1922–1991

Party leadership

The Communist Party leadership that usually mattered more than formal government office.

People who worked in this line →

Leadership Timeline

  1. 1922–1953 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin General Secretary and supreme party-state authority
  2. 1953–1964 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev First Secretary, later also premier
  3. 1964–1982 Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev First Secretary, then General Secretary
  4. 1982–1984 Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov General Secretary
  5. 1984–1985 Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko General Secretary
  6. 1985–1991 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev General Secretary, later President