The Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from October 5–14, 1952. It was the last congress of the Stalin regime and the first to take place since before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. It was attended by many foreign dignitaries, including Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

.

Changes

• The All-Union Communist Party became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
  Communist Party of the Soviet Union
  The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
  
  .

• Stalin's post of General Secretary was formally abolished, although Stalin maintained de facto control of the Party. In September 1953 the post was reintroduced as First Secretary.

• The Politburo became the Presidium of the Central Committee and was greatly expanded (to 15 members) in preparation for the purge scheduled the next year. The Secretariat
  Secretariat
  Secretariat may refer to:* Secretariat , racehorse that won the Triple Crown in 1973* Secretariat , 2010 film about the racehorse...
  
   and Central Committee
  Central Committee
  Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
  
   were doubled in size (to ten and 133 members, respectively). The Orgburo
  Orgburo
  The Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union existed from 1919–52, until the 19th Congress, when the Orgburo was abolished and its functions were transferred to the enlarged Secretariat....
  
   was abolished, the Secretariat took over its duties.

• Full members (voting) elected to the Presidium:

Andrianov; Averky Aristov

Averky Aristov

Averky Borisovich Aristov — 11 July 1973) was a Soviet politician and diplomat.He was the son of a fisherman, working for a fishery during 1912 - 1919. In 1919 he joined the Komsomol and 1921 he became a member of the Bolshevik Party...

; Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....

; Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...

; Kliment Voroshilov

Kliment Voroshilov

Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...

; Semyon Ignatyev

Semyon Ignatyev

Semyon Denisovich Ignatiev, also spelled Ignatyev was a Soviet politician.Ignatiev, the son of a peasant,an engineer, joined the Communist Party in 1926. For most of his career, he was a discreet regional apparatchik, serving as Party Secretary in Buryat ASSR, Bashkir ASSR, Byelorussian SSR and...

; Lazar Kaganovich

Lazar Kaganovich

Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire...

; Demian S. Korotchenko; Vasily Kuznetsov

Vasily Kuznetsov

Vasili Vasilyevich Kuznetsov , Russian Soviet political figure; acting chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1982 to 1983, for a second time in 1984, and for a third time in 1985....

; Otto Kuusinen; Georgy Malenkov

Georgy Malenkov

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was a Soviet politician, Communist Party leader and close collaborator of Joseph Stalin. After Stalin's death, he became Premier of the Soviet Union and was in 1953 briefly considered the most powerful Soviet politician before being overshadowed by Nikita...

; Vyacheslav Malyshev; Leonid G. Melnikov; Anastas Mikoyan

Anastas Mikoyan

Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....

; Mikhaylov

Mikhaylov

Mikhaylov, Mihaylov, Mikhailov or Mihailov , or Mikhaylova is a Russian, Yugoslavian and Bulgarian last name, derived from the first name Mikhail...

; Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...

; Mikhail Pervukhin

Mikhail Pervukhin

Mikhail Gyeorgievich Pervukhin was a Soviet official during the Stalin Era, Khrushchev Era and the early Brezhnev Era. He served as a First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, literally First Vice-Premier of the Soviet Union, from 1955 to 1957....

; Panteleimon Ponomarenko

Panteleimon Ponomarenko

Panteleimon Kondrat'evich Ponomarenko ; 9 August 1902 18 January 1984) was a general in the Red Army before becoming a Soviet administrator in Belarus and then Kazakhstan. He was born in Krasnodar Krai, Russia....

; Maksim Saburov

Maksim Saburov

Maksim Zakharovich Saburov was a Soviet engineer, economist and politician, three-time Chairman of Gosplan and later First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union...

; Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

; Mikhail Suslov

Mikhail Suslov

Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, and as unofficial Chief Ideologue of the Party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the separation of power...

; Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

; Chesnokov

Chesnokov

Chesnokov or Chesnokova is the Russian last name. The surname is derived from the word Чеснок . It is the last name of the following people:* Andrei Chesnokov , former professional tennis player...

; Nikolay Shvernik

Nikolay Shvernik

Nikolay Mikhailovich Shvernik was a Russian politician, who was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from March 19, 1946 until March 15, 1953...

; Shkiryatov

• Candiate (non-voting) members elected to the Presidium:

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev  – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...

; Andrei Vyshinsky; Arseni Zverev; Nikolai Ignatov; Kabanov; Alexei Kosygin; Nikolai Patolichev

Nikolai Patolichev

Nikolai Semyonovich Patolichev was Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1958 to 1985. Prior to that, he was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia from 1950 to 1956.-Early Life:...

; Pegov; Alexander Puzanov

Alexander Puzanov

Alexander M. Puzanov was a Soviet-Russian statesman who was from 1952 to 1956 the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR, literally meaning Premier or Prime Minister....

; Vladimir Konstantinov; Ivan Tevosyan; Yudin

Yudin

Yudin and Yudina are Russian surnamesYudin may refer to:* Aleksei Yudin , Russian professional football player* Andriy Yudin , Ukrainian football player and coach...

An unofficial "inner circle" of Stalin's closest associates included Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....

, Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...

, Kliment Voroshilov

Kliment Voroshilov

Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...

, Lazar Kaganovich

Lazar Kaganovich

Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire...

, Georgy Malenkov

Georgy Malenkov

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was a Soviet politician, Communist Party leader and close collaborator of Joseph Stalin. After Stalin's death, he became Premier of the Soviet Union and was in 1953 briefly considered the most powerful Soviet politician before being overshadowed by Nikita...

, Mikhail Pervukhn, Maksim Saburov

Maksim Saburov

Maksim Zakharovich Saburov was a Soviet engineer, economist and politician, three-time Chairman of Gosplan and later First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union...

, and Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

Stalin would make his last speech at this Congress. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqyRoke3TAI

External links

• On changes in the rules of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union