnev was part of a collective leadership. He formed an unofficial Triumvirate (also known by its Russian name troika) alongside the country's Premier, Alexei Kosygin, and Nikolai Podgorny who became in 1965 a Chairman of the Presidium.Template:Sfn The office of First Secretary was renamed General Secretary at the 23rd Party Congress in 1966.Template:Sfn
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Template:Small
File:Staatshoofden, portretten, Bestanddeelnr 925-6564.jpg	Leonid Brezhnev Template:Small Template:Sfn	8 April 1966	10 November 1982 †	Template:Ayd	Brezhnev's powers and functions as the General Secretary were limited by the collective leadership.Template:Sfn By the 1970s, Brezhnev's influence exceeded that of Kosygin and Podgorny as he was able to retain support by avoiding any radical reforms.
File:YuriAndropov1970.png	Yuri Andropov Template:Small Template:Sfn	12 November 1982	9 February 1984 †	Template:Ayd	He emerged as Brezhnev's most likely successor as the chairman of the committee in charge of managing Brezhnev's funeral.Template:Sfn Andropov ruled the country in the same way Brezhnev had before he died.Template:Sfn
File:Černěnko.jpg	Konstantin Chernenko Template:Small Template:Sfn	13 February 1984	10 March 1985 †	Template:Ayd	Chernenko was 72 years old when elected to the post of General Secretary and in rapidly failing health.Template:Sfn Like Andropov, Chernenko ruled the country in the same way Brezhnev had.Template:Sfn
File:RIAN archive 850809 General Secretary of the CPSU CC M. Gorbachev (cropped).jpg	Mikhail Gorbachev Template:Small Template:Sfn	11 March 1985	24 August 1991	Template:Ayd	The 1990 Congress of People's Deputies removed Article 6 from the 1977 Soviet Constitution resulting in the Communist Party loss of its position as the "leading and guiding force of the Soviet society." The powers of the General Secretary were drastically curtailed. Throughout the rest of his tenure, Gorbachev ruled through the office of President of the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn He resigned from his party office on 24 August 1991 in the aftermath of the August Coup.Template:Sfn
File:НДУ 1 Івашко Володимир Антонович.jpg	Vladimir Ivashko Template:Small Template:Sfn	24 August 1991	29 August 1991	Template:Ayd	Ivashko was elected Deputy General Secretary at the 28th Party Congress. He became acting General Secretary following Gorbachev's resignation, but by then the Party was politically impotent. Its activities were suspended on 29 August 1991,Template:Sfn and it was banned on 6 November.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

TimelineEdit

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DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1917 till:01/01/1992 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1917 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1917

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 bar:7
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 width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

 bar:1
from: 08/03/1918 till: 16/03/1919 color:red text:"Sverdlov" fontsize:10
 bar:2
from: 25/03/1919 till: 29/11/1919 color:red text:"Stasova" fontsize:10
 bar:3
from: 29/11/1919 till: 16/03/1921 color:red text:"Krestinsky" fontsize:10
 bar:4
from: 16/03/1921 till: 03/04/1922 color:red text:"Molotov" fontsize:10
 bar:5
from: 03/04/1922 till: 16/10/1952 color:red text:"Stalin" fontsize:10
 bar:6
from: 07/09/1953 till: 14/10/1964 color:red text:"Khrushchev" fontsize:10
 bar:7
from: 14/10/1964 till: 10/11/1982 color:red text:"Brezhnev" fontsize:10
 bar:8
from: 12/11/1982 till: 09/02/1984 color:red text:"Andropov" fontsize:10
 bar:9
from: 13/02/1984 till: 10/03/1985 color:red text:"Chernenko" fontsize:10
 bar:10
from: 11/03/1985 till: 24/08/1991 color:red text:"Gorbachev" fontsize:10
 bar:11
from: 24/08/1991 till: 29/08/1991 color:red text:"Ivashko (acting)" fontsize:10

</timeline>

Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionEdit

The Second Secretary was the deputy to the General Secretary, They sat along side the General Secretary on the Secretariat and often in practice Chaired the meetings of the Secretariat because the General Secretary was busy fulfilling other duties. They were often very powerful and sat on the Politburo as well. The Second Secretary was seen as a stepping stone to General Secretary and were often in charge of Party Personnel. Prominent Second Secretaries include Mikhail Suslov, Frol Kozlov, and Nikolai Podgorny as well as all Post Stalin General Secretaries.