State Council of the Soviet Union
| Государственный Совет СССР | |
 |
|
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 5 September 1991 |
| Preceding agency |
|
| Dissolved | 26 December 1991 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Jurisdiction | Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |
| Headquarters | Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union |
Following the August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, the State Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Государственный Совет СССР), but also known as the State Soviet, was formed on 5 September 1991 and was designed to be one of the most important government offices in Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet Union. The members of the council consisted of the President of the Soviet Union, and highest officials (which typically was presidents of their republics) from the Soviet Union Republics. During the period of transition it was the highest organ of state power, having the power to elect a premier, or a person who would take Gorbachev's place if absent; the office of Vice President of the Soviet Union had been abolished following the failed August Coup that very same year.
With the central government's authority greatly weakened by the failed coup, Gorbachev established a four-man committee, led by Russian SFSR Premier Ivan Silayev, that included Grigory Yavlinsky, Arkadi Volsky, and Yuri Luzhkov, to elect a new Cabinet of Ministers. This committee was later transformed into the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy (COMSE), also chaired by Silayev, to manage the Soviet economy. COMSE was quickly surpassed in authority by the Interstate Economic Committee of the Soviet Union (IEC), also officially known as the Economic Community, which was established on 20 September under the name Inter-Republican Economic Committee. Its function was to coordinate economic policy across the Soviet Union. As Chairman of both COMSE and the IEC, Silayev presided over a quickly disintegrating Soviet Union. On 6 September 1991 a presidential decree temporarily gave the IEC the same authority as the Cabinet of Ministers, and Silayev became the Soviet Union's de facto Premier.
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