The chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in fact, was considered the leader of the Soviet state, starting in 1936 and ending in 1989. During this period, it was the highest public office in the USSR. The election of the chairman took place at a joint meeting in which both chambers of the Supreme Council took part.
Who was the first?
The chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR appeared in the Soviet state in 1936. This post was introduced under the new Constitution. In fact, they became successors to the leaders of the Central Executive Committee of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. So called a similar post before. In fact, both at home and abroad, the person who held this position was considered the head of state. And in the West he was often called the president of the Soviet republic.
At the same time, the public head of state officially acted in the USSR. The decision was taken collectively by all who were members of the Presidium, without exception. It was this body that jointly adopted decrees that determined the development and structure of the whole country, appointed and dismissed state husbands, and awarded orders and medals.
Moreover, in fact, most of the powers were in the hands of the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, the head of the Council of People's Commissars possessed no less leverage.
Throughout the history of the USSR, the posts of party secretary general and chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR were repeatedly combined. In particular, this situation was observed from the 70s until the liquidation of the post with short breaks.
This post was finally abolished after the additions and amendments to the 1988 Constitution. All powers of the presidium passed to the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. When the post of president of the USSR was established, the people who held this post had only representative functions. Basically, they consisted of holding joint meetings of the chambers.
The first was Mikhail Kalinin
Mikhail Kalinin was the first in the history of the Soviet state to take this post. After the adoption of the already mentioned Constitution, he was elected chairman at the starting session of the Supreme Council, which took place at the very beginning of 1938.
Kalinin was a prominent representative of the revolutionary movement. Prominent party and statesman. It was he who soon after the Communists came to power began to be called the "All-Russian elder."
Kalinin appointed deputy councilor Nikolai Mikhailovich Shvernik as his first deputy, who later took his place in this post.
When the war ended with fascist Germany, it turned out that Kalinin was seriously ill. He was relieved of the post held by Shvernik. Less than three months later, the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR suddenly died of intestinal cancer.
Party centenarian
After Kalinin and Shvernik, the turn to head the presidium came to the record holder for the duration of his stay in the Politburo of the Communist Party Central Committee, the war hero Clement Voroshilov.
Despite the fact that Voroshilov took part in the formation of death lists (his signatures are on 185 lists, according to which more than 18 thousand people were shot), in the year of Stalin's death he was elected the new chairman of the Supreme Council. On the other hand, this is understandable. At that time, the policy of debunking the cult of personality in the USSR had not yet come, and among the leaders of the regime, trusted and reliable people were required.
During the war with the Germans Voroshilov commanded the Leningrad Front. He spent 7 years as head of the presidium, subsequently remaining a member of it.
Dear Leonid Ilyich
In 1960, Voroshilov was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. The chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the list of which is given in this article, since then more than once subsequently held the post of Secretary General. The first in this field was Brezhnev, who became Secretary General in 1964. Brezhnev was elected chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR when he was 54 years old.
In 1964, he was replaced by one of the most famous and influential Soviet politicians at that time, Anastas Mikoyan, who began his career under Lenin. He worked in this post for a year and a half.
Age of Podgorny
In December 1965, Nikolai Podgorny was elected to this post. The chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was a native of the Ukrainian Committee of the Communist Party, which specialized in leadership positions in the field of light industry.
Colleagues treated him differently. For example, Mikoyan directly accused him of lying and despised him for it. He told the story of how, during the war years, Podgorny was instructed to evacuate a sugar factory in Voronezh. The dangerous task was completed, but Nikolai Viktorovich, fearing for his life, did not visit the plant himself, reporting that he personally led the evacuation. Mikoyan could not stand such a lie.
