1917–1991
Ideology and propaganda
The party apparatus that managed culture, censorship, propaganda and orthodoxy.
Leadership Timeline
- 1917–1929 Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky People’s Commissar for Enlightenment
- 1934–1948 Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov CC secretary for culture and ideology
- 1949–1952 Dmitri Trofimovich Shepilov CC Propaganda Department chief in late Stalinism
- 1957 Dmitri Trofimovich Shepilov CC secretary for ideology
- 1947–1982 Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov CC secretary for ideology
- 1961–1974 Pyotr Nilovich Demichev CC secretary for ideology and culture
- 1955–1986 Boris Nikolayevich Ponomarev International Department chief and guardian of the communist line
- 1985–1990 Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev Politburo ideology chief and architect of glasnost