View source for State Defense Committee

{{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 [[State Emblem of the Soviet Union|USSR coat of arms]]
|image           = 
|image_size      = 
|image_caption   = 
| seal            = 
| seal_width      = 
| seal_caption    = 
|formed          = 30 June 1941
|preceding1      = [[Defense Committee (Soviet Union)|Defense Committee]]
|preceding2      =
|dissolved       =4 September 1945
|superseding     =
|jurisdiction    = {{flag|USSR}} 
|headquarters    = [[Moscow, Russia]]
|employees       =
|budget          =
|chief1_name     = [[Joseph Stalin]] 
|chief1_position = Chairman
|chief2_name     = [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]
|chief2_position = Deputy Chairman
|parent_agency   = [[All-Union Congress of Soviets]]
|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 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]] [[Operation Barbarossa|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==
The initial composition of the committee was such:
* Chairman – [[Joseph Stalin]]
* Deputy Chairman – [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]
* Members – [[Lavrentiy Beria]] (State Security), [[Georgy Malenkov]] (Aviation Industry), [[Kliment Voroshilov]]

On 3 February 1942, [[Nikolai Voznesensky]] and [[Anastas Mikoyan]] were added as additional members of the committee. On 20 February 1942, [[Lazar Kaganovich]] was added. On 16 May 1944, Beria replaced Molotov as deputy chairman. On 22 November 1944, [[Nikolai Bulganin]] replaced Voroshilov as a member.

==See also==
*[[Council of Labour and Defence]]

==References==
<references/>

==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]]