General Secretary of the Communist Party

Marxism–Leninism
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Theoretical works Foundations of Leninism Dialectical and Historical Materialism The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR A Critique of Soviet Economics Fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism Guerrilla Warfare Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung President Ho Chi Minh's Testament The Governance of China
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Related topics Bolshevism All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Anti-communism Mass killings Crimes against humanity under communist regimes Mass killings Criticism of communist party rule Cult of personality Leninism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Marxist schools of thought National Bolshevism New class Post-communism Red fascism Red Scare Second Second World State capitalism State socialism Trotskyism State ideology of China State ideology of the Soviet Union Third-Worldism Totalitarianism
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v t e

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 socialist state—often labeled as communist states by external observers—the general secretary is typically the country's de facto leader. 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 frequently serves on the communist party's politburo and secretariat.

General secretaries of ruling communist parties

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Leaders of current ruling communist parties
	Title	Officeholder	Took office	Length of tenure	Ref.
Chinese Communist Party	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Xi Jinping	15 November 2012	12 years, 11 days	^[1]
Communist Party of Cuba	First Secretary of the Central Committee	Miguel Díaz-Canel	19 April 2021	3 years, 221 days	^[2]
Communist Party of Vietnam	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Tô Lâm	3 August 2024	115 days	^[3]
Lao People's Revolutionary Party	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Thongloun Sisoulith	15 January 2021	3 years, 316 days	^[4]
Workers' Party of Korea	General Secretary	Kim Jong-un	11 April 2012	12 years, 229 days	^[5]

References

[edit]

^ Li, Cheng. "Xi Jinping 习近平" (PDF). Brookings Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
^ "Cuba leadership: Díaz-Canel named Communist Party chief". BBC News. 19 April 2021. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
^ "Vietnam: To Lam confirmed as country's top leader". DW News. 3 August 2024. Archived from the original on 3 August 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
^ "Communist party of Laos names PM Thongloun as new leader -state media". Reuters. 15 January 2021. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
^ Kim, Jack (11 April 2012). "N.Korea's Kim Jong-un named party "first secretary"". Reuters. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2023.

v t e Marxism–Leninism
Concepts	Administrative-command system Aggravation of class struggle under socialism Anti-imperialism Anti-fascism Anti-revisionism Central planning Soviet-type economic planning Commanding heights of the economy Developed socialism Dialectical logic Dialectical materialism Foco Labour aristocracy Marxist–Leninist atheism Partiinost' Popular front Proletarian internationalism Self-criticism Social fascism Socialism in one country Socialist patriotism Soviet Yugoslav Theory of the productive forces Third Period Wars of national liberation
Class system	Dictatorship of the proletariat People's democratic dictatorship People's democratic state National-democratic state Socialist state State of socialist orientation Socialist state of the whole people
Political system	Central committee Civilian control of the military Collective leadership Cult of personality Democratic centralism General Secretary of the Communist Party Highest organ of state power Leading role of the party Politburo Secretariat State Transmission belt Unified power Vanguardism
Variants	Cuban (Castroism Guevarism) Ho Chi Minh Thought Hoxhaism Husakism Juche (Songun Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism Kimjongunism) Kadarism Khrushchevism Maoism (Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Gonzalo Thought Prachanda Path Pantherism (Intercommunalism) New Communism) Kaysone Phomvihane Thought National Pol Potism African (Sankarism Machelism Nkrumaism) Socialism with Chinese characteristics (Dengism Three Represents Scientific Outlook on Development Xi Jinping Thought) Stalinism American (Bill of Rights socialism Browderism Lovestoneism Marcyism) Titoism (Đilasism Rankovićism) Dubčekism Zachariadism Brezhnevism
People	Joseph Stalin Mao Zedong Ernst Thälmann Khorloogiin Choibalsan Ehmetjan Qasim José Díaz Maurice Thorez Palmiro Togliatti Dolores Ibárruri Ho Chi Minh Võ Nguyên Giáp Earl Browder Nikita Khrushchev Walter Ulbricht Josip Broz Tito Mátyás Rákosi Lazar Kaganovich Georgi Dimitrov Bolesław Bierut Valko Chervenkov Klement Gottwald Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Enver Hoxha Kaysone Phomvihane Khalid Bakdash Leonid Brezhnev Deng Xiaoping Pol Pot Nikos Zachariadis Che Guevara Fidel Castro Agostinho Neto Mengistu Haile Mariam Kim Il Sung Chin Peng Sanzō Nosaka Nicolae Ceaușescu Gustáv Husák János Kádár Maurice Bishop Erich Honecker Władysław Gomułka Samora Machel Thomas Sankara Mathieu Kérékou Siad Barre Nur Muhammad Taraki Alfonso Cano Pushpa Kamal Dahal Rohana Wijeweera Abimael Guzmán Gus Hall Gennady Zyuganov Xi Jinping
Theoretical works	Foundations of Leninism Dialectical and Historical Materialism The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) Britain's Road to Socialism Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR A Critique of Soviet Economics Fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism Guerrilla Warfare
History	Soviet Union (1927–1953 1953–1964 1964–1982 1982–1991) Great Break Collectivization in the Soviet Union Industrialization in the Soviet Union Great Purge Spanish Civil War Great Patriotic War Greek Civil War Cold War Eastern Bloc Chinese Communist Revolution China (1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–present) Tito–Stalin split Korean War De-Stalinization Warsaw Pact Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution Non-Aligned Movement Vietnam War Albanian–Soviet split Sino-Soviet split Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Great Leap Forward Portuguese Colonial War Black Power movement Nicaraguan Revolution Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Naxalite insurgency New People's Army rebellion Maoist insurgency in Turkey Sino-Albanian split Internal conflict in Peru Nepalese Civil War Revolutions of 1989
By country	Afghanistan Albania Angola Benin Bulgaria Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea People's Republic of Kampuchea) China Congo Cuba Czechoslovakia (Czechia Slovakia) East Germany Ethiopia Grenada Hungary Laos Mongolia Mozambique North Korea Poland Romania Somalia Soviet Union (Armenia Azerbaijan Byelarus Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Moldova Russia Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekistan) Vietnam Yemen Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Macedonia Montenegro Serbia Slovenia)
Organizations	Albanian Party of Labour Comecon Comintern Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of Brazil Communist Party of Cuba Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (Marxist) Communist Party of Kampuchea Communist Party of the Philippines Communist Party of the Russian Federation Communist Party of the Soviet Union Communist Party of Vietnam Communist Party of Malaya Indochinese Communist Party Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party Lao People's Revolutionary Party Nepal Communist Party Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Sandinista National Liberation Front Shining Path (Militarized Communist Party of Peru) Workers' Party of Korea Portuguese Communist Party
Related topics	Bolshevism Leninism Trotskyism
See also	All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Anti-communism (Mass killings) Cold War Crimes against humanity under Marxist–Leninist regimes (Mass killings) Criticism of Marxist–Leninist party rule Marxist schools of thought National Bolshevism New class Post-Marxism–Leninism Red fascism Red Scare (Second) Second World State capitalism State socialism State ideology of China State ideology of the Soviet Union Third-Worldism Totalitarianism
Socialism portal Communism portal

