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	Ref.
	Workers' Party of Korea	General Secretary	Kim Jong Un		11 April 2012	14 years, 139 days	[1]
	Chinese Communist Party	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Xi Jinping		15 November 2012	13 years, 286 days	[2]
	Lao People's Revolutionary Party	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Thongloun Sisoulith		15 January 2021	5 years, 225 days	[3]
	Communist Party of Cuba	First Secretary of the Central Committee	Miguel Díaz-Canel		19 April 2021	5 years, 131 days	[4]
	Communist Party of Vietnam	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Tô Lâm		3 August 2024	2 years, 25 days	[5]

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	People's Socialist Republic of Albania	Enver Hoxha		38 November 1941 – 11 April 1985	Ramiz Alia		13 April 1985 – 13 June 1991
	Bulgarian Communist Party	General Secretary	People's Republic of Bulgaria	Georgi Dimitrov		1933 – 2 July 1949	Petar Mladenov		10 November 1989 – 2 February 1990
	Communist Party of Czechoslovakia	First Secretary	Czechoslovakia	Klement Gottwald		1945 – 14 March 1953	Ladislav Adamec		21 December 1989 – 1 September 1990
	Socialist Unity Party of Germany	General Secretary	East Germany	Wilhelm Pieck		22 April 1946 – 25 July 1950 (as Chairman)	Egon Krenz		18 October 1989 – 3 December 1989
	Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party[N 1]	General Secretary	Hungarian People's Republic	János Kádár		25 October 1956 – 22 May 1988	Rezső Nyers		22 May 1988 – 7 October 1989 (as President)
	Communist Party of Kampuchea	General Secretary	Democratic Kampuchea	Tou Samouth		30 September 1960 – 20 July 1962	Pol Pot		22 February 1963 – 6 December 1981
	Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party[N 2]	General Secretary	Mongolian People's Republic	Soliin Danzan		3 March 1921 – 21 September 1921	Büdragchaagiin Dash-Yondon		28 February 1991 – 28 July 1996 (as Chairman till 1992)[N 3]
	Polish United Workers' Party	First Secretary	Polish People's Republic	Bolesław Bierut		22 December 1948 – 12 March 1956	Mieczysław Rakowski		29 July 1989 – 29 January 1990
	Romanian Communist Party	General Secretary	Socialist Republic of Romania	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	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics	Joseph Stalin		3 April 1922 – 16 October 1952	Vladimir Ivashko		24 August 1991 – 29 August 1991 (acting)
	League of Communists of Yugoslavia	President	Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	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

• Media related to General Secretary at Wikimedia Commons