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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 State Transmission belt Unified power Vanguardism
Variants Cuban Castroism Guevarism Ho Chi Minh Thought Hoxhaism Husakism Juche Songun Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism Kimjongunism Kadarism Khrushchevism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Prachanda Path) Kaysone Phomvihane Thought National Pol Potism African Sankarism Nkrumaism Socialism with Chinese characteristics (Dengism Three Represents Scientific Outlook on Development Xi Jinping Thought) Stalinism Titoism
People Joseph Stalin Mao Zedong Ernst Thälmann Khorloogiin Choibalsan Ehmetjan Qasim José Díaz Maurice Thorez Palmiro Togliatti 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) 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 Revolution China (1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–present) Korean War Cuban Revolution De-Stalinization Warsaw Pact Non-Aligned Movement Vietnam War Sino-Soviet split Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Great Leap Forward Portuguese Colonial War Black Power movement Nicaraguan Revolution Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Naxalite insurgency Communist rebellion in the Philippines Maoist insurgency in Turkey Internal conflict in Peru Nepalese Civil War Revolutions of 1989
By country 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 Revolution China (1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–present) Korean War Cuban Revolution De-Stalinization Warsaw Pact Non-Aligned Movement Vietnam War Sino-Soviet split Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Great Leap Forward Portuguese Colonial War Black Power movement Nicaraguan Revolution Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Naxalite insurgency Communist rebellion in the Philippines Maoist insurgency in Turkey Internal conflict in Peru Nepalese Civil War Revolutions of 1989
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
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General Secretary or First Secretary is the official title of leaders of most communist parties. When a communist party is the ruling party in a socialist state, most often designated as communist states by foreign observers, the general secretary is typically the country's de facto leader. Though sometimes this leader also holds state-level positions, such as a presidency or premiership in order to hold de jure leadership of the state as well. The general secretary is normally elected by the central committee of the ruling communist party (the Workers' Party of Korea being an exception), and concurrently serves in the politburo and the secretariat.

General secretaries of ruling communist parties

Leaders of current ruling communist parties

Party		Title	Officeholder		Took office	Length of tenure	Ref.
	Chinese Communist Party	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Xi Jinping		15 November 2012	11 years, 78 days	[1]
	Communist Party of Cuba	First Secretary of the Central Committee	Miguel Díaz-Canel		19 April 2021	2 years, 288 days	[2]
	Communist Party of Vietnam	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Nguyễn Phú Trọng		8 January 2011	13 years, 24 days	[3]
	Lao People's Revolutionary Party	General Secretary of the Central Committee	Thongloun Sisoulith		15 January 2021	3 years, 17 days	[4]
	Workers' Party of Korea	General Secretary	Kim Jong-un		11 April 2012	11 years, 296 days	[5]