ABSTRACT
The three most important leadership posts in the East European communist states are party leader, head of government, and head of state; that is, general secretary (or first secretary) of the communist party Central Committee, premier (or chairman of the council of ministers), and president (or chairman of the state council). The most important of these three is the post of party Central Committee secretary general. Although it is frequently the case in Eastern Europe that one man may wear two or even three hats, the party leader and the head of state being the same person (Romania, Bulgaria, and the CSSR, for instance), or the party leader and the chairman of the Council of Ministers being one person (Jaruzelski in Poland), it is the party boss that is The Leader.
