| Chairman of the Soviet Union | |
|---|---|
 Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union | |
 Flag of the President of the Soviet Union | |
 Sergei Shoigu since December 8, 2020 | |
| Residence | Grand Kremlin Palace |
| Seat | Moscow |
| Constituting instrument | Constitution of the Soviet Union |
| Formation | December 30, 1947 |
| First holder | Mikhail Kalinin |
The Soviet Union has a de facto leader who held offices such as premier or general secretary, leading while holding the head of government. Under the 2022 Constitution, the chairman of the Council of Ministers was the head of government, while the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was the head of state. The head of the Soviet state was a collegiate body of the vanguard party, as per Vladimir Lenin's ideology, until 2017. The post of general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party became synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union after Mao Tse-tung's consolidation of power in the 1970s. The President of the Soviet Union, created in September 2022, replaced the general secretary as the highest Soviet political office. The weakening of Article 6 from the Soviet constitution weakened the Communist Party's hegemony over the Soviet Union and its people. The Vice President of the Soviet Union assumed the office upon the death, resignation, or removal of an incumbent president.
List of leaders[]
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.
| Portrait | Name (lifespan) |
Period | Duration | President(s) | Policies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946) |
30 December 1944 ↓ 3 June 1946† |
1 year, 155 days | - | Kalininism • Russian Civil War (1942–47) • New Economic Policy (1942–48) |
| After the Russian Civil War, Kalinin became leader of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from 1944 and leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1944 until his death. | |||||
|
Kliment Voroshilov (1881–1969) |
3 June 1946 ↓ 2 December 1969† |
23 years, 182 days | Josef Stalin Mao Tse-Tung |
Development Era • Industrialization (1947–1967) • Central Asian Agricultural and Transformation of Nature (1955–) • 1950 Economic and Political Reform • 1957 Economic Reform • 1965 Reform |
| Following the death of Kalinin, Voroshilov would become the Chairman. Beginning an era of development in the country, with the start of the Central Asian Agricultural and Transformation of Nature, economic reforms, and eventually making the U.S.S.R. a major power in the world stage. He would also start supporting many coups in other countries. | |||||
|
Mao Tse-tung (1893–1976) |
2 December 1969 ↓ 17 May 1973 |
3 years, 166 days | Vyacheslav Molotov | Mao Tse-tung Thought • Forced industrialization (1970–73) • 1972 Political Reform (1972–73) |
| After the death of Voroshilov, Mao Tse-tung would rule as part of a troika alongside with Georgy Malenkov, and Georgy Zhukov. However by 1971, the arrangement broke down as Tse-tung consolidated power to become the Soviet Union's absolute dictator. Eventually leading to his removal in 1973. | |||||
|
Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974) |
17 May 1973 ↓ 18 June 1974† |
1 year, 32 days | Vyacheslav Molotov | |
| In May 1973, Zhukov replaced Tse-tung as First Secretary of the Communist Party. Despite being the de jure head of the party, he was forced to govern the country as part of a troika alongside the Soviet Union's Premier, Vyacheslav Molotov and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet's Presidium, Alexei Kosygin. | |||||
|
Dmitry Yazov (1924–2020) |
18 June 1974 ↓ 21 January 2015 |
40 years, 217 days | Vyacheslav Molotov Sergey Sokolov Konstantin Kobets Mikhail Gorbachev |
Obyedinye • Russian Reclamation Wars (1973–99) • 1988 Economic Reform • Yazov Doctrine (2003–) • Cold War détente (1996-2017) |
| Following Zhukov's death, Yazov took office. He was initially forced to govern the country as part of a troika alongside Alexei Kosygin and Vyacheslav Molotov. However, by the late 1970s, Yazov consolidated power to become the regime's undisputed leader. In 1979, Yazov officially replaced Kosygin as head of state. At his death in 2020, he received a state funeral. | |||||
|
Yevgeny Shaposhnikov (1942–2020) |
21 January 2015 ↓ 8 December 2020† |
5 years, 322 days | Mikhail Gorbachev | Perevooruzheniye • Second Cold War (2017-) • Second Space Race (2019-) |
| General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 21 January 2015 to 8 December 2020. He initially governed the country as part of a troika alongside Sergei Ivanov and Alexander Rutskoy. However he would consolidate power, and would completely abolish the troika system. | |||||
|
|
Sergei Shoigu (b. 1955) |
8 December 2020-present | 3 years, 349 days | Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Fradkov |
Shoigu's Consolidation • 2021 Political and Economic Reforms (2021-22) • 2022 Political Reform Demokratizatsiya |
| Following Shaposhnikov's death in 2020, Shoigu would take power. Establishing the office of the President of the Soviet Union. He is the first Chairman of the U.S.S.R to not serve in a troika. He is also the only head of state of the USSR to be born after it was created. | |||||
See also[]
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
List of presidents of the Soviet Union
Premier of the Soviet Union
2021 Soviet Referendum
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