List of leaders of the Soviet Union

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.[11] At the age of 53, his health declined from effects of two bullet wounds, later aggravated by three strokes which culminated with his death in 1924.[12] Irrespective of his health status in his final days, Lenin was already losing much of his power to Joseph Stalin.[13] Alexei Rykov succeeded Lenin as Chairman of the Sovnarkom and although he was de jure the most powerful person in the country, but 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. The actual leader of the triumvirate was Zinoviev, but he began to disagree with Stalin after the victory over Trotsky. 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[14] and the collectivisation of private plots created under Lenin's New Economic Policy.[15] 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.[16] Nazi German troops invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941,[17] 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.[18] Stalin died in March 1953[19] and his death triggered a power struggle in which Nikita Khrushchev after several years emerged victorious against Georgy Malenkov.[20]

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 destabilising. A group known as Anti-Party Group tried to oust Khrushchev from office in 1957, but it failed.[21] As Khrushchev grew older, his erratic behavior became worse, usually making decisions without discussing or confirming them with the Politburo.[22] Leonid Brezhnev, a close companion of Khrushchev, was elected 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.[23] The Soviet Union in the post-Khrushchev 1960s was governed by a collective leadership.[24] Henry A. 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.[25] 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.[26] Yuri Andropov (aged 68 at the time) succeeded Brezhnev in his post as General Secretary in 1982. In 1983, Andropov was hospitalised 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.[27] 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.[28]

At the age of 54, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the General Secretariat by the Politburo on 11 March 1985.[29] 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 was advertised in a Pizza Hut advertisement, 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 a 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.[30] 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.[31]

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

Name (lifetime)	Portrait	Period	Congress(es)	Notes	Political office
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924)[32]		30 December 1922[32] ↓ 21 January 1924†[13]	1st–10th[note 1] 11th 12th	Informal leader of the Bolsheviks since their inception.[32] Lenin was 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.[33]	Chairman of Sovnarkom
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)[13]		21 January 1924[13] ↓ 5 March 1953†[34]	13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th	Stalin initially ruled as part of a Triumvirate with Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev until this broke down in April 1925.[35][34] Stalin also held the post of the Minister of Defence from 19 July 1941 until 3 March 1947 and Chairman of the State Defense Committee during World War II[36] and became the only officer to hold the office of People's Commissar of Nationalities from 1921 to 1923.[37]	General Secretary of the Communist Party (1922–1952)
					Chairman of the Council of Ministers
Georgy Malenkov (1902–1988)[38]		5 March 1953[38][39] ↓ 14 September 1953	—	Succeeded to all of Stalin's titles, but he was forced to resign most of them within a month.[40] Through the office of Premier, Malenkov was locked in a power struggle against Khrushchev.[41]
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)[42]		14 September 1953 ↓ 14 October 1964[43]	20th 21st 22nd	Served as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (from September 1953) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 27 March 1958 to 14 October 1964. While vacationing in Abkhazia, Khrushchev was called by Leonid Brezhnev to return to Moscow for a special meeting of the Presidium to be held on 13 October 1964. At the most fiery session since the so-called "anti-party group" crisis of 1957, he was fired from all his posts. He was largely left in peace in retirement, but he was made a "non-person" to the extent that his name was removed even from the thirty-volume Soviet Encyclopedia.[44] He died in 1971. He was seen overseas as a reformer of a "petrified structure"[45] and described his main contribution as removing the fear that Stalin had brought,[46] but many of his reforms were later reversed.	First Secretary of the Communist Party
Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982)[43]		14 October 1964[43] ↓ 10 November 1982†[47]	23rd 24th 25th 26th	Served as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Brezhnev was later renamed General Secretary[22] and was co-equal with premier Alexei Kosygin until the 1970s. To consolidate his power, he later assumed the title of Chairman of the Presidium.[23] At his death in 1982, he received a state funeral.	General Secretary of the Communist Party
Yuri Andropov (1914–1984)[48]		10 November 1982[48] ↓ 9 February 1984†[49]	—	General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party[25] and Chairman of the Presidium from 16 June 1983 to 9 February 1984.[50]
Konstantin Chernenko (1911–1985)[51]		9 February 1984[51] ↓ 10 March 1985†	—	General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party[52] and Chairman of the Presidium from 11 April 1984 to 10 March 1985.[53]
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–present)[54]		10 March 1985[22] ↓ 26 December 1991[55]	27th 28th	Served as General Secretary from 11 March 1985[53] and resigned on 24 August 1991,[56] Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1 October[52] 1988 until the office was renamed to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet on 25 May 1989 to 15 March 1990[53] and President of the Soviet Union from 15 March 1990[57] to 25 December 1991.[58] The day following Gorbachev's resignation as President, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved.[55]
					President (1990–1991)
Gennady Yanayev (1937–2010)		19 August 1991 ↓ 21 August 1991	—	Elected Vice President of the USSR on December 27, 1990. During August Coup formally led the State Committee on the State of Emergency and was made Acting President of the Soviet Union. Aug 21, he was arrested for his role in the coup.	Acting President of the Soviet Union

