List of leaders of the Soviet Union (WFAC)

Name (Birth–Death)	Portrait	Supreme Rule	Congress	Notes
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924)		30 December 1922 ↓ 21 January 1924†	11th – 12th Congress	Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) and informal leader of the Bolsheviks since their inception. 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.
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)		21 January 1924 ↓ 5 March 1953†	13th–19th Congress	General Secretary from 3 April 1922 until 1934, when he resigned from office; the post of General Secretary itself was abolished in October 1952. Stalin served as Template:Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 until his death on 5 March 1953. He 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 the Great Patriotic War and became the only officer to hold the office of People's Commissariat of Nationalities from 1921–1923.
Georgy Malenkov (1902–1988)		5 March 1953 ↓ 8 February 1955	19th Congress	Succeeded to all of Stalin's titles, but was forced to resign most of them within a month. Malenkov, through the office of Premier, was locked in a power struggle against Khrushchev.
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)		8 February 1955 ↓ 14 October 1964	20th–22nd Congress	Served as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (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. There, 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 was made a "non-person". He died in 1971. He was seen overseas as a reformer of a "petrified structure" and described his main contribution as removing the fear that Stalin had brought, but many of his reforms were later reversed.
Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982)		14 October 1964 ↓ 10 November 1982†	23rd–26th Congress	Served as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, was later renamed General Secretary, 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.
Yuri Andropov (1914–1984)		12 November 1982 ↓ 9 February 1984†	—	General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 16 June 1983 until 9 February 1984.
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–)		9 February 1984 ↓ 15 March 1990	27th–28th Congress	Served as General Secretary from 9 February 1984 to 18 April 1992, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1 October 1988 until the office was renamed to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet on 25 May 1989 to 15 March 1990, President of the Soviet Union from 15 March 1990 to 15 March 1995.

List of Presidents of the Soviet Union (1990–present)

N.	Portrait			Term of office		Tenure (years and days)	Election	Party	Prime Ministers
1			Mikhail Gorbachev Михаи́л Горбачёв (1931–2022)	15 March 1990	7 May 1995	5 years, 1 month and 22 days	1990	Communist Party of the Soviet Union		Nikolai Ryzhkov
										Yuri Maslyukov
1			Nikolai Ryzhkov Николай Рыжков (1928–) (96 years old)	7 May 1995	7 May 2000	5 years	1995	Communist Party of the Soviet Union		Viktor Chernomyrdin
										Vladimir Putin
1			Vladimir Putin Владимир Путин (1952–) (72 years old)	7 May 2000	7 May 2005	24 years, 6 months and 29 days	2000	Communist Party of the Soviet Union		Mikhail Kasyanov
										Sergei Sidorsky
				7 May 2005	7 May 2010		2005
										Viktor Yanukovych
										Dmitri Medvedev
				7 May 2010	7 May 2015		2010
				7 May 2015	7 May 2020		2015
				7 May 2020	Incumbent		2020			Mikhail Mishustin

See also

• Munich Goes Sour