Kosygin, Aleksey Nikolayevich, 1904-1980

Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (21 February [O.S. 8 February] 1904 – 18 December 1980) was a Soviet statesman who served as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1964 to 1980. Following Nikita Khrushchev's removal from power, he briefly led the Soviet Union as part of a triumvirate in the mid-to-late 1960s. Alexei Kosygin was born in the city of Saint Petersburg in 1904 to a Russian working-class family. During the Russian Civil War, he was conscripted into the labour army. After the Red Army's demobilization in 1921, he worked in Siberia as an industrial manager. In the early 1930s, Kosygin returned to Leningrad 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). However, in 1952, Stalin removed Kosygin from the Politburo, thereby weakening Kosygin's position within the Soviet hierarchy. Following Stalin's death in 1953, Kosygin was appointed chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan) on 20 March 1959. Later, in 1960, he was promoted to First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. When Nikita Khrushchev was removed from power on 14 October 1964, Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev succeeded him as Chairman of the Council of Ministers and First Secretary of the Communist Party respectively. Thereafter, he formed a triumvirate alongside Brezhnev and Central Committee Secretary Nikolai Podgorny that led the Soviet regime in Khrushchev's place. Upon Khrushchev's ouster, Alexei Kosygin initially emerged as the Soviet Union's head of government in both name and practice. In addition to overseeing the country's economy, he assumed a preeminent role in directing its foreign policy. However, in 1968, the Prague Spring triggered a massive backlash against his reforms, thereby enabling Leonid Brezhnev to eclipse him as the dominant force in the Soviet leadership. Despite having his standing significantly weakened in the Kremlin, Kosygin was permitted by Brezhnev to remain in office until his retirement on 15 October 1980 due to bad health. He died two months later on 18 December 1980.