On four occasions—the 2–3 year period between Vladimir Lenin's incapacitation and Joseph Stalin's leadership the three months following Stalin's death;[39] the interval between Nikita Khrushchev's fall and Leonid Brezhnev's consolidation of power;[23] and the ailing Konstantin Chernenko's tenure as General Secretary[59]—a form of oligarchy known as a troika ("triumvirate")[60] governed the Soviet Union, with no single individual dominating the regime alone.

Members (lifetime)			Tenure	Notes
			May 1922[61] ↓ April 1925[62]	When Vladimir Lenin suffered his first stroke in May 1922, a troika was established to govern the country in his place, although Lenin briefly returned to the leadership from 2 October 1922 until a severe stroke on 9 March 1923 ended Lenin's political career. The troika consisted of Lev Kamenev, Joseph Stalin and Grigory Zinoviev. The troika broke up in April 1925, when Kamenev and Zinoviev found themselves in a minority over their belief that socialism could only be achieved internationally. Zinoviev and Kamenev joined forces with Leon Trotsky's Left Opposition in early 1926.[62] Later, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trotsky would all be murdered on Stalin's orders.
Lev Kamenev (1883–1936)[63]	Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)[13]	Grigory Zinoviev (1883–1936)[64]
			13 March 1953[39] ↓ 26 June 1953[65]	This troika consisted of Georgy Malenkov, Lavrentiy Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov[66] and ended when Malenkov and Molotov joined Nikita Khrushchev in the arrest and execution of Beria.[42]
Lavrentiy Beria (1899–1953)[39]	Georgy Malenkov (1902–1988)[39]	Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986)[39]
			14 October 1964[43] ↓ 16 June 1977[23]	After Nikita Khrushchev's ouster, a troika took power consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny who assumed the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on 9 December 1965. During Brezhnev’s consolidation of power, the troika was ultimately dissolved in 1977 when Podgorny was replaced as head of state.[23] However, the collective leadership continued to exist in a different shape after Podgorny's ouster in the party leadership throughout the rest of Brezhnev's rule.[67]
Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982)[43]	Alexei Kosygin (1904–1980)[43]	Nikolai Podgorny (1903–1983)[43]
			13 February 1984[68] ↓ 20 December 1984	Despite succeeding Yuri Andropov as the Soviet Union's General Secretary and head of state, Konstantin Chernenko was unable to secure full control over the regime's apparatus due to his poor health [69] and lack of a mandate from the nomenklatura.[70] This resulted in a troika where Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko dominated the nation's military and foreign affairs respectively[71] while Chernenko was left in charge of its domestic policies.[72] This triumvirate dominated Politburo decision-making until Ustinov's death in December 1984.
Konstantin Chernenko (1911–1985)[51]	Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989)[73]	Dmitry Ustinov (1908–1984)[74]

The youngest leaders of the USSR in 1924 were Grigory Zinoviev (40 years old) and Joseph Stalin (45 years old). The oldest at the time of taking office was Konstantin Chernenko (72 years old). The oldest at the time of the loss of power is Leonid Brezhnev (75 years old). The shortest life was lived by Grigory Zinoviev (52 years old). Mikhail Gorbachev (89 years old, living) lived the longest. Stalin ruled the longest (29 years). Gennady Yanayev spent the shortest time in power (3 days).

• 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
• Vozhd

• 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)