Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee

Renaming and establishment

The Presidium (Президиум) was the leading body of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, created in 1952 at the 19th Party Congress, when the party renamed itself and the Presidium replaced the Politburo. Its composition was greatly expanded: instead of the old Politburo's 11 members, 25 full members and 11 candidate members were elected. Soon after, on 16 October 1952, a Central Committee plenum approved a separate inner body, the nine-member Bureau of the Presidium (Бюро Президиума), which included Beria, Bulganin, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Malenkov, Pervukhin, Saburov, Stalin and Khrushchev.

After Stalin's death, on 5 March 1953, a joint decision of the Central Committee plenum, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers abolished this Bureau. The Presidium was then reduced again to a small number of members and functioned as the center of collective leadership, and by 1957 it became customary to include some republican first secretaries among its members.

Collective leadership and inner struggle

The Presidium decided the party's and the state's political, economic, foreign-policy and military questions between Central Committee plenums; full members had the vote, while candidate members could attend its sessions but not vote. After Stalin's death its collective character was strengthened.

In June 1957, a Presidium majority led by Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich demanded the resignation of First Secretary Khrushchev, whose Secret Speech and reforms had threatened their standing. Khrushchev pushed the question to a full plenum of the Central Committee, whose members, convened with Zhukov's help, backed him; the majority was branded the Anti-Party Group and defeated. The defeated leaders were not executed but demoted to the provinces or removed from party posts.

In October 1964 the Presidium again removed Khrushchev, from both the First Secretaryship and the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers; Leonid Brezhnev took over the party and Alexei Kosygin the government. The published reason was advanced age and failing health, but the actual replacement was driven by opposition within the party and state leadership.

Return of the name

At the 23rd Party Congress in 1966 the Presidium reverted to the name Politburo (Политбюро). The name Presidium, which had existed for about 14 years from 1952 to 1966, thus disappeared, and the Politburo remained the party's highest leading body until the dissolution of the USSR.