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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]
This decision led to the creation of the office of the General Secretary which Stalin assumed on 3 April. Stalin soon learned how to use his new office to gain advantages over key persons within the party. He prepared the agenda for the Politburo meetings, directing the course of meetings. As General Secretary, he appointed new local party ...
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.
Additionally, Georgy Malenkov was briefly the leader of the Party for around a week after Stalin's death by virtue of being the top member of the Secretariat. [ 2 ] The Central Committee established the Secretariat on 6 August 1917; it initially comprised Felix Dzerzhinsky , Matvei Muranov and Yakov Sverdlov as full members and Adolph Joffe and ...
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]
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.
For instance, Vyacheslav Molotov succeeded Rykov as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars in 1930, to reduce the chance of another independent locus of centralised power forming form which could threaten Stalin and the Politburo, Secretariat, and Orgburo. [12] During this period, the office of the General Secretary became paramount. [11]
Stalin's policies granted the Soviet people access to free health care and education. Widespread immunization programs created the first generation free from the fear of typhus and cholera . The occurrences of these diseases dropped to record-low numbers and infant mortality rates were substantially reduced, resulting in the life expectancy for ...