<P> At the age of 54, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the General Secretariat by the Politburo on 11 March 1985 . In May 1985, Gorbachev publicly admitted the slowing down of the economic development and inadequate living standards, being the first Soviet leader to do so while also beginning a series of fundamental reforms . From 1986 to around 1988, he dismantled central planning, allowed state enterprises to set their own outputs, enabled private investment in businesses not previously permitted to be privately owned and allowed foreign investment, among other measures . He also opened up the management of and decision - making within the Soviet Union and allowed greater public discussion and criticism, along with a warming of relationships with the West . These twin policies were known as perestroika (literally meaning "reconstruction", but it varies) and glasnost ("openness" and "transparency"), respectively . The dismantling of the principal defining features of Soviet Communism in 1988 and 1989 in the Soviet Union led to the unintended consequence of the Soviet Union breaking up after the failed August coup of 1991 led by Gennady Yanayev . </P> <P> The following list includes only those persons who held the top leadership position of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from its founding in 1922 until the party's demise as the official "leading power" of the Union in 1991 and in the few months aftwerward, lead the government . † denotes leaders who died in office . </P> <Table> <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 . Lenin 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 ↓ 14 September 1953 </Td> <Td> 19th Congress </Td> <Td> Succeeded to all of Stalin's titles, but he 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> <Tr> <Th> Nikita Khrushchev (1894--1971) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 8 September 1953 ↓ 14 October 1964 </Td> <Td> 20th--22nd Congress </Td> <Td> Served as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (from September 1953) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 27 March 1958 to 14 October 1964 . While vacationing in Abkhazia, Khrushchev was called by Leonid Brezhnev to return to Moscow for a special meeting of the Presidium to be held on 13 October 1964 . At the most fiery session since the so - called "anti-party group" crisis of 1957, he was fired from all his posts . He was largely left in peace in retirement, but he was made a "non-person" to the extent that his name was removed even from the thirty - volume Soviet Encyclopedia . He died in 1971 . He was seen overseas as a reformer of a "petrified structure" and described his main contribution as removing the fear that Stalin had brought, but many of his reforms were later reversed . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Leonid Brezhnev (1906--1982) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 14 October 1964 ↓ 10 November 1982 † </Td> <Td> 23rd--26th Congress </Td> <Td> Served as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party . Brezhnev was later renamed General Secretary and was co-equal with premier Alexei Kosygin until the 1970s . To consolidate his power, he later assumed the title of Chairman of the Presidium . At his death in 1982, he received a state funeral . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Yuri Andropov (1914--1984) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 12 November 1982 ↓ 9 February 1984 † </Td> <Td>--</Td> <Td> General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 16 June 1983 until 9 February 1984 . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Konstantin Chernenko (1911--1985) (de jure) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 13 February 1984 ↓ 10 March 1985 † </Td> <Td>--</Td> <Td> General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 11 April 1984 to 10 March 1985 . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Mikhail Gorbachev (1931--) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> As Gen. Secretary: 11 March 1985 ↓ 19 August 1991 As President: 21 August 1991 ↓ 25 December 1991 </Td> <Td> 27th--28th Congress </Td> <Td> Served as General Secretary from 11 March 1985 and resigned on 24 August 1991, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1 October 1988 until the office was renamed to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet on 25 May 1989 to 15 March 1990 and President of the Soviet Union from 15 March 1990 to 25 December 1991 . The day following Gorbachev's resignation as President, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Gennady Yanayev (1937--2010) (usurper) </Th> <Td> </Td> <Td> 19 August 1991 ↓ 21 August 1991 </Td> <Td>--</Td> <Td> Tried to seize power during the two days of the failed 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt with the State Committee on the State of Emergency . </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th> Name (Birth--Death) </Th> <Th> Portrait </Th> <Th> Period </Th> <Th> Congress </Th> <Th> Notes </Th> </Tr>

Who led the soviet union from the mid 1920s to 1953