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LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION

LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION


Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)


Founder of the Bolshevik Communist party: leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the founder-head of the USSR during the most difficult period following the revolution (1917-1924): an outstanding theoretician and practitioner of Marxism and a source of inspiration for communists all over the world.

LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION


Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)


Successor to Lenin and led the Soviet Union during its consolidation (1924 53): began rapid industrialisation and forcible collectivisation of agriculture, credited with Soviet victory in the Second World War; held responsible for the Great Terror of the 1930s, authoritarian functioning and elimination of rivals within the party.


LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION


Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)


Leader of the Soviet Union (1953-64): denounced Stalin's leadership style and introduced some reforms in 1956 suggested "peaceful coexistence with the West: involved in suppressing popular rebellion in Hungary and in the Cuban missile crisis.


LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION


Leonid Brezhnev (1906-82)


Leader of the Soviet Union (1964- 82): proposed Asian Collective Security system associated with the détente phase in relations with the US: involved in suppressing a popular rebellion in Czechoslovakia and in invading Afghanistan.

LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION


Mikhail Gorbachev (Bom 1931)


Last leader of the Soviet Union (1985-91); introduced economic and political reform policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) stopped the arms race with the US withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan and eastern Europe helped in the unification of Germany: ended the Cold War, blamed for the clisintegration of the Soviet Union.


LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION


Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007)


The first elected President of Russia (1991- 1999), rose to power in the Communist Party and was made the Mayor of  Moscow by Gorbachev, later joined the critics of Gorbachev and left the Communist Party: led the protests against the Soviet regime in 1991 played a key role in dissolving the Soviet Union blamed for harships suffered by Russians in their transition from communism to capitalism.

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