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Soviet Union [USSR] Chairman of the Council of Ministers
The Constitution placed the chairman of the Council of
Ministers at the head of government. As such, the chairman acted as
the prime minister and therefore was responsible for enacting party
decisions and ensuring that their implementation conformed to the
intentions of the party leadership. Three party leaders have served
concurrently as the chairman of the Council of Ministers. Lenin
chaired the Sovnarkom when he was the de facto head of the party.
Stalin, who was the party's first general secretary, became
chairman during World War II and remained in that position until
his death in 1953. In March 1958, Nikita S. Khrushchev, who had
been first secretary since 1953 (the title changed to first
secretary after Stalin's death and reverted to general secretary in
1966), took over the position of chairman of the Council of
Ministers also. After Khrushchev's ouster in 1964, in order to
avoid too much concentration of power, the party established a
policy that the positions of chairman of the Council of Ministers
and first (general) secretary of the party had to be filled by two
different persons.
Because of the heavy involvement of the government in economic
administration, chairmen of the Council of Ministers since
Khrushchev have been experienced industrial administrators rather
than political decision makers. Although the chairman occupied a
seat on the Politburo and thus had a voice in decision making at
the highest level, this official was obliged to defer to other
leaders in matters not pertaining to the economy. Thus, the
chairman of the Council of Ministers had less power than the
general secretary and perhaps less power than party secretaries who
were members of the Politburo
(see Soviet Union USSR - Secretariat
, ch. 7).
Data as of May 1989
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