Every year
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
elected a 27 member Central Committee. In March 1919 the party decided
this body was too large to determine policy. It was therefore replaced
by a five man Politburo (increased to nine in 1925 and ten in 1930).
Its first members were Vladimir Lenin,
Leon Trotsky, Joseph
Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai
Krestinsky.
In 1952
the Politburo was replaced by a presidium of thirty-six members. After
the death of Joseph Stalin it was reduced
to ten members.
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