State Defense Committee


The State Defense Committee was an extraordinary organ of state power in the USSR during the German-Soviet War which held complete state power in the country.

General scope

The Soviets set up the GKO on 30 June 1941 by a compound decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Council of People's Commissars
Geoffrey Roberts sees the GKO as "a sort of war cabinet".

Composition

The initial composition of the committee was such:
On February 3, 1942 the members of the committee also became the chairman of Gosplan Voznesensky and Mikoyan, while on February 20, 1942 was also included Lazar Kaganovich. By the end of the war on November 22, 1944 Nikolai Bulganin replaced Klim Voroshilov in the committee.