List of leaders of the Soviet Union

An approximately chronological listing of Soviet leaders (heads of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Soviet Union)

Name	Title	Period
Vladimir Ilych Lenin	Head of the Central Committee	October 26, 1917 - April 3, 1922
Joseph Stalin	General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union	April 3, 1922 - March 5, 1953
Nikita Khrushchev	First Secretary	September 7, 1953 - October 14, 1964
Leonid Brezhnev	First Secretary	October 14, 1964 - April 8, 1966
	General Secretary	April 8, 1966 - November 10, 1982
Yuri Andropov	General Secretary	November 12, 1982 - February 9, 1984
Konstantin Chernenko	General Secretary	February 13, 1984 - March 10, 1985
Mikhail Gorbachev	General Secretary	March 11, 1985 - March 14, 1990
	President of the Soviet Union	March 14, 1990 - December 25, 1991

The post of General Secretary was created in April 1922 and became the highest in the party when Lenin died. The title was First Secretary between 1953 and April 1966.

On March 14 1990, the newly created (1989) Congress of People's Deputies voted to end the Communist party's control over the government and elected Gorbachev President of the Soviet Union.

See also: Leon Trotsky, History of the Soviet Union, List of minor leaders of the Soviet Union

For the leaders of post-communist Russia, see: History of post-communist Russia.