List of leaders of the Soviet Union
Following Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s, the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party became synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union, because the post controlled both the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, both indirectly, via Party membership, and via the tradition of a single person holding two highest posts: in the Party and in the government. The post of the General Secretary was abolished in 1952 under Stalin and later re-established by Nikita Khrushchev under the name of First Secretary. In 1966, Leonid Brezhnev reverted the office title to its former name. Being the head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the office of the General Secretary was the highest in the Soviet Union until 1990. The post of General Secretary lacked clear guidelines of succession, so after the death or removal of a Soviet leader the successor usually needed the support of the Politburo, the Central Committee, or another government or party apparatus to both take and stay in power. The President of the Soviet Union, an office created in March 1990, replaced the General Secretary as the highest Soviet political office.
Nikolai Bryukhanov
Bryukhanov was put in charge of the People's Commissariat of Supplies in December 1921. With the creation of the USSR in December 1922, Bryukhanov became the first head of the People's Commissariat of Supplies of the new federation on July 6, 1923. On May 14, 1924, the Commissariat was abolished and Bryukhanov was made deputy People's Commissar of Finance. When the head of the Commissariat, Grigory Sokolnikov, supported Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev in their unsuccessful opposition to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in late 1925, Stalin replaced Sokolnikov with the less influential and apolitical Bryukhanov on January 18, 1926. At the 15th Party Congress in December 1927, Bryukhanov was elected candidate (non-voting) member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, a position which he kept until the 17th Party Congress in January 1934.