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Stalin, through his office as General Secretary, received advanced knowledge about Lenin's Testament and sought to delay its release. [9] Upon its release to the party, Stalin offered to resign as General Secretary, but this was rebuked to maintain the image of party unity. [10]
Stalin's office was near Lenin's in the Smolny Institute, [122] and he and Trotsky had direct access to Lenin without an appointment. [123] Stalin co-signed Lenin's decrees shutting down hostile newspapers, [ 124 ] and co-chaired the committee drafting a constitution for the newly-formed Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic . [ 125 ]
On October 16, 1952, Stalin formally abolished the position, but he retained ultimate power and his position as Chairman of the Council of Ministers until his death on 5 March 1953. [20] At a tenure of 30 years, 7 months, Stalin was the longest-serving General Secretary, serving almost half of the USSR's entire existence.
Stalin used the principles of democratic centralism to transform his office into that of party leader, and later leader of the Soviet Union. [123] In 1934, the 17th Party Congress did not elect a General Secretary and Stalin was an ordinary secretary until his death in 1953, although he remained the de facto leader without diminishing his own ...
Upon death, resignation, or removal from office of an incumbent president, the Vice President of the Soviet Union would assume the office, though the Soviet Union dissolved before this was actually tested. [9] After the failed coup in August 1991, the vice president was replaced by an elected member of the State Council of the Soviet Union. [10]
In the purge, Stalin ordered the execution or exile of nearly all Soviet bureaucrats over the age of 35, thereby opening up posts and offices for a younger generation of Soviets. This generation would rule the country from the aftermath of Stalin's purge up to Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985. The majority of these appointees were of ...
They were banned under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin but commonplace under later Kremlin leaders. Now, after less than a century, official attitudes about abortion in Russia are changing once again.
Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria with Stalin's daughter, Svetlana, on his lap. As head of the NKVD, Beria was responsible for many political repressions in the Soviet Union. Closer cooperation between the USSR and the West developed in the early 1930s. From 1932 to 1934, the country participated in the World Disarmament Conference.