Nikolai Bulganin

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Nikolai Bulganin
Николай Булганин
Bulganin in 1955
6th Premier of the Soviet Union
In office 8 February 1955 – 27 March 1958
President	Kliment Voroshilov
First Deputies	Anastas Mikoyan Mikhail Pervukhin Maksim Saburov Joseph Kuzmin Lazar Kaganovich
Preceded by	Georgy Malenkov
Succeeded by	Nikita Khrushchev
Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union
In office 15 March 1953 – 9 February 1955
Premier	Georgy Malenkov
Preceded by	Aleksandr Vasilevsky Nikolai Kuznetsov
Succeeded by	Georgy Zhukov
Additional positions First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union In office 7 April 1950 – 8 February 1955 Premier Joseph Stalin Georgy Malenkov Preceded by Vyacheslav Molotov Succeeded by Anastas Mikoyan Minister of the Armed Forces In office 3 March 1947 – 24 March 1949 Premier Joseph Stalin Preceded by Joseph Stalin Succeeded by Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Personal details
Born	Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin (Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Булга́нин) (1895-06-11)11 June 1895 Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire
Died	24 February 1975(1975-02-24) (aged 79) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
Citizenship	Soviet
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1917–1960)
Awards	Hero of Socialist Labour
Religion	Russian Orthodox convert to Atheism
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Branch/service	Red Army
Years of service	1941–1958
Rank	Marshal of the Soviet Union (1947–1958)
Commands	Soviet Armed Forces
Battles/wars	World War II
Central institution membership 1948–58: Full member, 18th, 19th, 20th Politburo 1946–52: 18th Orgburo 1946–48: Candidate member, 18th Politburo 1944–45: Member, State Defense Committee 1934–58: Full member, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th Central Committee Other offices held 1958: Chairman of the State Bank of the USSR 1940–42:Chairman of the State Bank of the USSR 1938–40:Chairman of the State Bank of the USSR 1938–44: Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars 1937–38: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR 1931–37: Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Soviet

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Булга́нин; 11 June [O.S. 30 May] 1895 – 24 February 1975)^[1] was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1958. He also served as Minister of Defense, following service in the Red Army during World War II.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Bulganin joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917 and became a member of the Soviet political police Cheka a year later. After the Russian Civil War, he held a number of administrative positions until 1931, when he became chairman of the Moscow City Soviet with the support of Lazar Kaganovich. A loyal Stalinist, Bulganin rose through the Soviet hierarchy in the middle of Stalin's purges, and in 1937 he was named premier of the Russian SFSR and a full member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. A year later he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and head of the Soviet State Bank. Although he was never a front-line commander, Bulganin held a number of important political posts in the Red Army during World War II, and served in Stalin's State Defense Committee. In 1947, he succeeded Stalin as Minister for the Armed Forces and was named a Marshal of the Soviet Union. In early 1948, he became a full member of the Politburo.

After Stalin's death in 1953, Bulganin supported Nikita Khrushchev during his power struggle with Georgy Malenkov. In 1955, he replaced Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union. Initially a close ally of Khrushchev, Bulganin came to doubt his policies and became associated with an opposition group led by Vyacheslav Molotov. The group's defeat led to the fall of Bulganin, and in 1958 he was dismissed as premier and expelled from the Politburo. Forced into retirement, Bulganin died in 1975 at the age of 79.