| Portrait | Name(lifespan) | Period | Duration | Congress(es) | Political office | Premier(s) | President(s) | Policies |
| | Vladimir Lenin(1870–1924) | 30 December 1922↓21 January 1924† | 1 year, 22 days | 1st–10th 11th 12th | Chairman of Sovnarkom | Himself | Mikhail Kalinin | Leninism• Russian Civil War (1917–23)• War communism (1918–21) • New Economic Policy (1921–28) |
| After the Russian Revolution, Lenin became 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. |
| | Joseph Stalin(1878–1953) | 21 January 1924↓5 March 1953† | 29 years, 43 days | 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th | General Secretary of the Communist Party(1922–1952)Chairman of theCouncil of Ministers(1941–1953) | Alexei RykovVyacheslav MolotovHimself | Mikhail KalininNikolay Shvernik | Stalinism• Socialism in one country • Collectivization (1928–40) • Rapid industrialization (1929–41) • Great Purge (1936–38) |
| Following the death of Lenin, Stalin initially ruled the Soviet Union as part of a troika alongside Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev. However, by April 1925, this arrangement broke down as Stalin consolidated power to become the country's absolute dictator. He also held the post of the Minister of Defence from 19 July 1941 to 3 March 1947 and chaired the State Defense Committee during World War II. |
| | Georgy Malenkov(1902–1988) | 5 March 1953↓7 September 1953 | 186 days | — | Chairman of theCouncil of Ministers | Himself | Nikolay ShvernikKliment Voroshilov | |
| After Stalin's death, Malenkov ruled as part of a troika alongside Lavrentiy Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov. Despite initially succeeding Stalin in all his titles and positions, he was forced to relinquish most of them within a month by the Politburo. The troika would ultimately break down when Beria was arrested later that year. Shortly thereafter, he found himself locked in a power struggle against Nikita Khrushchev that led to his removal as Premier in 1955. |
| | Nikita Khrushchev(1894–1971) | 7 September 1953↓14 October 1964 | 11 years, 37 days | 20th 21st 22nd | First Secretary of theCommunist Party | Georgy MalenkovNikolai BulganinHimself | Kliment VoroshilovLeonid BrezhnevAnastas Mikoyan | Khrushchev Thaw• De-Stalinization (1956–64)• Anti-religious campaign (1958–64)• Sino-Soviet split (1956–66) |
| Khrushchev emerged as first among equals in the party leadership after Malenkov's removal from the Secretariat. The ensuing power struggle ended in January 1955, when Malenkov was removed as Premier of the Soviet Union. After nearly being ousted in 1957 by the "anti-party group", Khrushchev consolidated his power even further by becoming Premier on 27 March 1958. Ultimately, after alienating colleagues through disruptive shake-ups of the country's infrastructure and brinksmanship on the world stage, he was fired from all his posts at a special meeting of the Presidium on 13 October 1964. |
| | Leonid Brezhnev(1906–1982) | 14 October 1964↓10 November 1982† | 18 years, 27 days | 23rd 24th 25th 26th | General Secretary of the Communist Party | Alexei KosyginNikolai Tikhonov | Anastas MikoyanNikolai PodgornyHimself | Era of Stagnation• Collective leadership• Kosygin reforms (1965–70)• Brezhnev Doctrine (1968–81)• Cold War détente (1969–79)• 1973 economic reform• 1979 economic reform |
| In October 1964, Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party. Despite being the de jure head of the party, he was initially forced to govern the country as part of a troika alongside the Soviet Union's Premier, Alexei Kosygin and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet's Presidium, Nikolai Podgorny. However, by the 1970s, Brezhnev consolidated power to become the regime's undisputed leader. In 1977, Brezhnev officially replaced Podgorny as head of state. At his death in 1982, he received a state funeral. |
| | Yuri Andropov(1914–1984) | 10 November 1982↓9 February 1984† | 1 year, 91 days | — | General Secretary of the Communist Party | Nikolai Tikhonov | Vasily Kuznetsov (acting)Himself |
| General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 16 June 1983 to 9 February 1984. |
| | Konstantin Chernenko(1911–1985) | 9 February 1984↓10 March 1985† | 1 year, 29 days | — | General Secretary of the Communist Party | Nikolai Tikhonov | Vasily Kuznetsov (acting)Himself |
| General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from 11 April 1984 to 10 March 1985. However, due to his poor health and lack of support within the party, he governed the country for most of his tenure as part of a troika alongside Andrei Gromyko and Dmitry Ustinov. |
| | Mikhail Gorbachev(1931–2022) | 10 March 1985↓25 December 1991 | 6 years, 290 days | 27th 28th | President(1990–1991)General Secretary of the Communist Party | Nikolai TikhonovNikolai RyzhkovValentin PavlovIvan Silayev | Vasily Kuznetsov (acting)Andrei GromykoHimself | Perestroika• Glasnost• Uskoreniye• Democratization• New political thinking• 500 Days program (planned) |
| 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. Deposed on 19 August 1991, reinstated on 22 August. The day following Gorbachev's resignation as president, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. Gorbachev was the only head of the USSR to have been born during its existence. |
