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| Prime Minister of the Soviet Union | |
|---|---|
| Name | Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union |
| Native name | Совет Министров СССР |
| Insignia caption | Emblem of the Soviet Union |
| Type | Executive |
| Formed | 6 July 1946 |
| Precursor | Council of People's Commissars |
| First holder | Joseph Stalin |
| Last holder | Nikolai Ryzhkov |
| Abolished | 26 December 1991 |
| Seat | Moscow |
| Residence | Kremlin |
Prime Minister of the Soviet Union was the informal English designation commonly used for the head of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1946–1991). The office succeeded the Council of People's Commissars after World War II and functioned alongside the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and figures such as Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. Holders of the post included prominent Soviet statesmen like Joseph Stalin, Alexei Kosygin, and Nikolai Ryzhkov, whose policies intersected with events including the Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Perestroika.
The office evolved from the October Revolution-era Council of People's Commissars established under Vladimir Lenin to the renamed Council of Ministers in 1946 under Joseph Stalin. During the Great Patriotic War, the role overlapped with wartime bodies such as the State Defense Committee and interfaced with commanders like Georgy Zhukov and planners such as Lavrentiy Beria. Postwar reconstruction involved interactions with agencies including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union), Gosplan, and Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union), while Cold War crises linked the office to diplomatic episodes like the Yalta Conference, Potsdam Conference, and negotiations with United States and United Kingdom officials. Reforms under Nikita Khrushchev and Alexei Kosygin reflected tensions between central ministries—Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union), Ministry of Finance (Soviet Union), Ministry of Industry (Soviet Union)—and republican councils such as those in the Russian SFSR and Ukrainian SSR.
The head presided over the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union and coordinated executive organs including the KGB, MVD, and Soviet ministries responsible for sectors like Ministry of Foreign Trade (Soviet Union) and Ministry of Railways (Soviet Union). Powers derived from decrees of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and directives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, interacting with leaders such as Leon Trotsky historically and later Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. The office supervised planning agencies—Gosplan, Gossnab—and enterprises under state firms like Aeroflot and Gazprom's antecedents, while engaging with international counterparts including the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR and cabinets of France, Germany, and Japan during diplomatic contacts.
Notable officeholders included Joseph Stalin (as Chairman of the Council of Ministers), Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, Alexei Kosygin, Nikolai Tikhonov, and Nikolai Ryzhkov. Each tenure intersected with contemporaries such as Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, Mikhail Suslov, and Eduard Shevardnadze and major events like the Berlin Blockade, Soviet–Afghan War, Prague Spring, and Chernobyl disaster. Succession often reflected shifts in influence among kolkhoz and sovkhoz administrators, industrial ministers, and regional First Secretaries such as those from the Byelorussian SSR and Kazakh SSR.
The apparatus comprised deputies, chairmen of state committees, and ministers of sectors including Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union), Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union), Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR, and transport ministries. The Council of Ministers met in Moscow within the complex of administrative buildings in and near the Moscow Kremlin, with additional sessions at venues linked to the House of the Government of the Russian Federation lineage. The official residence and working quarters connected the officeholder with security organs like the KGB and protocol linked to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. International summits placed officeholders alongside leaders such as John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, and Helmut Schmidt.
Formally, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union elected the chairman on recommendation from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and with approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; in practice, selection depended on party leadership including figures like Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and later Mikhail Gorbachev. Tenure varied from brief wartime appointments to extended administrations marked by policy initiatives such as Kosygin reforms and perestroika; dismissals and appointments often followed power struggles involving elites from the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and security chiefs like Felix Dzerzhinsky historically and Yuri Andropov later.
The office collapsed amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when republican sovereignty asserted by leaders like Boris Yeltsin and constitutional changes eroded central authority. The abolition coincided with the transfer of functions to successor institutions in the Russian Federation and independent states including Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, and with transitions involving figures such as Vladimir Putin and Yegor Gaidar in post-Soviet governance. The legacy includes continuities in administrative practice traceable to the Council of People's Commissars, debates over central planning tied to Gosplan, and historical assessments by scholars of Cold War policymaking, Soviet industrialization, and administrative law.
Category:Government of the Soviet Union Category:Heads of government