Nikolai Tikhonov

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Nikolai Tikhonov bigraphy, stories - Russian metallurgist

Nikolai Tikhonov : biography

14 May 1905 – 1 June 1997

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov ( Kharkiv, 1 May (14 May) 1905 – Moscow, 1 June 1997) was a Soviet Russian-Ukrainian statesman during the Cold War. He served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1980 to 1985, and as a First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, literally First Vice Premier, from 1976 to 1980. Tikhonov was responsible for the cultural and economic administration of the Soviet Union during the late era of stagnation. He was replaced as Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1985 by Nikolai Ryzhkov. In the same year, he lost his seat in the Politburo; however, he retained his seat in the Central Committee until 1989.

He was born in the city of Kharkiv in 1905 to a Russian-Ukrainian working-class family; he graduated in the 1920s and started working in the 1930s. Tikhonov began his political career in local industry, and worked his way up the hierarchy of Soviet industrial ministries. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Gosplan in 1963. After Alexei Kosygin’s resignation Tikhonov was voted into office as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In this position, he refrained from taking effective measures to reform the Soviet economy, a need which was strongly evidenced during the early–mid-1980s. He retired from active politics in 1989 as a pensioner. Tikhonov died on 1 June 1997.

Decorations and awards

  • Hero of Socialist Labour (1975, 1982)
  • Nine Orders of Lenin
  • Order of the October Revolution
  • Two Orders of the Red Banner
  • Order of the Red Star
  • Stalin Prize;
    • 1st class (1943) – a radical improvement of the production of pipes and mortar ammunition
    • 3rd class (1951) – for the development and commercial production of seamless pipes of large diameter
  • Doctor of Technical Sciences (1961)

Premiership (1980–85)

Appointment and the 26th Congress

When Alexei Kosygin resigned in 1980 Tikhonov, at the age of 75, was elected the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers. During his five-year term as premier Tikhonov refrained from reforming the Soviet economy, despite all statistics from that time showing the economy was stagnating. Tikhonov presented the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (1981–85) at the 26th Party Congress, and told the delegates that the state would allocate nine million rubles for mothers who were seeking parental leave. In his presentation to the congress, Tikhonov admitted that Soviet agriculture was not producing enough grain. Tikhonov called for an improvement in Soviet–US relations, but dismissed all speculations that the Soviet economy was in any sort of crisis. Despite this, Tikhonov admitted to economic "shortcomings" and acknowledged the ongoing "food problem"; other topics for discussion were the need to save energy resources, boost labour productivity and to improve the quality of Soviet produced goods. Early in his term, in January 1981, Tikhonov admitted that the government’s demographic policy was one of the weakest areas of his cabinet. In reality however, he along with many others, were beginning to worry that not enough Russians were being born. The Era of Stagnation reduced the birth rate, and increased the death rate of the Russian population.{}

Andropov and Chernenko

Leonid Brezhnev awarded Tikhonov the Hero of Socialist Labour, after being advised to do so by Konstantin Chernenko. Upon Brezhnev’s death in 1982, Tikhonov supported Chernenko’s candidacy for the General Secretaryship. Chernenko lost the vote, and Yuri Andropov became General Secretary. It has been suggested that Andropov had plans of replacing Tikhonov with Heydar Aliyev. Historian William A. Clark noted how Aliyev, a former head of the Azerbaijani KGB, was appointed to the First Deputy Premiership of the Council of Ministers without Tikhonov’s consent; however, Andropov’s death in 1984 left Tikhonov secure in his office. Some Western analysts speculated that the appointment of Andrei Gromyko to the First Deputy Premiership, again without Tikhonov’s consent, was a sign that his position within the Soviet hierarchy was weakened. Tikhonov was on a state visit to Yugoslavia when Gromyko was appointed to the First Deputy Premiership.