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.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1992)
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (, "Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Sovetskogo Soyuza"; short: КПСС, "KPSS") is a political party led by Sergei Skvortsov operating in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The party was founded in 1992 at the so-called 29th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which among other actions excluded former President Mikhail Gorbachev from the newly formed party. It claims to be the inheritors of the legacy of the original Soviet Communist Party and among its goals states the restoration of the Soviet Union. The party has launched several front groups, such as the All-Russian Committee for Defence of Kuriles, the Movement for Social Justice and the Inter-Regional Strike Committee. The central publication of the party is "Narodnaya Gazeta" (, "People's Newspaper"). Skvortsov operates as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well as the editor-in-chief of the publication.