Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin. Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges: Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, following Stalin's death. Thereafter the rank was awarded only to professional soldiers, with the exception of Leonid Brezhnev, who made himself a Marshal in 1976, and Ustinov, who was prominent in the arms industry and was appointed Defence Minister in July 1976. The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 during the fall of the Soviet
Politics of the Soviet Union Politics of the Soviet Union The political system of the Soviet Union took place in a single-party socialist republic framework which was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the Constitution. "For information about the government, see Government of the Soviet Union." The Bolsheviks who took power during the October Revolution, the final phase of the Russian Revolution, were the first Communist Party to take power and attempt to apply the Leninist variant of Marxism in a practical way. Although they grew very quickly during the Revolution, from