Nikolai Podgorny

53

Nikolai Podgorny : biography

18 February 1903 – 12 January 1983

Head of state (1965–1977)

Appointment and the collective leadership

During the 1964 ouster to remove Khrushchev as First Secretary and Premier, Podgorny and Brezhnev appealed to the Central Committee, blaming Khrushchev for economic failures and accusing him of voluntarism and immodest behavior. Influenced by Brezhnev and his allies, Politburo members voted to remove Khrushchev from office. In the aftermath of Khrushchev’s removal, a collective leadership was formed, headed by Brezhnev as First Secretary, Alexei Kosygin as head of government, and Anastas Mikoyan as head of state. Before becoming head of state, Podgorny served as the party’s Second Secretary, and was therefore in charge of the Party’s Organisational Division. In this capacity, Podgorny threatened Brezhnev’s position as First Secretary because the Organisational Division, if Podgorny chose so, could easily be turned into his own power base within the party. Brezhnev allied himself with Alexander Shelepin, the KGB chairman, to oppose both Podgorny and Kosygin.

Podgorny’s position was constantly threatened by Brezhnev and his allies. In an article in Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta from February 1965, the newspaper criticised the Kharkiv Party organisation which Podgorny had previously headed, but also its management of the economy. By indirectly criticising Podgorny, the article raised doubts about his qualifications as a leading member of the Soviet leadership. Podgorny launched a counterattack in his 1965 speech in Baku, Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, were he criticised the Soviet leadership’s heavy industrial policy. This, as it turned out, would be a move he would regret for life. Instead of offending just Brezhnev and Shelepin, he offended the whole conservative wing of the leadership. To make matters even worse for Podgorny, Mikhail Suslov, who had kept outside of the conflict, sided with Brezhnev, and called his views "revisionist". Later in 1965, Podgorny lost his seat in the Secretariat, and on 9 December 1965 he replaced Mikoyan as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. His removal from the Secretariat also signalled the end of his wish to assume the First Secretaryship.

The majority of Politburo members under Brezhnev were conservative communists. Even so, Podgorny remained one of the most liberal-minded members in the Era of Stagnation. Other liberal-minded Politburo members included Kosygin and Andrei Kirilenko. Factionalism within the Soviet leadership in the 1960s led Podgorny to become more active; he held several speeches in Moscow and went on numerous state visits at the expense of Brezhnev and Kosygin’s popularity. There was speculation in Soviet society that Podgorny was trying to replace Kosygin as Premier, or even Brezhnev as General Secretary, due to his increasing presence in the late 1960s. The 24th Party Congress, while reaffirming Brezhnev’s and Kosygin’s respective positions, made it clear that Podgorny had become a major player in Soviet politics. The collective leadership was eventually left powerless in the late 1970s when Brezhnev had close to full control over the Politburo.

Diplomatic protocol

In 1967, just before the outbreak of the Six-Day War, Podgorny delivered an intelligence report to Egyptian Vice President Anwar Sadat which claimed, falsely, that Israeli troops were massing along the Syrian border. That same year, he engaged in a dialogue with Pope Paul VI as part of the pontiff’s ostpolitik; the result was greater openness for the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe. In 1971 Podgorny went on two state visits, the first to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the second to North Vietnam; Kosygin went on a visit to Canada while Brezhnev visited Yugoslavia. Podgorny frequently paid visits to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War to discuss Soviet-Vietnamese foreign relations. In 1973, Podgorny visited Finland and Mohammed Daoud Khan’s Afghanistan.

Brezhnev conspired to oust Podgorny as early as 1970. The reason was simple: Brezhnev was third, while Podgorny was first in the ranking of Soviet diplomatic protocol. Since September 1970 Brezhnev tried to form an opposition in the Politburo to oust Podgorny. According to Time, "There was some speculation in Moscow" that if Brezhnev didn’t succeed in removing Podgorny he would establish a Council of State modelled after institutions found in, for example, East Germany (Staatsrat), People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the Socialist Republic of Romania. The post of Chairman of the Council of State would give Brezhnev the top state and party job in the USSR. Brezhnev’s backers were unable, and didn’t even try, to remove Podgorny from the head of state post at the 1970 Central Committee plenum. Brezhnev could count on only five votes, while another seven Politburo members were opposed to granting Brezhnev more power; removing Podgorny would in fact mean the end of the collective leadership.