26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (26th Congress of the CPSU, Russian: XXVI съезд КПСС) opened on February 23, 1981, with a five-hour address by the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the chairman (president) of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Leonid Brezhnev.

Brezhnev proposed another round of arms control talks.

At a time when an aging Soviet leadership faced a decline in economic growth, severe food problems at home, grave uncertainties about its future relationship with the United States, and unsettling events in Poland, the congress ended its week of speeches by unanimously confirming the existing leadership.

None of the present members of the Politburo was a likely long term successor to General Secretary Brezhnev, who was 74.

After ousting Nikita Khrushchev in 1964, Brezhnev did not repeat Khrushchev's mistake of placing a younger rival in a commanding position from which he could attain supreme power.