Encyclopedia > General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (sometimes called First Secretary) was the title synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death in 1924. The position was originally an administrative one when it was created in 1922 with Stalin being the first to hold the title but the access to and authority over the party bureaucracy which accrued to the position allowed Stalin to increase his power during Lenin's illness and particularly after his death. 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 though the General Secretary often did not hold official government positions.
The CentralCommittee also made a landmark decision in March 1985 when it elected the reformist Mikhail Gorbachev as the next GeneralSecretary of CPSU with the margin of just one vote more than the hardliner Viktor Grishin.
Following the failed coup of August 1991, the CentralCommittee was dissolved as was the Communist Party itself.
The GeneralSecretary 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.
From 1934 on, Stalin increasingly preferred to sign documents as just "Secretary of the CentralCommittee" and there are no official references to the post between the XIXth Party Congress in October 1952 and Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, but there was never any doubt that he remained in charge.
When the leadership of the CentralCommittee was restructured at the time of Stalin's death, the office of the GeneralSecretary remained unoccupied, but two senior Politburo members, Georgy Malenkov (the new prime minister) and Nikita Khruschev, were included in the Secretariat.
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