General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In the 1950s, Stalin increasingly withdrew from Secretariat business, leaving the supervision of the body to Georgy Malenkov, possibly to test him as a potential successor. In October 1952, at the 19th Party Congress, Stalin restructured the party's leadership. His request, voiced through Malenkov, to be relieved of his duties in the party secretariat due to his age, was rejected by the party congress, as delegates were unsure about Stalin's intentions. In the end, the congress formally abolished Stalin's office of General Secretary, though Stalin remained one of the party secretaries and maintained ultimate control of the Party. When Stalin died on 5 March 1953, Malenkov was the most important member of the Secretariat, which also included Nikita Khrushchev, among others. Under a short-lived troika of Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov, Malenkov became Chairman of the Council of Ministers but was forced to resign from the Secretariat nine days later on 14 March, leaving Khrushchev in effective control of the body. Khrushchev was elected to the new office of First Secretary at the Central Committee plenum on 14 September of the same year. Originally conceived as a collective leadership, Khrushchev removed his rivals from power in both 1955 and (especially) 1957 and reinforced the supremacy of the First Secretary.
Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The first session of the founding congress of the Communist Party of the RSFSR opened in Moscow on 19 June 1990. 2,768 delegates attended the congress. There were three key contenders for the post of First Secretary, Valentin Kuptsov, Ivan Polozkov and Oleg Lobov (Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia). Kuptsov, the candidate supported by Gorbachev and the all-Union party leadership, suffered a heavy defeat. He received a mere 343 votes in favour whilst 2,278 delegates voted against him. Polozkov obtained 1,017 votes in favour and 1,604 against him, whilst Lobov got 848 votes in favour and 1,773 votes against him. A run-off was held between Polozkov and Lobov. Polozkov was elected with 1,396 against 1,066 for Lobov. The first session of the founding congress concluded on 23 June 1990.