| Name | Title | Period |
| Vladimir Ilych Lenin | Head of the Central Committee | October 26, 1917 - April 3, 1922 |
| Joseph Stalin | General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union | April 3, 1922 - March 5, 1953 |
| Nikita Khrushchev | First Secretary | September 7, 1953 - October 14, 1964 |
| Leonid Brezhnev | First Secretary | October 14, 1964 - April 8, 1966 |
| General Secretary | April 8, 1966 - November 10, 1982 | |
| Yuri Andropov | General Secretary | November 12, 1982 - February 9, 1984 |
| Konstantin Chernenko | General Secretary | February 13, 1984 - March 10, 1985 |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | General Secretary | March 11, 1985 - March 14, 1990 |
| President of the Soviet Union | March 14, 1990 - December 25, 1991 |
The post of General Secretary was created in April 1922 and became the highest in the party when Lenin died. The title was First Secretary between 1953 and April 1966.
On March 14 1990, the newly created (1989) Congress of People's Deputies voted to end the Communist party's control over the government and elected Gorbachev President of the Soviet Union.
See also: Leon Trotsky, History of the Soviet Union, List of minor leaders of the Soviet Union
For the leaders of post-communist Russia, see: History of post-communist Russia.