Podgorny chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ceased to be in 1977, having worked in this position for almost 12 years. He lost his post at the XXV Party Congress, when Brezhnev’s associates feared that Podgorny, taking advantage of the poor health of the Secretary-General, could claim his place. Therefore, during the congress, part of the party members called for Brezhnev to combine both of these posts. As a result, Leonid Ilyich returned to the post to which this article is devoted. He became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR (1977 - 1982). In 1982, he died. Politics at that time turned 75 years old.
During this period, he was assisted by Magomet Gettuev, deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Tradition of alignment
After Brezhnev, it became a party tradition to combine the post to which this article is devoted and the post of Secretary General of the party.
Apart from Vasily Vasilievich Kuznetsov, who temporarily held this position from November 1982 to June 1983, from February to April 1984 and from March to July 1985, almost all subsequent leaders of the Soviet state adhered to this trend.
Scouts in power
In the summer of 1983, the ex-head of the Soviet state security agencies, Yuri Andropov, became the actual head of state. True, Yuri Vladimirovich could not actively fulfill his duties. Soon after the appointment, he developed a serious illness. He worked almost without leaving home. Soon he died due to kidney failure, he suffered from gout for many years.
The short era of Konstantin Chernenko
In April 1984, Konstantin Chernenko replaced him . He ruled for one year and 25 days, died of heart failure.
Born diplomat
In July of the 85th year the post of head of the presidium was taken by Andrei Gromyko. Andrei Andreyevich was a diplomat who began his career in party commissions before the war, under Malenkov and Molotov. Soon, Gromyko began to represent the interests of the Soviet Union in several important international organizations - the Security Council and the UN.
Then, for almost 30 years, he led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was precisely during his diplomatic career that the most intense stages of the Cold War fell on. Relations with the United States of America and the nascent North Atlantic Alliance were as tense as possible. It is worth remembering that in the early 60s the world was almost on the verge of the start of an atomic war. However, the leaders of the USSR and the USA in the end did not allow the most fatal development of events. A significant role in this was played by the diplomats who led these processes.
It is noteworthy that shortly before his appointment at a meeting of the plenum of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, it was Gromyko who proposed the young, then little-known Mikhail Gorbachev, to the post of general secretary.
Gorbachev, having received the first post in the party, removed Gromyko from the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Appointing a younger and more promising, as it seemed to him, Eduard Shevardnadze. Gromyko, in return, received the post of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, which by that time had almost completely lost its independence and significance. In fact, Gromyko served as the wedding general.
Last Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces
Gromyko was replaced in this post by Mikhail Gorbachev. He became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1985-1988). The first deputy was appointed prominent party leader Anatoly Lukyanov, who later proved to be a member of the State Emergency Committee, but amnestied by the decision of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, like many other participants in the coup.
By that time, the situation had worsened in many national republics. The youth’s speeches against the current government in Kazakhstan were held, the Karabakh and Georgian-South Ossetian conflicts have already arisen. The situation in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Transnistria was exacerbated. The situation in most Soviet republics was troubled.
At the same time, Gorbachev took important steps towards resolving the Cold War. In particular, unlimited agreements on actual disarmament were signed. They envisaged that countries would begin to get rid of medium- and shorter-range missiles. American President Ronald Reagan also signed his agreement.
However, democratic transformations and the emerging restructuring did not allow Gorbachev to stay in power for too long. And the very post of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council was soon abolished. So Gorbachev became the last politician to ever occupy her.
Here is who held this position in different years:
- Mikhail Kalinin;
- Nikolay Shvernik;
- Clement Voroshilov;
- Leonid Brezhnev;
- Anastas Mikoyan;
- Nikolai Podgorny;
- Vasily Kuznetsov;
- Yuri Andropov;
- Konstantin Chernenko;
- Andrey Gromyko;
- Mikhail Gorbachev.
The chairman of the presidium was replaced by the president of the USSR. He became Gorbachev himself. And then Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, who turned over several pages of Russian history at once.
Gorbachev finally withdrew the powers of the head of state in 1991, after the official signing of the Belovezhsky Agreement on the termination of the USSR.