Soviet general secretaries in chronological order. The best ruler of the USSR

Authorities in the USSR from 1924 to 1991

Good afternoon dear friends!

In this post we will talk about one of the most difficult topics in the history of Russia - authorities in the USSR from 1924 to 1991. This topic causes not only difficulties for applicants, but sometimes stupor, since if the structure of government bodies Tsarist Russia Although somehow understandable, some kind of confusion is coming from the USSR.

It's understandable soviet history in itself is many times more difficult for applicants than the entire previous history of Russia taken together. However, with this article about authorities in the USSR you can understand this topic once and for all!

Let's start with the basics. There are three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. Legislative branch - passes laws that regulate life in the state. The executive branch executes these same laws. Judicial branch - judges people and oversees the legal system as a whole. See my article for more details.

So, we will now look at the authorities that were in the USSR - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was formed, as you remember, in 1922. But first !

Authorities in the USSR according to the Constitution of 1924.

So, the first Constitution of the USSR was adopted in 1924. According to it, these were the authorities in the USSR:

All legislative power belonged to the Congress of Soviets of the USSR; it was this body of power that adopted all the laws binding on all union republics, of which there were initially 4 - the Ukrainian SSR, the Western SSR, the BSSR and the RSFSR. However, the Congress met only once a year! That's why between conventions performed his functions Central Executive Committee (CEC). He also announced the convening of the Congress of Soviets of the USSR.

However, the sessions of the Central Executive Committee were also interrupted (there were only 3 sessions a year!) - you need to rest! Therefore, between sessions of the Central Executive Committee, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee acted. According to the Constitution of 1924, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee is the highest legislative, executive and administrative authority of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. However, he was responsible for his actions to the Central Election Commission. The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee sent all bills submitted for its consideration to two chambers of the Central Executive Committee: the Union Council and the Council of Nationalities.

However, not all executive power belonged exclusively to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee! The Central Executive Committee approved the Council of People's Commissars - the Council of People's Commissars. In a different way, he appears in the Unified State Examination tests as Sovnarkom! The Council of People's Commissars consisted of people's commissariats. They were led by people's commissars, of whom there were initially ten:

people's commissar for foreign affairs; People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs; People's Commissar for Foreign Trade; People's Commissar of Railways; People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs; People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate; Chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy; People's Commissar of Labor; People's Commissar for Food; People's Commissar of Finance.

Who exactly held all these positions is at the end of the article! In fact, the Council of People's Commissars is the Government of the USSR, which was also supposed to implement the laws adopted by the Central Executive Committee and the Congress of Soviets of the USSR. Under the Council of People's Commissars, the OGPU was formed - the United State Political Directorate, which replaced the Cheka - the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ("chekists").

Judicial power was exercised Supreme Court USSR, which also formed the Congress of Soviets of the USSR.

As you can see, nothing complicated. However, it is worth adding that each of these authorities had its own Chairman, who supervised (headed) it, and had its own deputies. Moreover, the Union Council and the Council of Nationalities had their own Presidiums, which functioned between their sessions. Of course, there was also the Chairman of the Presidium of the Union Council and the Chairman of the Presidium of the Council of Nationalities!

Authorities in the USSR according to the Constitution of 1936.

As can be seen from the diagram, the structure of government bodies in the USSR has become much simpler. However, there is one remark: until 1946, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) continued to exist together with the People's Commissariats. In addition, the NKVD was formed - the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which included the OGPU and the GUGB - the state department of state security.

It is clear that the functions of the authorities were the same. The structure simply changed: the Central Executive Committee no longer existed, and the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities became part of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR is the renamed Congress of Soviets of the USSR; it was now convened 2 times a year. Between congresses of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, its functions were performed by the Presidium.

The Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved the Council of Ministers of the USSR (until 1946 there was the Council of People's Commissars) - the government of the USSR, and the Supreme Court of the USSR.

And you may have a natural question: “Who was the head of state of the USSR?” Formally, the USSR was governed collectively by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and its Presidium. In fact, during this period, the one who held the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and was the head of the party of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was the head of the USSR. By the way, there were only three such people: V.I. Lenin, I.V. Stalin and N.S. Khrushchev. At all other times, the post of head of the party and head of government (Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR) were divided. More detailed information about the Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars (and since 1946 - the Council of Ministers), you can find at the end of this article :)

Authorities in the USSR since 1957.

In 1957, the 1936 Constitution was in force. However, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev carried out a public administration reform, during which sectoral Ministries were eliminated and replaced with territorial Economic Councils in order to decentralize industrial management:

By the way, more detailed information about Khrushchev’s activities can be found.

Authorities in the USSR from 1988 to 1991.

I think there is nothing difficult in understanding this scheme. In connection with the reform of public administration under M.S. Gorbachev, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was liquidated, and in its place was created elected by the people Advice people's deputies !

