First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine

First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
Первый Секретарь ЦК КПУ Перший Секретар ЦК КПУ
Emblem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
Longest serving Volodymyr Shcherbytsky 25 May 1972 – 28 September 1989
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
Style	Comrade First Secretary
Status	Party leader (republican level)
Member of	Politburo Secretariat Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Residence	Bankova Street
Seat	Kiev, Ukrainian SSR
Appointer	Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
Constituting instrument	Party statutes
Formation	Secretary of the Organizational Bureau: 20 April 1918 Secretary: 12 July 1918 First Secretary: 23 November 1920 General Secretary: 20 March 1925 – 23 January 1934
First holder	Mykola Skrypnyk as Secretary of the Organizational Bureau Georgy Pyatakov as First Secretary
Final holder	Stanislav Gurenko as First Secretary
Abolished	30 August 1991[1]
Succession	Liquidated and banned due to support for the State Committee on the State of Emergency
Deputy	Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Перший Секретар ЦК КПУ, Russian: Первый Секретарь ЦК КПУ) was a party leader of the republican branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The office' name alternated throughout its history between First Secretary and the General Secretary.

While the CPU leader was not officially the leader of Ukraine, he was so de facto through the Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution, which indicated that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the "leading and guiding force of the Soviet society". On October 24, 1990, the provision on the monopoly of the Communist Party of Ukraine on power was excluded from Article 6 of the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR^[2] and accordingly, the first secretary of the Central Committee ceased to be considered the actual head of the republic.

The First Secretary was elected at a plenum (plenary session) of the Central Committee, while each Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine was elected at the each Party's Congress. The longest serving secretary was Vladimir Shcherbitsky^[3] with some 17 years.

Name change[]

• 1918–1920 Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
• 1920–1921 First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
• 1921–1921 Responsible Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
• 1921–1925 First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
• 1925–1934 General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
• 1934–1991 First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine

Historical scope[]

The post of Secretary was elected by a plenum (plenary session) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine beginning since July 1918. Until 1920 it was a single post of the Central Committee Secretariat. In 1920 Nikolay Bestchetvertnoi was dismissed as the secretary and the Provisional Bureau of the Central Committee elected Stanislav Kosior as the Party's Secretary.

Later in 1920 there were introduced a post of the Second Secretary which acted as a deputy of the First Secretary. In 1921 after Vyacheslav Molotov was dismissed as the First Secretary, he was replaced with Feliks Kon as the Responsible Secretary. Kon became the only party official with such title which he held until end of 1921. Starting with 1921 beside the First and the Second secretaries, there were elected some additional secretaries, first of which became Stanislav Kosior.

In March of 1925 on a statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine the post held by Emanuil Kviring had changed its name to the General Secretary. Less than a month later a plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine reelected the party's leader Lazar Kaganovich with the new title name. In January of 1934 Stanislav Kosior was elected as the First Secretary returning to previous name which has been kept until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In 1927–1930 the Communist Party of Ukraine also had posts of a candidate to Secretariat members. In 1931–1932 there were secretaries for specific types of industry as well as a separate secretary for "Donbas" (Ivan Akulov). In June of 1937 there was introduced a post of the Third Secretary which existed until January of 1949. In May of 1940 a practice of electing a secretary for specifically assigned industry was renewed and continued throughout the World War II until the next planum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine in January of 1949.

Until 1952 the Communist Party of Ukraine was officially known as the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine (CP(b)U).

