Wikipedia:Today's featured list/July 18, 2011
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The leaders of the Soviet Union were appointed by either the Communist Party or the Soviet Government. Although there was no office titled "Leader of the Soviet Union", during Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s, the incumbent of the post of the General Secretary of the Party's Central Committee became in effect the leader of the Soviet Union, because the post controlled both Party and Government. By 1946, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers had become the de facto leader of the country. The last office performing the function of leader was the post of President of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was the only Soviet leader to rule the Soviet Union through the office of the head of state. There were nine leaders of the Soviet Union; Stalin's and Leonid Brezhnev's (pictured) rules were the lengthiest. (Full list...)