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The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (First Secretary in 1953-1966) was the title synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924. The full name of the office was General (or First) Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1919 - 1922, the position of a Responsible Secretary (Russian: ответственный секретарь) was held by Yakov Sverdlov, Nikolay Krestinsky, Yelena Stasova, Vyacheslav Molotov; this position did not play any important role in the Party whose de facto leader was Lenin; however, at lower levels responsible secretaries of regional and local party committees very often were # 1 leaders of respective committees even before Stalin's rise to power.

The position of a General Secretary was originally an administrative one when it was created in 1922 with Joseph Stalin being the first to hold the title. Once Stalin came to dominate the Politburo, the position of General Secretary became synonymous with that of party leader and de facto ruler of the USSR. Stalin proposed abolishing the post of General Secretary at the first Central Committee Plenum after the 15th Party Congress, on December 19, 1927. His proposal was defeated. No post of General Secretary formally existed after the 17th Party Congress of 1934. At the first Central Committee Plenum after each of the 17th, 18th and 19th Party Congresses (February 2, 1934, March 22, 1939, and October 16, 1952 respectively) no confirmation of anyone as General Secretary took place. Rather, the Politburo, Secretariat, and Orgburo of the CC were elected, and Stalin was included in each. From 1934 on, Stalin increasingly preferred to sign documents as just "Secretary of the Central Committee" and there are no official references to the post between the XVIIth Party Congress and Stalin's death on March 5, 1953. However, Soviet encyclopediae of Stalin's time referred to Stalin as "general secretary from 1922 till 1952".

When the leadership of the Central Committee was restructured at the time of Stalin's death, the office of the General Secretary briefly remained unoccupied, but two senior Politburo members, Georgy Malenkov (the new prime minister) and Nikita Khrushchev, were included in the Secretariat. On March 14, 1953, Malenkov was removed from the Secretariat, which left Khruschev in effective control of the body. Khrushchev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee at a Central Committee Plenum on September 7, 1953. The 23rd Party Congress changed the Constitution ("Ustav") of the Party to include once again the position of General Secretary. Leonid Brezhnev was elected General Secretary on April 8, 1966, at the first Central Committee Plenum after this Congress.

Following the August 1991 Coup, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary. He was replaced by his deputy, Vladimir Ivashko, who only held the post for five days before the Supreme Soviet suspended all activities of the Communist Party on August 29, 1991.

• Joseph Stalin: April 3, 1922 – March 5, 1953
• Nikita Khrushchev: September 7, 1953 – October 14, 1964
• Leonid Brezhnev: October 14, 1964 – November 10, 1982 (first secretary to March 29, 1966, then from April 8, 1966 general secretary)
• Yuri Andropov: November 12, 1982 – February 9, 1984
• Konstantin Chernenko: February 13, 1984 – March 10, 1985
• Mikhail Gorbachev: March 11, 1985 – August 24, 1991
• Vladimir Ivashko (acting): August 24, 1991 – August 29, 1991

Gorbachev regained power until the final collapse of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991.

• List of leaders of the Soviet Union
• Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Organization of the Communist Party of the USSR
• Communist Party of the Russian Federation
• First Secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan