The Presidential Council was created in March 1990 to replace the
Politburo as the major policymaking body in the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. According to article 127 in the
Soviet constitution
During its existence, the Soviet Union had three different constitutions in force individually at different times between 31 January 1924 to 26 December 1991.
Chronology of Soviet constitutions
These three constitutions were:
* 1924 Constitut ...
the job of the presidential council was "to implement the basic thrust of USSR's domestic and foreign policy and ensure the country's security", and to present the president policy alternative on social, economic, foreign and defence problems facing the nation, but it lacked a clear mission and had no policymaking authority, and its members were unable to work as a team. In late 1990,
Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Comm ...
invited
White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
to advice him on organising the presidential support staff. It was abolished on 26 December 1990. Only the writer
Valentin Rasputin
Valentin Grigoriyevich Rasputin (; russian: Валентин Григорьевич Распутин; 15 March 193714 March 2015) was a Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's w ...
was a non-party member.
The members were as follows:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Presidential Council (Ussr)
Government of the Soviet Union
1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union
1990 establishments in the Soviet Union
Perestroika