23rd Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Politburo of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was in session from 1966 to 1971.

23rd Politburo

22nd Presidium ← →  24th Politburo
Duration	8 April 1966 – 9 April 1971

The 23rd Congress, the first such event since Nikita Khrushchev's ousting, the Presidium reverted to its previous name; Politburo. Mikoyan and Nikolai Shvernik, the two oldest members, were not reelected to the Presidium, while Arvīds Pelše became the only Presidium débutant. While Brezhnev may have been General Secretary, he did not have a majority in the Presidium; when Kosygin and Podgorny agreed on policy, which was not often the case, Brezhnev found himself in the minority. Brezhnev could only count on three to four votes in the Presidium: Suslov, who often switched sides, Kirilenko, Pelše and Dmitry Polyansky. Brezhnev and Kosygin often disagreed on policy; Brezhnev was a conservative while Kosygin was a modest reformer. Kosygin, who had begun his premiership as Brezhnev's equal, lost much power and influence within the Presidium when he introduced the 1965–1971 Soviet economic reform. After the reshuffling process of the Presidium ended in mid-to-late 1970, the Soviet leadership evolved into a gerontocracy, a form of rule in which the rulers are significantly older than most of the adult population; this meant that fewer up-and-comers were promoted to top party positions.

Composition

Members

Members of the Political Bureau of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Name	Cyrillic	22nd PRE	24th POL	Birth	Death	PM	Ethnicity
Leonid Brezhnev	Леонид Брежнев	Old	Reelected	1906	1982	1931	Russian
Andrei Kirilenko	Андре́й Кириле́нко	Old	Reelected	1906	1990	1930	Russian
Alexei Kosygin	Алексей Косыгин	Old	Reelected	1904	1980	1927	Russian
Kirill Mazurov	Кири́лл Ма́зуров	Old	Reelected	1914	1989	1940	Belarusian
Arvīds Pelše	А́рвид Пе́льше	New	Reelected	1899	1983	1915	Latvian
Nikolai Podgorny	Никола́й Подго́рный	Old	Reelected	1903	1983	1930	Ukrainian
Dmitry Polyansky	Дми́трий Поля́нский	Old	Reelected	1917	2001	1939	Ukrainian
Alexander Shelepin	Алекса́ндр Шеле́пин	Old	Reelected	1918	1994	1940	Russian
Petro Shelest	Петро Шелест	Old	Reelected	1908	1996	1928	Ukrainian
Mikhail Suslov	Михаил Суслов	Old	Reelected	1902	1982	1921	Russian
Gennady Voronov	Геннадий Воронов	Old	Reelected	1910	1994	1931	Russian

Candidates

Candidate Members of the Political Bureau of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Name	Cyrillic	22nd PRE	24th POL	Birth	Death	PM	Ethnicity
Yuri Andropov	Юрий Андропов	By-election	Candidate	1914	1984	1939	Russian
Pyotr Demichev	Пётр Де́мичев	Candidate	Candidate	1917	2010	1939	Russian
Viktor Grishin	Ви́ктор Гри́шин	Candidate	Member	1914	1992	1939	Russian
Dinmukhamed Kunaev	Дінмұхаммед Қонаев	New	Member	1912	1993	1939	Kazakh
Pyotr Masherov	Пётр Машеров	New	Candidate	1918	1980	1943	Belarusian
Vasil Mzhavanadze	Василий Мжаванадзе	Candidate	Candidate	1902	1988	1927	Georgian
Sharof Rashidov	Шараф Рашидов	Candidate	Candidate	1917	1983	1939	Uzbek
Volodymyr Shcherbytsky	Влади́мир Щерби́цкий	Candidate	Member	1918	1990	1948	Ukrainian
Dmitriy Ustinov	Дми́трий Усти́нов	Candidate	Candidate	1908	1984	1927	Russian

References

General
Full- and candidate membership of the Presidium were taken from these sources:

• Fainsod, Merle; Hough, Jerry F. (1979). How the Soviet Union Is Governed. pp. 230–231.
• Fainsod, Merle; Hough, Jerry F. (1979). How the Soviet Union Is Governed. pp. 239–240.

Specific

1. Fainsod & Hough 1979, pp. 238–239.
2. Zemtsov 1989, pp. 102–103.
3. Brown 2009, p. 403.
4. Bacon & Sandle 2002, p. 12.
5. "Узкий состав ЦК РСДРП(б) - Политическое бюро ЦК РСДРП(б) - Бюро ЦК РСДРП(б) - РКП(б) - Политическое бюро ЦК РКП(б) - ВКП(б) - Президиум - Политическое бюро ЦК КПСС" [Narrow composition of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) - Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) - Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) - RCP (b) - Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) - CPSU (b) - Presidium - Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU]. Knowbysight.info. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2022.

Bibliography

• Fainsod, Merle; Hough, Jerry F. (1979). How the Soviet Union is Governed. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674410305.
• Zemtsov, Ilya (1989). Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9781412819459.
• Brown, Archie (2009). The Rise & Fall of Communism. Bodley Head. ISBN 9780307372246.
• Bacon, Edwin; Sandle, Mark (2002). Brezhnev Reconsidered. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780333794630.