# Non-Russian leadership in the USSR? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196 "2005-05-31T11:05:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/1 "2005-05-31T11:05:46Z")
I reckon that according to the _ideals_ of Communism ethnic heritage would be a non-issue. When it came to actual practice how well was this ideal held up in the Soviet Union? Was the USSR run by Russians or were non-Russian Soviet citizens well represented in national government positions? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/2 "2005-05-31T11:10:10Z")
Stalin was a Georgian, wasn’t he? Ditto Eduard Sherverdnadze (sp?). ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/3 "2005-05-31T14:00:48Z")
Some were acceptable, some weren’t. Some were nearly eliminated totally. I really don’t know all of them by name and how they were treated varied a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/4 "2005-05-31T14:10:45Z")
Stalin was indeed Georgian. Nikita Khrushchev was Ukrainian. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/5 "2005-05-31T14:14:18Z")
Even though, theoretically, all nationalities were equal, the Russians were more equal than the others. Non-Russians were underrepresented in positions of authority, and especially in the Politburo. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/6 "2005-05-31T14:18:53Z")
> [@This Year's Model](#): > > Stalin was indeed Georgian. Nikita Khrushchev was Ukrainian. Khruschev was Russian. He just grew up in the Ukraine. Off the top of my head, the only non-Russian Politburo members were Stalin, Mikoyan, Beria, Pelse, Aliyev, and Shevardnadze. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/7 "2005-05-31T14:45:54Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Khruschev was Russian. He just grew up in the Ukraine. You’re correct. I thought I knew something, but I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/8 "2005-05-31T15:01:30Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Khruschev was Russian. He just grew up in the Ukraine. Off the top of my head, the only non-Russian Politburo members were Stalin, Mikoyan, Beria, Pelse, Aliyev, and Shevardnadze. Chernenko is a Ukrainian surname, FWIW. Can he be added to the list? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/9 "2005-05-31T16:17:53Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Chernenko is a Ukrainian surname, FWIW. Can he be added to the list? Maybe. As far as I know, he was born in Siberia, though. He might have had Ukranian ancestors. But I do have a few more names to add. Kuusinin, who was Finnish, was a member of the Politburo. So was Masherov, who was Belarussan. More recently, Alfreds Rubiks is Latvian, Aram Sariksyan, I’m betting, is Armenian. There was also Enn-Arno Sillari, and Lembit Annus, both of whom were, I think, Estonian. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/10 "2005-05-31T16:29:53Z")
Feliks Dzerzhinski was Polish. ---
**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/11 "2005-06-01T15:15:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Kuusinin, who was Finnish, was a member of the politburo. Kuusinen. There are some, largely unfounded, theories that Stalin was actually Ossetian and not Georgian, putting him into even smaller ethnic group. These theories are generally claimed only by Ossetians themselves, though. It should be remembered that while Russians clearly were overrepresented in high places of the party, they made up almost half of the population of Soviet Union, thus it’s no wonder that they always were the biggest group there. And since the country had such massive inner inequalities, families in Moscow, Leningrad and other densely populated majorly Russian areas were always richer and better educated with higher chances of being successful than others who were from Central Asia, Caucasus, Siberia and other non-Russian regions. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/12 "2005-06-01T19:09:28Z")
> [@This Year's Model](#): > > Stalin was indeed Georgian. “Man of Steel” sounds better than Djugashvili ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/13 "2005-06-01T22:43:17Z")
Leon Trotsky, whose real name was Lev Bronstein, was 100% Jewish and an early Bolshivek leader who formed and headed the Red Army. He was also a founding member of the Politburo. Lenin himself was of half Russian ancestry, but he was also one-quarter Jewish. His maternal grandfather, Israel (Alexander) Blank, was a Ukrainian Jew who was later baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. A great, great deal has anti-semitically been made of this (& of Trotsky’s jewishness) – if Lenin had any Jewish “identity” it has not documented. Lenin also had as much Volga German ancestry through his mother, who was a Lutheran. Much less has been made of this. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-russian-leadership-in-the-ussr/306196/14 "2005-06-02T05:55:05Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > So was Masherov, who was Belarussan. As was Andrei Gromyko.