State Defense Committee
| Государственный комитет обороны | |
.svg) All ministry seals of the Soviet Union used the USSR coat of arms | |
| Lua error in Module:Infobox_mapframe at line 197: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 30 June 1941 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Dissolved | 4 September 1945 |
| Jurisdiction |  Soviet Union |
| Headquarters | Moscow, Russia |
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent agency | All-Union Supreme Soviet |
| Politics of the Soviet Union |
|---|
.svg) |
| Lua error in mw.title.lua at line 392: bad argument #2 to 'title.new' (unrecognized namespace name 'Portal'). |
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
[edit | edit source]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
[edit | edit source]The initial composition of the committee was such:
- Chairman – Joseph Stalin
- Deputy Chairman – Vyacheslav Molotov
- Members – Lavrentiy Beria (State Security), Georgy Malenkov (Aviation Industry), Kliment Voroshilov
On 3 February 1942, Nikolai Voznesensky and Anastas Mikoyan were added as additional members of the committee. On 20 February 1942, Lazar Kaganovich was added. On 16 May 1944, Beria replaced Molotov as deputy chairman. On 22 November 1944, Nikolai Bulganin replaced Voroshilov as a member.
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ^ 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)"
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Bibliography
[edit | edit source]- 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. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
- Werth, Alexander. (1964). Russia at War 1941–1945. New York: Carrol and Graf.
Further reading
[edit | edit source]- Glantz, David M. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army stopped Hitler. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). 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. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Post-revisionist study of Stalin's wartime and post-war leadership.
Lua error in Module:Authority_control at line 153: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).