General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The **General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union** was the head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1922 until its dissolution, the holder of the office was the *de facto* leader of the Soviet Union, because the post controlled the party, the foreign and internal politics of the state and the federal government. It was the *de facto* highest ranking office of the state.

## History

Following the Bolshevik seizure of power, the Office of the Responsible Secretary was established in 1919 to perform administrative work. After the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, the Office of General Secretary was created by Vladimir Lenin in 1922. Its primary focus would be to determine party membership composition and assign positions within the party. The General Secretary also oversaw recording party events and keeping the party leaders and members informed in party activities. When assembling his cabinet, Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin as the General Secretary. In his first several years Stalin used the principles of democratic centralism to transform his office into that of party leader.

Prior to Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin's tenure as General Secretary was already being criticized. In Lenin's final months, he urged for Stalin's removal on the justification that Stalin was becoming authoritarian and abusing his power. This resulted in a political crisis for Stalin and a vote was held to remove him in 1925. Leon Trotsky, a staunch Stalin's critic, with the help of Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov and Mikhail Tomsky took the lead of the party. However, his stay in that position was only temporary as the crisis continued. An another round of inner struggle between Trotsky, who represented the Left faction of the party (supported by Zinoviev and Kamenev) and Right faction led by Bukharin (supported by Rykov and Tomsky) occurred and by the end of 1920s Bukharin began to emerge with the ability to consolidate power. By 1928 and 1929 he became the unquestioned leader of the USSR and the General Secretary became the nation's highest office.

In the middle of 1960s, Bukharin's health began to deteriorate and this situation came as a new test for his potential successors. In March and April 1966, at the 23rd Party Congress, Bukharin restructured the party's leadership. His request, voiced through Alexei Kosygin, to be relieved of his duties in the party secretariat due to his age was accepted by the party congress. The congress formally abolished Bukharin's office of General Secretary, though Bukharin remained one of the party secretaries and maintained ultimate control of the Party. When Bukharin died on 14 October 1966, Kosygin was the most important member of the Secretariat, which also included Nikolai Podgorny and Nikita Khrushchev, among others. A short-lived troika of Kosygin, Podgorny, and Khrushchev was formed. Kosygin was elected to the new office of General Secretary at the Central Committee plenum on 25 April 1967. Afterwards, Kosygin removed his rivals like Leonid Brezhnev from power in both 1969 and 1971.

Kosygin's influence grew throughout the 1970s. He died on 18 December 1980 and was succeeded by Yuri Andropov. After Andropov's death, Mikhail Gorbachev ruled the Soviet Union as General Secretary from 1984 until 1990, when the Communist Party lost its monopoly of power over the political system. The office of President of the Soviet Union was established so that Gorbachev still retained his role as leader of the Soviet Union. Following the successful August coup of 1991, Gorbachev was forced to resign as General Secretary. He was succeeded by his Vice President, Gennady Yanayev, who served during the times of public unrest and turmoil of the Soviet Civil War.