Collective leadership in the Soviet Union in the context of "Joseph Stalin"

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated as Politburo, was the de facto highest executive authority in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). While elected by and formally accountable to the Central Committee, in practice the Politburo operated as the ruling body of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union from its creation in 1919 until the party's dissolution in 1991. Full members and candidate (non-voting) members held among the most powerful positions in the Soviet hierarchy, often overlapping with top state roles. Its duties, typically carried out at weekly meetings, included formulating state policy, issuing directives, and ratifying appointments.

The Politburo was originally established as a small group of senior Bolsheviks shortly before the October Revolution of 1917, and was re-established in 1919 to decide on urgent matters during the Russian Civil War. It operated on the principles of democratic centralism, though in practice it increasingly centralized power in the hands of a few. Under Joseph Stalin, the party's General Secretary from 1922 to 1952, the Politburo evolved into an instrument of personal dictatorship. His domination of the body was such that its sessions were often perfunctory, and during the Great Purge from 1936 to 1938, even Politburo members were not immune to persecution. The body was renamed the Presidium between 1952 and 1966. After Stalin's death in 1953, the Politburo's authority became more collective under leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. During the Brezhnev era from 1964 to 1982, the Politburo grew in size and became increasingly bureaucratic in character. As General Secretary from 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform the Politburo's functions during perestroika, shifting power away from party structures and toward state institutions. The Politburo was officially disbanded upon the banning of the CPSU in late 1991.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congresses. Elected by the Congress, the Central Committee emerged as the core nexus of executive and administrative authority in the party, with de facto supremacy over the government of the Soviet Union. It was composed of full members and candidate (non-voting) members. Real authority was often concentrated in smaller, more agile organs elected by the Committee, namely the Politburo, Secretariat, and Orgburo (dissolved in 1952), as well as in the post of General Secretary. Theoretically a collective leadership, the Committee increasingly became a rubber-stamp institution, particularly from the late 1920s onward under the dominance of Joseph Stalin.

The Central Committee originated in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), established in 1898, and continued in the Bolshevik party, established in 1912. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917, the Committee assumed a key leadership role, functioning both as a strategic body and a conduit for implementing party directives in the expanding Soviet state. Stalin used his control over personnel appointments to dominate the Committee and ensure ideological conformity, and during his rule the Committee's composition often reflected factional struggles, purges, and leadership reshufflings. During the Great Purge of 1936 to 1938, a significant portion of its members were executed or imprisoned.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (né Dzhugashvili; 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held office as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as premier from 1941 until his death. Despite initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he eventually consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. Stalin codified the party's official interpretation of Marxism as Marxism–Leninism, and his version of it is referred to as Stalinism.

Born into a poor Georgian family in Gori, Russian Empire, Stalin attended the Tiflis Theological Seminary before joining the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction through bank robberies and other crimes, and edited the party's newspaper, Pravda. He was repeatedly arrested and underwent several exiles to Siberia. After the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917, Stalin served as a member of the Politburo, and from 1922 used his position as General Secretary to gain control over the party bureaucracy. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin won the leadership struggle over rivals including Leon Trotsky. Stalin's doctrine of socialism in one country became central to the party's ideology, and his five-year plans starting in 1928 led to forced agricultural collectivisation, rapid industrialisation, and a centralised command economy. His policies contributed to a famine in 1932–1933 which killed millions, including in the Holodomor in Ukraine. Between 1936 and 1938, Stalin executed hundreds of thousands of his real and perceived political opponents in the Great Purge. Under his regime, an estimated 18 million people passed through the Gulag system of forced labour camps, and more than six million people, including kulaks and entire ethnic groups, were deported to remote areas of the country.