Chairman

Usage

"Chairman" as a quasi-title gained particular resonance when socialist states from 1917 onwards shunned more traditional leadership labels and stressed the collective control of Soviets (councils or committees) by beginning to refer to executive figureheads as "Chairman of the X Committee". Vladimir Lenin, for example, officially functioned as the head of Soviet Russian government not as prime minister or as president, but as "Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars". At the same time, the head of the state was first called "Chairman of the Central Executive Committee" (until 1938) and then "Chairman of the Presidium of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet". In China, Mao Zedong was commonly called "Chairman Mao", as he was officially Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.