v t e Leaders of socialist states espousing Marxism–Leninism
People's Republic of China	Xi Jinping, General Secretary and state representative Li Qiang, head of government Zhao Leji, head of legislature (Chinese Communist Party)
Republic of Cuba	Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Secretary and head of state Manuel Marrero Cruz, head of government Esteban Lazo Hernández, head of legislature (Communist Party of Cuba)
Lao People's Democratic Republic	Thongloun Sisoulith, General Secretary and head of state Sonexay Siphandone, head of government Saysomphone Phomvihane, head of legislature (Lao People's Revolutionary Party)
Socialist Republic of Vietnam	Tô Lâm, General Secretary Lương Cường, head of state Phạm Minh Chính, head of government Trần Thanh Mẫn, head of legislature (Communist Party of Vietnam)

v t e Leaders of socialist states not espousing Marxism–Leninism
People's Democratic Republic of Algeria	Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Head of state Nadir Larbaoui, Head of government
People's Republic of Bangladesh	Mohammed Shahabuddin Chuppu, Head of state Muhammad Yunus, Head of government
State of Eritrea	Isaias Afwerki, Head of state and government
Republic of Guinea-Bissau	Umaro Sissoco Embaló, Head of state Nuno Gomes Nabiam, Head of government
Co-operative Republic of Guyana	Irfaan Ali, Head of state and government Mark Phillips, Deputy Head of government
Republic of India	Droupadi Murmu, Head of state Narendra Modi, Head of government
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	Kim Jong Un, General Secretary and Head of state Kim Tok-hun, Head of government
Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal	Ram Chandra Poudel, Head of state KP Sharma Oli, Head of government
Republic of Nicaragua	Daniel Ortega, Head of state and government
Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities	Councils of Good Government, Local leadership
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic	Brahim Ghali, Head of state Bouchraya Hammoudi Bayoun, Head of government
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka	Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Head of state and government
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria	Îlham Ehmed and Mansur Selum, Co-Presidents Amina Omar and Riad Darar, Co-Chairs
United Republic of Tanzania	Samia Suluhu, Head of state Kassim Majaliwa, Head of government
Wa State	Bao Youxiang, Head of state and government

General secretaries of ruling communist parties

See also

References