Question: who was the president of soviet union in 1971
Answer: 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 .