Following Joseph Stalin's death, Georgy Malenkov succeeded him as Premier of the Soviet Union.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held office as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as the fourth premier from 1941 until his death. Despite initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he ultimately consolidated power to become an absolute dictator by the 1930s. Stalin codified the party's official interpretation of Marxism as Marxism–Leninism, while the totalitarian political system he created is known as Stalinism.

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was a Soviet politician who briefly led the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. After one week, Malenkov was forced to give up control of the party apparatus, but continued to serve as Premier of the Soviet Union. He then entered a power struggle with the party's First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev which culminated in Malenkov's removal from the premiership in 1955 as well as the Presidium in 1957.

The Premier of the Soviet Union was the head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). From 1923 to 1946, the name of the office was Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, and from 1946 to 1991 its name was Chairman of the Council of Ministers. During the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, its name was briefly Prime Minister and later Chairman of the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy. The first Soviet premier was the country's founder and first leader, Vladimir Lenin. After 1924, when General Secretary of the Communist Party Joseph Stalin rose to power, the de facto leader was the party's General Secretary, with Stalin and his successor Nikita Khrushchev also serving as premier. Twelve individuals held the post.