This is how the structure of government bodies in the USSR changed from 1922 to 1991. I hope you understand that the USSR was a federal state and all the considered authorities were duplicated at the republican level. If so, ask questions in the comments! So as not to miss new materials, !

To people who bought my video course "Russian history. Preparation for the Unified State Exam for 100 points" , on April 28, 2014 I will send 3 additional video lessons on this topic, plus a table of all positions in the USSR and heroes of the Great Patriotic War, front commanders and other useful things.

Well, as promised - table of all heads of the chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars:

Sincerely, Andrey (Dreammanhist) Puchkov

In the Soviet Union, the private life of the country's leaders was strictly classified and protected as a state secret of the highest degree of protection. Only an analysis of recently published materials allows us to lift the veil on the secrecy of their payroll records.

Having seized power in the country, Vladimir Lenin in December 1917 set himself a monthly salary of 500 rubles, which approximately corresponded to the wages of an unskilled worker in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Any other income, including fees, to high-ranking party members, at Lenin’s proposal, was strictly prohibited.

The modest salary of the “leader of the world revolution” was quickly eaten up by inflation, but Lenin somehow did not think about where the money for a completely comfortable life, treatment with the help of world luminaries and domestic service would come from, although he did not forget to sternly tell his subordinates every time: “Deduct these expenses from my salary!”

At the beginning of the NEP, the General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party Joseph Stalin was given a salary less than half of Lenin’s salary (225 rubles) and only in 1935 was it raised to 500 rubles, but already in next year followed by a new increase to 1200 rubles. The average salary in the USSR at that time was 1,100 rubles, and although Stalin did not live on his salary, he could well have lived modestly on it. During the war years, the leader's salary became almost zero as a result of inflation, but at the end of 1947, after the monetary reform, the “leader of all nations” set himself a new salary of 10,000 rubles, which was 10 times higher than the then average salary in the USSR. At the same time, a system of “Stalinist envelopes” was introduced - monthly tax-free payments to the top of the party-Soviet apparatus. Be that as it may, Stalin did not seriously consider his salary and of great importance didn’t give it to her.

First among the leaders Soviet Union, who became seriously interested in his salary was Nikita Khrushchev, who received 800 rubles a month, which was 9 times the average salary in the country.

Sybarite Leonid Brezhnev was the first to violate Lenin’s ban on additional income, in addition to salaries, for the top of the party. In 1973, he awarded himself the International Lenin Prize (25,000 rubles), and starting in 1979, when the name of Brezhnev adorned the galaxy of classics of Soviet literature, huge fees began to pour into family budget Brezhnev. Brezhnev’s personal account at the publishing house of the CPSU Central Committee “Politizdat” is replete with thousands of sums for huge print runs and multiple reprints of his masterpieces “Renaissance”, “ Malaya Zemlya” and “Virgin lands”. It is curious that the Secretary General had the habit of often forgetting about his literary income when paying party contributions to his favorite party.

Leonid Brezhnev was generally very generous at the expense of “national” state property - both to himself, and to his children, and to those close to him. He appointed his son first deputy minister of foreign trade. In this post, he became famous for his constant trips to lavish parties abroad, as well as huge senseless expenses there. Brezhnev's daughter led a wild life in Moscow, spending money coming from nowhere on jewelry. Those close to Brezhnev, in turn, were generously allocated dachas, apartments and huge bonuses.

Yuri Andropov, as a member of the Brezhnev Politburo, received 1,200 rubles a month, but when he became secretary general, he returned the salary of the general secretary from the time of Khrushchev - 800 rubles a month. At the same time, the purchasing power of the “Andropov ruble” was approximately half that of the “Khrushchev ruble”. Nevertheless, Andropov completely preserved the system of “Brezhnev’s fees” of the Secretary General and successfully used it. For example, with a basic salary rate of 800 rubles, his income for January 1984 was 8,800 rubles.

Andropov’s successor, Konstantin Chernenko, having kept the Secretary General’s salary at 800 rubles, intensified his efforts to extort fees by publishing various ideological materials in his own name. According to his party card, his income ranged from 1,200 to 1,700 rubles. At the same time, Chernenko, a fighter for the moral purity of communists, had the habit of constantly hiding from his own party large amounts. Thus, researchers could not find in the party card of Secretary General Chernenko in the column for 1984 4,550 rubles of royalties received through the payroll of Politizdat.

Mikhail Gorbachev “reconciled” with a salary of 800 rubles until 1990, which was only four times the average salary in the country. Only after combining the posts of president of the country and secretary general in 1990 did Gorbachev begin to receive 3,000 rubles for average salary in the USSR 500 rubles.

