Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

A badge, depicting Vladimir Lenin, issued to the delegates of the 27th Congress

The Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: съезд КПСС) was the gathering of the delegates of the Communist Party and its predecessors. According to the party statute, it was the supreme ruling body of the entire Communist Party.

Between the congresses the party was ruled by the Central Committee. Over the course of the party's history, the name was changed in accordance with the current name of the party at the time. The frequency of party congresses varied with the meetings being annual events in the 1920s while no congress was held at all between 1939 to 1952. After the death of Joseph Stalin, the congresses were held every five years.

List of party congresses

#	Congress			Location (city–country)	Party leader
	Began	Ended	Length
1	1 March 1898	3 March 1898	2 days	Minsk, Russian Empire	—
2	17 July 1903	10 August 1903	24 days	Brussels, Belgium, and London, United Kingdom	Vladimir Lenin
3	12 April 1905	27 April 1905	15 days	London, UK
4	10 April 1906	25 April 1906	15 days	Stockholm, Sweden
5	30 April 1907	19 May 1907	19 days	London, UK
6	26 July 1917	3 August 1917	8 days	Petrograd, Russian Republic
7	6 March 1918	8 March 1918	2 days	Moscow, RSFSR
8	18 March 1919	23 March 1919	5 days	Moscow, RSFSR
9	29 March 1920	5 April 1920	7 days	Moscow, RSFSR
10	8 March 1921	16 March 1921	8 days	Moscow, RSFSR
11	27 March 1922	2 April 1922	6 days	Moscow, RSFSR
12	17 April 1923	25 April 1923	8 days	Moscow, USSR
13	23 May 1924	31 May 1924	8 days	Moscow, USSR	Joseph Stalin
14	18 December 1925	31 December 1925	13 days	Moscow, USSR
15	2 December 1927	19 December 1927	17 days	Moscow, USSR
16	26 June 1930	13 July 1930	17 days	Moscow, USSR
17	26 January 1934	10 February 1934	15 days	Moscow, USSR
18	10 March 1939	21 March 1939	11 days	Moscow, USSR
19	5 October 1952	14 October 1952	9 days	Moscow, USSR
20	14 February 1956	25 February 1956	11 days	Moscow, USSR	Nikita Khrushchev
21	27 January 1959	5 February 1959	9 days	Moscow, USSR
22	17 October 1961	31 October 1961	14 days	Moscow, USSR
23	29 March 1966	8 April 1966	10 days	Moscow, USSR	Leonid Brezhnev
24	30 March 1971	9 April 1971	10 days	Moscow, USSR
25	24 February 1976	5 March 1976	9 days	Moscow, USSR
26	23 February 1981	3 March 1981	8 days	Moscow, USSR
27	25 February 1986	6 March 1986	9 days	Moscow, USSR	Mikhail Gorbachev
28	2 July 1990	13 July 1990	11 days	Moscow, USSR

See also

• Organization of the Communist Party of the USSR