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‹ Soviet Union

Who is behind the Soviet Union?

Also known as USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Shows documented founders, leaders, board members, funders and owners.

Not who made decisions, or why.

10 links · 30 Dec 1922 – 26 Dec 1991

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A connection is not evidence of wrongdoing.

Over time
  1. Led by Vladimir Lenin (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR) 6 Jul 1923 – 21 Jan 1924
  2. Led by Joseph Stalin (Leader of party and state) c. 1929 – 5 Mar 1953
  3. Led by Nikita Khrushchev (Chairman of the Council of Ministers; also First Secretary of the Communist Party) 27 Mar 1958 – 14 Oct 1964
  4. Led by Leonid Brezhnev (Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet) 16 Jun 1977 – 10 Nov 1982
  5. Led by Mikhail Gorbachev (President of the USSR) 1990 – 25 Dec 1991

On the record

Sourced links that no one presents as their own account, as recorded so far. Others may exist.

Founded by

Led by

  • Mikhail Gorbachev head of 1990 – 25 Dec 1991 President of the USSR Both sides agree Primary record 23
  • Vladimir Lenin head of 6 Jul 1923 – 21 Jan 1924 Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Scholarship & press 4
  • Joseph Stalin head of c. 1929 – 5 Mar 1953 Leader of party and state Primary record 456
  • Nikita Khrushchev head of 27 Mar 1958 – 14 Oct 1964 Chairman of the Council of Ministers; also First Secretary of the Communist Party Primary record 47
  • Leonid Brezhnev head of 16 Jun 1977 – 10 Nov 1982 Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Scholarship & press 4
  • Communist Party of the Soviet Union leads Primary record 8

    Written into the 1977 Constitution as Article 6.

Going further

Proof 8 sources
  1. Declaration of Union and Treaty of Union, December 30, 1922, Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, Michigan State University, 30 Dec 1922. Primary record
    The Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR), the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR), the Belorussian Socialist Soviet Republic (BSSR) and the Transcaucasian Socialist Federal Soviet Republics (Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia), hereby conclude a treaty for their union
  2. The Collapse of the Soviet Union (Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    Earlier in the day, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his post as president of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the newly independent Russian state.
  3. Mikhail Gorbachev's Resignation Speech, World History Commons, George Mason University, 25 Dec 1991. Primary record
    Dear compatriots, fellow citizens, as a result of the newly formed situation, creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, I cease my activities in the post of the U.S.S.R. president.
  4. Soviet Union: A Country Study, Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, 1991. Scholarship & press
    Lenin chaired the Sovnarkom when he was the de facto head of the party.
    when Lenin died in January 1924
    By gradually consolidating influence and isolating his rivals within the party, Joseph V. Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s.
    when Stalin died on March 5, 1953
    Khrushchev became prime minister in March 1958 when Bulganin resigned, thus formally confirming his predominant position in the state as well as in the party.
    Khrushchev removed from power; Leonid I. Brezhnev becomes CPSU first secretary.
    Brezhnev assumed the chairmanship of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1977, confirming his primacy in both party and state.
    Soon after reviewing the traditional Bolshevik Revolution parade in November 1982, Brezhnev died.
  5. Revelations from the Russian Archives: Internal Workings of the Soviet Union, Library of Congress. Primary record
    Stalin had eliminated all likely potential opposition to his leadership by late 1934 and was the unchallenged leader of both party and state.
  6. Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945: list of persons, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    Stalin, Marshal of the Soviet Union Iosif Vissarionovich, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union.
  7. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XIV, Soviet Union, October 1971–May 1972: list of persons, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    Khrushchev, Nikita S., former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers (1953–1964)
  8. Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, adopted 7 October 1977, Bucknell University Russian Program, 7 Oct 1977. Primary record
    The leading and guiding force of the Soviet society and the nucleus of its political system, of all state organisations and public organisations, is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
How this answer is built

Lines on the record come first: sourced links that no one presents as their own account, each with its strongest source. Then every account recorded here gets its own column, A to Z, none ranked above another. A column quotes only that account's own words and shows the strength of its own sources. Disputed lines are listed apart, with the reason, and lines still being verified come last. Neither is counted. Withdrawn lines are never shown.

When a list is longer than the page shows, the links the public methodology ranks strongest stay (methodology 0.3), and the rest open in the explorer.

Know a source we are missing? Propose it with a pull request to content/entities/place/so/soviet-union.md.