List of first and second secretaries[]

• Mykola Oleksiiovych Skrypnyk (20 April–26 May 1918) (Secretary of the Organizational Bureau)

No.	Portrait	Name[4] (Born-Died)	Term of office			Second	Congress[5]
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Georgy Pyatakov (1890–1937)	12 July 1918	9 September 1918	59 days	None	1
2		Serafima Hopner (1880–1966)	9 September 1918	22 October 1918	43 days	None	1
3		Emanuel Kviring (1888–1937)	23 October 1918	6 March 1919	134 days	None
(1)		Georgy Pyatakov (1890–1937)	6 March 1919	30 May 1919	85 days	None
4		Stanislav Kosior (1889–1939)	30 May 1919	10 December 1919	194 days	None
–		Rafail Farbman (1893–1966) Acting	10 December 1919	23 March 1920	104 days	None
5		Nikolay Bestchetvertnoi (1895–1937)	23 March 1920	25 March 1920	2 days	None
–		Stanislav Kosior (1889–1939) Acting	25 March 1920	17 October 1920	206 days	None
6		Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986)	23 November 1920	22 March 1921	119 days	Dmitriy Lebed
–		Feliks Kon (1864–1941) Acting	22 March 1921	13 December 1921	266 days	Dmitriy Lebed
7		Dmitry Manuilsky (1883–1959)	14 December 1921	10 April 1923	1 year, 117 days	Dmitriy Lebed
(3)		Emanuel Kviring (1888–1937)	10 April 1923	7 April 1925	1 year, 362 days	Dmitriy Lebed Aleksei Medvedev Ivan Klimenko
8		Lazar Kaganovich (1893–1991)	7 April 1925	14 July 1928	3 years, 98 days	Ivan Klimenko Aleksei Medvedev
(4)		Stanislav Kosior (1889–1939)	14 July 1928	27 January 1938	9 years, 197 days	Aleksei Medvedev Lavrentiy Kartvelishvili Vasiliy Stroganov Mendel Khatayevich Pavel Postyshev Mendel Khatayevich Sergei Kudryavtsev
–		Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Acting	27 January 1938	18 June 1938	142 days	Mykhailo Burmystenko (Acting)
9		Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)	18 June 1938	3 March 1947	8 years, 258 days	Demyan Korotchenko
(8)		Lazar Kaganovich (1893–1991)	3 March 1947	26 December 1947	298 days	Demyan Korotchenko
(9)		Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)	26 December 1947	16 December 1949	1 year, 355 days	Leonid Melnikov
10		Leonid Melnikov (1906–1981)	16 December 1949	4 June 1953	3 years, 170 days	Aleksei Kirichenko
11		Alexei Kirichenko (1908–1975)	4 June 1953	26 December 1957	4 years, 205 days	Nikolai Podgorny
12		Nikolai Podgorny (1903–1983)	26 December 1957	2 July 1963	5 years, 188 days	Leontiy Naidek Ivan Kazanets
13		Petro Shelest (1908–1996)	2 July 1963	25 May 1972	8 years, 328 days	Nikolai Sobol Oleksandr Liashko Ivan Lutak
14		Volodymyr Shcherbytsky (1918–1990)	25 May 1972	28 September 1989	17 years, 95 days	Ivan Lutak Ivan Sokolov Oleksiy Titarenko Vladimir Ivashko
15		Vladimir Ivashko (1932–1994)	28 September 1989	23 June 1990	299 days	Stanislav Hurenko
16		Stanislav Hurenko (1936–2013)	23 June 1990	30 August 1991	1 year, 68 days	Leonid Kravchuk Hryhoriy Kharchenko

Other members of Secretariat[]

Third Secretary[]

• (3 June 1937 – 3 July 1937)
• Demian Korotchenko (22 July 1939 – 9 July 1946)
• (10 July 1946 – 28 January 1949)

Other Secretaries[]

Candidates to the Secretariat[]

• Nikolay Donenko (9 April 1929 – 18 November 1929)
• Olga Pilatskaya (9 April 1929 – 15 June 1930)
• Andrei Khvylia (9 April 1929 – 15 June 1930)
• Vladimir Chernyavskiy (21 November 1929 – 15 June 1930)

References[]

External links[]

• Secretariat of Central Committee of the CP(b)U (Handbook on history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union 1898-1991)
• Vakhtang Kipiani, Volodymyr Fedoryn. "Shcherbytskyi said what kind of a stupid person invented the word perestroika? … ("Щербицкий сказал - какой дурак придумал слово перестройка?.."). Ukrayinska Pravda (Istorychna Pravda). 10 September 2011.