In 1934, the 17th Congress of the Communist Party elected Bulganin a candidate member of the Central Committee. A loyal Stalinist, he was promoted rapidly as other leaders fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–38. In July 1937, he was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Prime Minister) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) after the previous incumbent, Daniil Sulimov had been arrested. He became a full member of the Central Committee later that year and, in September 1938, became Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and head of the State Bank of the USSR.