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The State Defense Committee (Russian: Государственный комитет обороны (ГКО), romanized: Gosudarstvennyĭ komitet oborony (GKO)) was an extraordinary organ of state power in the Soviet Union during World War II with complete state power in the country.

General scope

The Soviets set up the GKO on 30 June 1941, a week after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, by a joint decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom), and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The war situation at the front lines required a more centralized form of government. The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, however, continued unsuspended. On 18 June 1942, over a thousand members attended the 9th session of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow.[1]

Geoffrey Roberts described the GKO as “a sort of war cabinet“.[2]

Composition

Portrait Name
(Lifespan) 		Term of office Notes
Took office Left office Duration
Joseph Stalin
(1878–1953) 		30 June 1941 4 September 1945 4 years, 66 days Chairman
Vyacheslav Molotov
(1890–1986) 		30 June 1941 4 September 1945 4 years, 66 days Deputy Chairman until 16 May 1944
Lavrentiy Beria
(1899–1953) 		30 June 1941 4 September 1945 4 years, 66 days Representing State Security; Deputy Chairman from 16 May 1944
Georgy Malenkov
(1901–1988) 		30 June 1941 4 September 1945 4 years, 66 days Representing Aviation Industry
Kliment Voroshilov
(1881–1969) 		30 June 1941 22 November 1944 3 years, 145 days Replaced by Bulganin
Nikolai Voznesensky
(1903–1950) 		3 February 1942 4 September 1945 3 years, 213 days
Anastas Mikoyan
(1895–1978) 		3 February 1942 4 September 1945 3 years, 213 days
Lazar Kaganovich
(1893–1991) 		20 February 1942 4 September 1945 3 years, 196 days
Nikolai Bulganin
(1895–1975) 		22 November 1944 4 September 1945 286 days Replaced Voroshilov

See also

References

  1. ^ Compare: Handbook on the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: “Верховный Совет СССР, сессии [:] I созыв [:] всего 1143 депутата, 569 в Совете Союза и 574 в Совете Национальностей […] 18.6.1942 [:] IX сессия (Москва)”
  2. ^ Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 95. ISBN 9780300112047. Retrieved 2018-10-01. The State Defence Committee, or GKO, stood at the pinnacle of Stalin’s decision-making system during the war […]. As a sort of war cabinet chaired by Stalin, it was a political body charged with directing and controlling all aspects of the Soviet war effort.

Bibliography

  • Barber, John, and Harrison, Mark. (1991). The Soviet Home Front 1941–1945: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-00964-2, ISBN 0-582-00965-0.
  • Werth, Alexander. (1964). Russia at War 1941–1945. New York: Carrol and Graf.

Further reading

  • Glantz, David M. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army stopped Hitler. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. ISBN 978-0-7006-0899-7 Overview of Eastern Front from Soviet side.
  • Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-300-11204-1 Post-revisionist study of Stalin’s wartime and post-war leadership.