{{Short description|Powerful body in the Soviet government during World War II}}
{{Infobox government agency |agency_name = State Defense Committee |nativename = Государственный комитет обороны |logo = Coat of arms of the Soviet Union (1936–1946, printed version, FireBrick).svg |logo_width = 140 |logo_caption = All ministry seals of the Soviet Union used the USSR coat of arms |image = |image_size = |image_caption = |seal = |seal_width = |seal_caption = |formed = 30 June 1941 |preceding1 = Defense Committee |preceding2 = |dissolved = 4 September 1945 |superseding = |jurisdiction = {{flag|USSR}} |headquarters = Moscow, Russian SFSR |employees = |budget = |chief1_name = Joseph Stalin |chief1_position = Chairman |chief2_name = Vyacheslav Molotov |chief2_position = Deputy Chairman |parent_agency = All-Union Supreme Soviet |child1_agency = |child2_agency = |website = |footnotes = }} {{Soviet Union sidebar}}
The '''State Defense Committee''' ({{langx|ru|Государственный комитет обороны (ГКО)|translit=Gosudarstvennyĭ komitet oborony (GKO)}}) was an extraordinary organ of state power in the Soviet Union during World War II 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.<ref> Compare: [http://www.knowbysight.info/1_SSSR/09011.asp Handbook on the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]: "Верховный Совет СССР, сессии [:] I созыв [:] всего 1143 депутата, 569 в Совете Союза и 574 в Совете Национальностей [...] 18.6.1942 [:] IX сессия (Москва)" </ref>
Geoffrey Roberts described the GKO as "a sort of war cabinet".<ref> {{cite book| last1 = Roberts| first1 = Geoffrey| author-link1 = Geoffrey Roberts| title = Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5GCFUqBRZ-QC| location = New Haven| publisher = Yale University Press| publication-date = 2006| page = 95| isbn = 9780300112047| access-date = 2018-10-01| quote = The State Defence Committee, or GKO, stood at the pinnacle of Stalin's decision-making system during the war [...]. As a sort of war cabinet chaired by Stalin, it was a political body charged with directing and controlling all aspects of the Soviet war effort. }}</ref>
==Composition== {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! rowspan=2| Portrait ! rowspan=2 width=120| Name<br />{{small|(Lifespan)}} ! colspan=3| Term of office ! rowspan=2| Notes |- ! Took office ! Left office ! Duration |- | 60px | '''Joseph Stalin'''<br />{{small|(1878–1953)}} | 30 June 1941 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1941|6|30|1945|9|4}} | Chairman |- | 60px | '''Vyacheslav Molotov'''<br />{{small|(1890–1986)}} | 30 June 1941 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1941|6|30|1945|9|4}} | Deputy Chairman until 16 May 1944 |- | 60px | '''Lavrentiy Beria'''<br />{{small|(1899–1953)}} | 30 June 1941 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1941|6|30|1945|9|4}} | Representing State Security; Deputy Chairman from 16 May 1944 |- | 60px | '''Georgy Malenkov'''<br />{{small|(1901–1988)}} | 30 June 1941 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1941|6|30|1945|9|4}} | Representing Aviation Industry |- | 60px | '''Kliment Voroshilov'''<br />{{small|(1881–1969)}} | 30 June 1941 | 22 November 1944 | {{ayd|1941|6|30|1944|11|22}} | Replaced by Bulganin |- | 60px | '''Nikolai Voznesensky'''<br />{{small|(1903–1950)}} | 3 February 1942 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1942|2|3|1945|9|4}} | |- | 60px | '''Anastas Mikoyan'''<br />{{small|(1895–1978)}} | 3 February 1942 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1942|2|3|1945|9|4}} | |- | 60px | '''Lazar Kaganovich'''<br />{{small|(1893–1991)}} | 20 February 1942 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1942|2|20|1945|9|4}} | |- | 60px | '''Nikolai Bulganin'''<br />{{small|(1895–1975)}} | 22 November 1944 | 4 September 1945 | {{ayd|1944|11|22|1945|9|4}} | Replaced Voroshilov |}
==See also== * Council of Labor and Defense
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * Barber, John, and Harrison, Mark. (1991). ''The Soviet Home Front 1941–1945: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II''. London: Longman. {{ISBN|0-582-00964-2}}, {{ISBN|0-582-00965-0}}. * Werth, Alexander. (1964). ''Russia at War 1941–1945''. New York: Carrol and Graf.
{{wikisource3|ru:Категория:Постановления ГКО|Category: GKO Orders (in Russian)}}
==Further reading== * Glantz, David M. ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army stopped Hitler''. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-7006-0899-7}} Overview of Eastern Front from Soviet side. * Roberts, Geoffrey. ''Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-300-11204-1}} Post-revisionist study of Stalin's wartime and post-war leadership.
{{Departments of the USSR|state=uncollapsed}} {{Authority control}}
Category:State Committees of the Soviet Union Category:1941 establishments in the Soviet Union Category:1945 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Category:Military history of the Soviet Union during World War II