The title of General Secretary or First Secretary is commonly used for the leaders of most communist parties. When a communist party is the ruling party of a communist state, the general secretary is typically the country's de facto leader. Except in Vietnam, it is not uncommon for this leader to also assume state-level positions, such as president or premiership, thereby also becoming the de jure leader of the state. The position of general secretary is typically elected by the communist party's central committee (with the Workers' Party of Korea as an exception), and the holder of this title also serves on the communist party's politburo and secretariat.
General secretaries of ruling communist parties +Leaders of current ruling communist parties Party Title Officeholder Took office Length of tenure Workers' Party of Korea General Secretary Kim Jong Un 11 April 2012 Chinese Communist Party General Secretary of the Central Committee Xi Jinping 15 November 2012 Lao People's Revolutionary Party General Secretary of the Central Committee 15 January 2021 Communist Party of Cuba First Secretary of the Central Committee 19 April 2021 Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary of the Central Committee 3 August 2024
General secretaries of former ruling communist parties + General Secretaries of former ruling communist parties Party Title Country First officeholder Term began and ended Final officeholder Term began and ended Party of Labour of Albania General Secretary Enver Hoxha 38 November 1941 – 11 April 1985 Ramiz Alia 13 April 1985 – 13 June 1991 Bulgarian Communist Party General Secretary Georgi Dimitrov 1933 – 2 July 1949 Petar Mladenov 10 November 1989 – 2 February 1990 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia First Secretary Klement Gottwald 1945 – 14 March 1953 Ladislav Adamec 21 December 1989 – 1 September 1990 Socialist Unity Party of Germany General Secretary Wilhelm Pieck 22 April 1946 – 25 July 1950(as Chairman) Egon Krenz 18 October 1989 – 3 December 1989 Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party General Secretary János Kádár 25 October 1956 – 22 May 1988 Rezső Nyers 22 May 1988 – 7 October 1989(as President) Communist Party of Kampuchea General Secretary Tou Samouth 30 September 1960 – 20 July 1962 Pol Pot 22 February 1963 – 6 December 1981 Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party General Secretary Soliin Danzan 3 March 1921 – 21 September 1921 Büdragchaagiin Dash-Yondon 28 February 1991 – 28 July 1996(as Chairman till 1992) Polish United Workers' Party First Secretary Bolesław Bierut 22 December 1948 – 12 March 1956 Mieczysław Rakowski 29 July 1989 – 29 January 1990 Romanian Communist Party General Secretary Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej 16 October 1945 – 19 April 1954 and 30 September 1955 – 19 March 1965 Nicolae Ceaușescu 22 March 1965 – 22 December 1989 Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin 3 April 1922 – 16 October 1952 Vladimir Ivashko 24 August 1991 – 29 August 1991(acting) League of Communists of Yugoslavia President Josip Broz Tito March 1939 – 4 May 1980 Milan Pančevski 8 May 1989 – 30 June 1990
See also General secretary Central committee Politburo Secretariat
Notes
References
External links