GKO

Abbreviation of the Russian name of the State Committee of Defense (Gosudarstvennyi komitet oborony), the supreme Soviet war-time agency created on June 30, 1941, eight days after the Nazi attack against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and terminated on September 4, 1945, two days after the Japanese surrender in World War II. GKO was chaired by Joseph Stalin, with Vyacheslav Molotov serving as his deputy.