The Security Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) () was formed on March 15, 1990. The head of this organ was the

President of the Soviet Union The president of the Soviet Union (), officially the president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (), abbreviated as president of the USSR (), was the executive head of state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 15 March ...

; he had the power to appoint and dismiss all members of the council. Article 127.3 of the USSR Constitution stipulated that the president of the USSR led the Security Council, which would develop recommendations to implement the all-union policy on national defense, nationality issues, state security, the pace and scope of economic reforms, economic and environmental security and hazards, coping with natural disasters and other emergencies, to ensure stability and legal order in Soviet society. Its members were confirmed by the

Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSUSSR) was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Based on the principle of unified power, it was the only branch of government in the So ...

. Its first members included Prime Minister

Valentin Pavlov Valentin Sergeyevich Pavlov (; 26 September 1937 – 30 March 2003) was a Soviet official who became a Russian banker following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Born in the city of Moscow, then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socia ...

, Vice President

Gennady Yanayev Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev (; 26 August 193724 September 2010) was a Soviet politician and disputed President of the Soviet Union for three days. Yanayev's political career spanned the rules of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko, ...

, Foreign Minister

Alexander Bessmertnykh (politician) Alexander Alexandrovich Bessmertnykh (; born 10 November 1933) is a Soviet diplomat who briefly served as foreign minister of the Soviet Union. Early life Bessmertnykh was born in Biysk in 1933, first of four children. He lost his father ...

, Defence Minister and

Marshal of the Soviet Union Marshal of the Soviet Union (, ) was the second-highest military rank of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin wore the uniform and insignia of Marshal after World War II. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935 and abolished in ...

Dmitry Yazov Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov (; 8 November 1924 – 25 February 2020) was a Marshal of the Soviet Union. A veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Yazov served as Minister of Defence from 1987 until he was arrested for his part in the 1991 August cou ...

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

Chairman

Vladimir Kryuchkov Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov (; 29 February 1924 – 23 November 2007) was a Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Initially working in the Soviet justice system a ...

, Interior Minister

Boris Pugo Boris Karlovich Pugo (, ; 19 February 1937 – 22 August 1991) was a Soviet communist politician of Latvian origin. Early life and education Pugo was born in Kalinin, Russian SFSR (now Tver, Russia) into a family of Latvian communists. They had ...

, along with two "special" members with full time council responsibilities:

Vadim Bakatin Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin (; 6 November 1937 – 31 July 2022) was a Russian politician who served as the last chairman of the KGB in 1991. He was the last surviving former chairman of this organization. He was appointed to dismantle the KGB, b ...

(who focused on political affairs), and

Yevgeny Primakov Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (29 October 1929 – 26 June 2015, ) was a Russian politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999. During his long career, he also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to ...

(who had responsibility for economic affairs).

References

{{Departments of the USSR, state=uncollapsed

Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union 1990 establishments in the Soviet Union Perestroika

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...