The Central Executive Committee of the USSR (Russian: Центральный исполнительный комитет СССР, romanized: Tsentralʹnyĭ ispolnitelʹnyĭ komitet SSSR), which may be abbreviated as the CEC (Russian: ЦИК, romanized: TsIK),[2][b] was the supreme governing body of the USSR in between sessions of the All-Union Congress of Soviets from 1922 to 1938.

The Central Executive Committee elected the Presidium,[c] which, like its parent body, was the delegated governing authority when the other was not in session.

The Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs were created in 1936 and did not have co-chairs in the committee, as it dissolved just two years later.

The Central Executive Committee was created with the adoption of the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922.

As more entities (usually previously Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics) were promoted to the status of constituent republics of the USSR, they received representation among the directors of the Presidium: The 1924 Soviet Constitution defined the powers of the CEC as: