# General Secretary **General Secretary** is the leading office of a communist party, and in single-party states the position from which actual power is exercised — typically outranking the head of state or head of government. In the [[Soviet Union]] the general secretaryship, not the premiership or the presidency, was the office that mattered. The same is true of the office in the People's Republic of China. ## See Also - [[Politburo]] - [[Soviet Union]] - [[China]]