The successor to the general secretaries, Boris Yeltsin, fumbled almost to the end with the “Soviet salary”, not daring to radically reform the salaries of the state apparatus. Only by decree of 1997 was the salary of the President of Russia set at 10,000 rubles, and in August 1999 its size increased to 15,000 rubles, which was 9 times higher than the average salary in the country, that is, it was approximately at the level of the salaries of his predecessors in running the country, who had the title of General Secretary. True, the Yeltsin family had a lot of income from “the outside”.

For the first 10 months of his reign, Vladimir Putin received the “Yeltsin rate.” However, as of June 30, 2002, the president's annual salary was set at 630,000 rubles (approximately $25,000) plus security and language allowances. He also receives a military pension for his rank of colonel.

From this moment on, for the first time since Lenin’s times, the basic salary rate of the leader of Russia ceased to be just a fiction, although compared to the salary rates of the leaders of the leading countries of the world, Putin’s rate looks quite modest. For example, the President of the United States receives 400 thousand dollars, and the Prime Minister of Japan has almost the same amount. The salaries of other leaders are more modest: the Prime Minister of Great Britain has 348,500 dollars, the Chancellor of Germany has about 220 thousand, and the President of France has 83 thousand.

It is interesting to see how the “regional secretaries general” - the current presidents of the CIS countries - look against this background. Former member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, and now the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, essentially lives according to the “Stalinist norms” for the ruler of the country, that is, he and his family are fully provided for by the state, but he also set a relatively small salary for himself - 4 thousand dollars per month. month. Other regional general secretaries - former first secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of their republics - formally set themselves more modest salaries. Thus, the President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, receives only $1,900 a month, and the President of Turkmenistan, Sapurmurad Niyazov, receives only $900. At the same time, Aliyev, having placed his son Ilham Aliyev at the head of the state oil company, actually privatized all the country's income from oil - the main currency resource of Azerbaijan, and Niyazov generally turned Turkmenistan into a kind of medieval khanate, where everything belongs to the ruler. Turkmenbashi, and only he, can resolve any issue. All foreign currency funds are managed only by Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmens) Niyazov personally, and the sale of Turkmen gas and oil is managed by his son Murad Niyazov.

The situation is worse than others for the former first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia and member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee Eduard Shevardnadze. With a modest monthly salary of $750, he was unable to establish complete control over the country’s wealth due to strong opposition to him in the country. In addition, the opposition closely monitors all personal expenses of President Shevardnadze and his family.

Lifestyle and real capabilities of current leaders former country The Soviets are well characterized by the behavior of the Russian President's wife, Lyudmila Putina, during her husband's recent state visit to the UK. The wife of the British Prime Minister, Cherie Blair, took Lyudmila to view 2004 clothing models from the Burberry design firm, famous among the rich. For more than two hours, Lyudmila Putina was shown the latest fashion items, and in conclusion, Putina was asked if she would like to purchase anything. Blueberry's prices are very high. For example, even a gas scarf from this company costs 200 pounds sterling.

The Russian president's eyes were so wide-eyed that she announced the purchase... of the entire collection. Even super-millionaires did not dare to do this. By the way, because if you buy the entire collection, people will not understand that you are wearing next year’s fashion clothes! After all, no one else has anything comparable. Putina’s behavior in this case was not so much the behavior of the wife of a major statesman beginning of the XXI century, much like the behavior of the main wife of an Arab sheikh in the mid-20th century, who was distraught by the amount of petrodollars that had fallen on her husband.

This episode with Mrs. Putina needs a little explanation. Naturally, neither she nor the “art critics in plainclothes” accompanying her during the collection display had as much money with them as the collection was worth. This was not required, because in such cases, respected people only need their signature on the check and nothing else. No money or credit cards. Even if Mr. President of Russia himself, who is trying to appear before the world as a civilized European, was outraged by this act, then, of course, he had to pay.

Other rulers of former countries Soviet republics- also know how to “live well.” So, a couple of years ago, the six-day wedding of the son of the President of Kyrgyzstan Akaev and the daughter of the President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev thundered throughout Asia. The scale of the wedding was truly Khan-like. By the way, both newlyweds graduated from the University of College Park (Maryland) only a year ago.

The son of Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, Ilham Aliyev, also looks quite decent against this background, having set a kind of world record: in just one evening he managed to lose as much as 4 (four!) million dollars in a casino. By the way, this worthy representative of one of the “General Secretary’s” clans is now registered as a candidate for the post of President of Azerbaijan. Residents of this one of the poorest countries in terms of living standards are invited to elect either an amateur in the new elections.” beautiful life” Aliyev’s son or father Aliyev himself, who has already “served” two presidential terms, has crossed the 80-year mark and is so sick that he is no longer able to move independently.

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich (1870-1924) 1917-1923 reign
Stalin (real name - Dzhugashvili) Joseph Vissarionovich)