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Alexei Kosygin

"Kosygin" redirects here. For other uses, see Kosygin (disambiguation).

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Nikolayevich and the family name is Kosygin.
Alexei Kosygin
Алексей Косыгин
Kosygin in 1972
8th Premier of the Soviet Union
In office
15 October 1964 – 23 October 1980
PresidentAnastas Mikoyan
Nikolai Podgorny
Leonid Brezhnev
Deputy
LeaderLeonid Brezhnev
Preceded byNikita Khrushchev
Succeeded byNikolai Tikhonov
First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union
In office
4 May 1960 – 15 October 1964
PremierNikita Khrushchev
Preceded byFrol Kozlov
Succeeded byDmitriy Ustinov
Additional positions
Chairman of the State Planning Committee
In office
20 March 1959 – 4 May 1960
PremierNikita Khrushchev
Preceded byJoseph Kuzmin
Succeeded byVladimir Novikov
Premier of Russian SFSR
In office
23 June 1943 – 23 March 1946
PremierJoseph Stalin
Preceded byIvan Khokhlov
Succeeded byMikhail Rodionov
Full member of the 18th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, & 25th CPSU Politburo
In office
4 May 1960 – 21 October 1980
In office
4 September 1948 – 16 October 1952
Candidate member of the 18th, 19th, & 20th CPSU Politburo
In office
29 June 1957 – 4 May 1960
In office
16 October 1952 – 5 March 1953
In office
18 March 1946 – 4 September 1948
Personal details
Born21 February [O.S. 8 February] 1904
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died18 December 1980(1980-12-18) (aged 76)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting placeKremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow
CitizenshipSoviet
NationalityRussian
Political partyCommunist Party of the Soviet Union (1927–1980)
SpouseKlavdia Andreyevna (died 1967)
ResidenceHouse on the Embankment
ProfessionTeacher, civil servant[1]
AwardsHero of Socialist Labour Hero of Socialist Labour
Military service
AllegianceRussian SFSR
Branch/serviceRed Army
Years of service1919–1921[2]
RankConscript
CommandsRed Army
Battles/warsRussian Civil War

Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Косы́гин, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsɨɡʲɪn]; 21 February [O.S. 8 February] 1904 – 18 December 1980)[3] was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1980 and was one of the most influential Soviet policymakers in the mid-1960s along with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

Kosygin was born in the city of Saint Petersburg in 1904 to a Russian working-class family. He was conscripted into the labour army during the Russian Civil War, and after the Red Army's demobilization in 1921, he worked in Siberia as an industrial manager. Kosygin returned to Leningrad in the early 1930s and worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), Kosygin was tasked by the State Defence Committee with moving Soviet industry out of territories soon to be overrun by the German Army. He served as Minister of Finance for a year before becoming Minister of Light Industry (later, Minister of Light Industry and Food). Stalin removed Kosygin from the Politburo one year before his own death in 1953, intentionally weakening Kosygin's position within the Soviet hierarchy.

Stalin died in 1953, and on 20 March 1959, Kosygin was appointed to the position of chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan), a post he would hold for little more than a year. Kosygin next became First Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. When Nikita Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964, Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev succeeded him as Premier and First Secretary, respectively. Thereafter, as a member of the collective leadership, Kosygin formed an unofficial Triumvirate (also known by its Russian name Troika) alongside Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, that governed the Soviet Union in Khrushchev's place.

During the initial years following Khrushchev's ouster, Kosygin initially emerged as the most prominent figure in the Soviet leadership.[4][5][6] In addition to managing the Soviet Union's economy, he assumed a preeminent role in its foreign policy by leading arms control talks with the US and overseeing relations with Western countries in general.[7] However, the onset of the Prague Spring in 1968 sparked a severe backlash against his policies, enabling Leonid Brezhnev to decisively eclipse him as the dominant force within the Politburo. While he and Brezhnev disliked one another, he remained in office until being forced to retire on 23 October 1980, due to bad health. He died two months later on 18 December 1980.

  1. ^ Law 1975, p. 214.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference saddeath was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla (2008). "Kosygin, Alexei". The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1851098422.
  4. ^ Zubok, Vladislav M. (2009) [2007]. A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-8078-5958-2.
  5. ^ Brown 1990, p. 184.
  6. ^ McCauley, Martin (1993). The Soviet Union 1917–1991. Longman. p. 288. ISBN 0582-01323-2.
  7. ^ Mendras, Marie (1989). "Policy Outside and Politics Inside". In Brown, Archie (ed.). Political Leadership in the Soviet Union. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-253-21228-6.

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