Premier of the Soviet Union

The office of Premier of the Soviet Union (Russian: Глава Правительства СССР) was synonymous with head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Twelve individuals became premier over the time span of the office. Two of the twelve premiers died in office of natural causes (Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin), three resigned (Alexei Kosygin, Nikolai Tikhonov and Ivan Silayev), and three held the offices of party leader and premier simultaneously (Lenin, Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev). The first premier was Lenin, who was inaugurated in 1922 after the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR. Ivan Silayev spent the shortest time in office at 126 days in 1991. At over fourteen years, Kosygin spent the longest time in office, and became the only premier to head more than two government cabinets; he died shortly after his resignation in 1980.

The Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) was established on 8 November 1917 by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) Government. Article 38 of the 1924 Soviet Constitution stated that the Council's powers, functions and duties were given to it by the Central Executive Committee (CEC) which supervised the Council's work and legislative acts. The Council of People's Commissars published decrees and decisions that were binding throughout the Soviet Union.^[1] In 1946, the Council of People's Commissars was transformed into the Council of Ministers (Sovmin) at both all-Union and Union Republic level.^[2]

In 1964, after Nikita Khrushchev's ouster, a plenum of the Central Committee (CC) forbade any single individual to hold the two most powerful posts of the country (the office of the General Secretary and the premier),^[3] and Kosygin was in charge of economic administration in his role as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. However Kosygin's position was weakened when he proposed an economic reform in 1965.^[4] Under the 1977 Soviet Constitution, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers was the head of government of the USSR. The premier was the chief of the executive branch and head of the union government as a whole, the premiership was the highest governmental office in the Soviet Union by influence and recognition until the establishment of the Presidency in 1990. The premier was responsible and accountable to the Supreme Soviet, and in the period between sessions of the Supreme Soviet, accountable to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.^[5] The premier was tasked with resolving all state administrative duties within the jurisdiction of the USSR to the degree that it did not come under the competence of the Supreme Soviet or the Presidium. The premier managed the national economy, formulated the five-year plans and ensured socio-cultural development.^[6]

When Nikolai Ryzhkov was replaced as premier by Valentin Pavlov, the Council of Ministers was dissolved and replaced by the Cabinet of Ministers, while the chairmanship was replaced by the office of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union. After the failed August Coup of 1991, and the revelation that the majority of the cabinet members supported the coup, the Cabinet of Ministers was dissolved and replaced by the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet economy in 1991. The Operational Management Committee was renamed the Inter-Republican Economic Committee,^[7] and was later replaced by the Interstate Economic Committee (IEC), the IEC was also officially known as the Economic Community.^[8]

List of Premiers

# [note 1]	Name (birth–death)		Tenure	Electorate	Cabinets
1	Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1922–46)
	Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924)[9]		30 December 1922 – 21 January 1924	—	Lenin I–II
			Regarded as the first Soviet Premier; led the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) through the Russian Revolution (February and October Revolution)[10] and successfully created the world's first socialist state, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR),[11] and established the Soviet Union in 1922.[12]
2	Alexey Rykov (1881–1938)[13]		2 February 1924 – 19 December 1930	1924, 1925, 1927, 1929	Rykov I
			A member of the moderate faction within the Bolshevik Party. He was forced, along with other moderates, to "admit their mistakes" to the party and, in 1930, Rykov lost his premiership because of it.[14]
3	Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986)[15]		19 December 1930 – 6 May 1941	1931, 1935, 1936, 1937	Molotov I
			He oversaw Stalin's collectivisation of agriculture, the implementation of the First Five-Year Plan, industrialisation of the USSR and the Great Purge of 1937–38.[16] Despite the great human cost,[17] the Soviet Union under Molotov's nominal premiership made great strides in the adoption and widespread implementation of agrarian and industrial technology.[18]
4	Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)[19]		6 May 1941 – 15 March 1946	1946	Stalin I
			Led the country through the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and started the country's reconstruction period. He renamed the office of the People's Commissars to the Council of Ministers.[20]
	Chairman of the Council of Ministers (1946–1991)
	Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)[19]		15 March 1946 – 5 March 1953	1950	Stalin II
			After the war, Stalin installed communist governments in most of Eastern Europe, forming the Eastern Bloc,[20] behind what was referred to as an "Iron Curtain" of Soviet rule during the long period of antagonism between the Western world and the USSR, known as the Cold War.[21]
5	Georgy Malenkov (1902–1988)[22]		6 March 1953 – 8 February 1955	1954	Malenkov I–II
			Took over after Stalin's death, but lost in the ensuing power struggle against Nikita Khrushchev. He continued to hold the office of premier until Khrushchev started the process of de-Stalinisation. He was replaced on Khrushchev's orders by Nikolai Bulganin.[23]
6	Nikolai Bulganin (1895–1975)[24]		8 February 1955 – 27 March 1958	1958	Bulganin I
			Oversaw the period of de-Stalinisation.[25] While being a strong supporter of Khrushchev at first, he started doubting some of his more radical policies and, accused of being a member of the Anti-Party Group, was eventually replaced by Khrushchev himself.[26]
7	Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)[22]		27 March 1958 – 14 October 1964	1962	Khrushchev I–II
			Led the country through the Cuban Missile Crisis. Oversaw numerous reforms and policy innovations, such as the 1961 monetary reform. His increasingly erratic behaviour led to his removal by the nomenklatura both as premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party.[25]
8	Alexei Kosygin (1904–1980)[27]		15 October 1964 – 23 October 1980	1966, 1970, 1974, 1979	Kosygin I–V
			Was one of three leading members of the collective leadership with Leonid Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny. He ruled through the era known as the Era of Stagnation.[4] Kosygin initiated three large scale economic reforms under his leadership; the 1965, the 1973–74 and the 1979 reform.[28] He retired from office in October 1980 and died two months later.[29]
9	Nikolai Tikhonov (1905–1997)[30]		23 October 1980 – 27 September 1985	1984	Tikhonov I–II
			After Kosygin's departure, Tikhonov became the new premier;[31] he held the office through Brezhnev's last years, the rules of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko and the very beginning of Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure.[32]
10	Nikolai Ryzhkov (born 1929)[30]		27 September 1985 – 14 January 1991	1989	Ryzhkov I–II
			Ryzhkov supported Gorbachev's attempt to revive and restructure the Soviet economy through decentralising planning and introducing new technology. However, he resisted Gorbachev's later attempts to introduce market mechanisms into the Soviet economy.[33] He was forced to resign when his office as Chairman of the Council of Ministers was dissolved.[34]
11	Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (1991)
	Valentin Pavlov (1937–2003)[35]		14 January 1991 – 22 August 1991	—	Pavlov I
			Pavlov was elected to the new position of Prime Minister as a compromise candidate. He carried out a highly unsuccessful monetary reform which failed[36] and led him to join the State Committee of the State of Emergency. The State Committee attempted to depose Gorbachev on 19 August. With the collapse of the coup, Pavlov was arrested on 29 August.[37]
12	Chairman of the Interstate Economic Committee – Prime Minister of the Economic Commonwealth (1991)
	Ivan Silayev (born 1930)[38]	—	6 September 1991 – 26 December 1991	—	Silayev I
			After the August Coup of 1991, the Soviet government lost much of its power over the republics. Silayev was unable, together with Gorbachev, to hold the Soviet state together which eventually led to its demise.[39]

See also

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