State Defense Committee Государственный комитет обороны
Soviet Union
History
Established	30 June 1941
Disbanded	4 September 1945
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	None
Leadership
Chairman	Joseph Stalin
Meeting place
Moscow

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The State Defense Committee (Russian: Государственный комитет обороны - ГКО, romanized: Gosudarstvennyĭ komitet oborony - GKO) was an extraordinary organ of state power in the Soviet Union during the German-Soviet War, also called the Great Patriotic War, with complete state power in the country.

General scope

The Soviets set up the GKO on 30 June 1941, a week after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, by a joint decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The war situation at the front lines required a more centralized form of government. The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, however, continued unsuspended. On 18 June 1942, over a thousand members attended the 9th session of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow.^[1]

Geoffrey Roberts sees the GKO as "a sort of war cabinet".^[2]

Composition

The initial composition of the committee was such:

• Chairman - Joseph Stalin
• Deputy Chairman - Vyacheslav Molotov (until May 16, 1944)
• other members - Lavrentiy Beria, Kliment Voroshilov, Georgy Malenkov (Aviation Industry)^[3]

On February 3, 1942, the chairman of the Gosplan, Nikolai Voznesensky, as well as Anastas Mikoyan were made members of the committee, and on February 20, 1942 Lazar Kaganovich (Narkom of Transportation) was appointed as a member. On November 22, 1944, Nikolai Bulganin (Chairman of Gosbank) replaced Voroshilov in the committee.