<Tr> <Th> Name (Birth--Death) </Th> <Th> Portrait </Th> <Th> Period </Th> <Th> Congress </Th> <Th> Notes </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Vladimir Lenin (1870--1924) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 30 December 1922 ↓ 21 January 1924 † </Td> <Td> 11th--12th Congress </Td> <Td> Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) and informal leader of the Bolsheviks since their inception . Was leader of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from 1917 and leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 until his death . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Joseph Stalin (1878--1953) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 21 January 1924 ↓ 5 March 1953 † </Td> <Td> 13th--19th Congress </Td> <Td> General Secretary from 3 April 1922 until the post of General Secretary was abolished in October 1952 . Stalin initially ruled as part of a Triumvirate with Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, until this broke down in April 1925 . Stalin served as Premier from 6 May 1941 until his death on 5 March 1953 . Stalin also held the post of the Minister of Defence from 19 July 1941 until 3 March 1947 and Chairman of the State Defense Committee during the Great Patriotic War and became the only officer to hold the office of People's Commissar of Nationalities from 1921--1923 . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Georgy Malenkov (1902--1988) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 5 March 1953 ↓ 8 February 1955 </Td> <Td> 19th Congress </Td> <Td> Succeeded to all of Stalin's titles, but was forced to resign most of them within a month . Malenkov, through the office of Premier, was locked in a power struggle against Khrushchev . </Td> </Tr>

Who lead the soviet union during the cold war