22nd Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

A member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a member of the nomenklatura, the country's de facto ruling class.Nikita Khrushchev chaired the Presidium from 1955 to 1964; Leonid Brezhnev succeeded him that year and chaired until 1982. In contrast to full members, candidate members of the Presidium could not vote during Presidium sessions. It was normal that a full member of the Presidium had previously served as a candidate member, but this was not always the case. During the term 23 people held seats in the Presidium: 14 full members and 9 candidate members. One candidate member was promoted to full membership in the Presidium during the term. Not a single Presidium member died during this period while retaining office.

The Central Committee was, according to sovietologists Merle Fainsod and Jerry F. Hough, elected unanimously at the 22nd Party Congress (17–31 October 1961). The 22nd Central Committee in turn elected the Politburo unanimously. Brezhnev, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, was considered as an alternative to Kozlov as Second Secretary, but was instead made Third Secretary, the secretary responsible for industry. In 1963, for unknown reasons, possibly health reasons, Brezhnev took over Kozlov's duties at the Secretariat, and became the de facto Second Secretary. When a Western journalist asked Khrushchev in 1963 who would succeed him, Khrushchev responded bluntly "Brezhnev". After a prolonged power struggle, Khrushchev was ousted from power, and a collective leadership led by Brezhnev, Kosygin, Podgorny,Mikhail Suslov and Andrei Kirilenko was formed.

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