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Article: General Secretary
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Russian History
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GENERAL SECRETARY
Top position in the Communist Party
Prior to the revolution, Vladimir I. Lenin, the head of the Bolshevik faction, had a secretary, Elena Stasova. After the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, Lenin gave the position of secretary in the ruling Communist Party of Russia to Yakov Sverdlov, a man with a phenomenal memory. After Sverdlov's death in 1919, three people shared the position of secretary. In 1922, in recognition of the expanding party organization and the complexity of the newly formed USSR, a general secretary was appointed. Josef Stalin, who had several other administrative assignments, became general secretary, and used it to build a power base within the ...