Alexei Kosygin is a prominent party and government figure who held high positions in the government of the USSR. He has the title of twice Hero of Socialist Labor.
He led the evacuation of the largest enterprises during the World War II and the rescue of besieged Leningraders. He also stood at the origins of the most successful economic reform of the 20th century, which he was never allowed to complete.
Childhood[]
Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin was born on the 21st, or according to the old style on February 8, 1904 in St. Petersburg. There is scant information about his childhood. It is only known that the parents baptized their newborn son according to the Orthodox rite in March of the same year in the Church of Samson the Stranger.
At the age of 15, Alexei, at that time a student at the Petrovsky Real School, volunteered for the Red Army. The young man built defensive structures. And after 3 years he returned to Petrograd and completed his studies. Having received a diploma from a cooperative technical school, the young specialist went to Siberia to develop industrial cooperation.
Career[]
In the planned economy that existed at that time, industrial cooperation was a kind of oasis within whose borders entrepreneurship was encouraged. And Alexei Kosygin formed his first ideas as an economist in this “oasis of economic freedom.” He managed to prove himself well and demonstrate the makings of a promising manager. Therefore, he was sent for further training. The guy was returned back to Leningrad, where he received a higher education at the Textile Institute.
In 1935, the career of a young specialist began a rapid upward movement. In 2 years, Alexey managed to “grow” from a foreman at the Oktyabrskaya textile factory to its director. But he managed the enterprise for just over a year: Kosygin’s successes in this position were so striking that in 1938 he was appointed chairman of the executive committee of the Leningrad Council of Workers and Peasants.
The speed with which this man moved up the career ladder is incredible: a year later he was appointed to the post of People's Commissar of the textile industry of the Soviet Union.
Some skeptics argue that the rapid career advancement of the young “cadre” was explained by the “empty bench.” Allegedly, the Lenin-Stalinist terror “cut down” all ambitious specialists, so it was necessary to promote young business executives who were devoid of political ambitions.
To some extent, this is true: a distinctive feature of all the activities of Alexei Kosygin was his complete reluctance to participate in intrigues and behind-the-scenes struggle for power. But it is also true that he was a professional of the highest class.
Stalin, who did not trust many of his comrades and was afraid to turn his back on them, appreciated Kosygin’s above-mentioned qualities. This young specialist fully met the criteria that, according to Joseph Vissarionovich, an ideal Soviet business executive should have.
The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War turned out to be an “examination period” for the 37-year-old manager, where a mistake meant ruining hundreds, if not many thousands, of lives. Alexei Kosygin in June 1941 was appointed by Stalin as deputy chairman of the Council for the Evacuation of Industrial Enterprises. The official led a group of inspectors that managed the evacuation of more than 1,500 strategically important plants and factories in the country to the East. And he didn’t disappoint.
Therefore, is it any wonder that in the winter of 1942 the most difficult task fell on his shoulders: to supply besieged Leningrad with food and to create the “Road of Life” along Lake Ladoga. Historians, analyzing the actions of young Kosygin, agree that he did everything he could. And in 1943, Alexey Nikolaevich already headed the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. This appointment was a testament to the highest confidence of management.
Stalin, whose praise some waited in vain, openly favored Kosygin. Probably, the high trust of the Generalissimo turned out to be the reason why the ax of repression only whistled near the head of Alexei Nikolaevich.
When the “Leningrad case” broke out, as a result of the investigation of which the “heads rolled” of a whole group of party leaders suspected of separatism and other sins, Kosygin could well have been among those repressed. After all, the main “personnel officer” of the CPSU (b) and the secretary of the Central Committee, Alexei Kuznetsov, was related to Alexei Kosygin. He was married to his wife's cousin.
There were legends about Alexei Kosygin's phenomenal memory and incredible ability to quickly multiply multi-digit numbers in his mind. Stalin called him an “arithmometer” for this. He was an atypical official. He did not like flattery and avoided feasts. His meetings were always short and “dry”: he quickly highlighted the essence and “did not let his thoughts run wild”, not allowing his subordinates to do this.
When Joseph Vissarionovich died without having time to complete the planned change of elites, Kosygin managed to stay in power. After the death of the Generalissimo, the “Old Guard” began to hastily “root out” the young cadres appointed by Stalin.
Alexei Nikolayevich was also “moved”: although he was removed from the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Light Industry was taken away, he was not excommunicated from power at all - he was given a more modest ministerial chair. Now Kosygin was responsible for the production of consumer goods.
He distinguished himself here too, demonstrating a thoughtful approach to the assigned work. Therefore, already in the summer of 1953, Aleksei Nikolaevich headed the reorganized Ministry of Food Products Industry, created by the merger of several previous ministries. And in December of the same year he returned again to the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
There were legends about how the minister approached his duties. For example, after the end of the war, Alexey Kosygin quit smoking. But one day he went to take over a new tobacco factory in Georgia. During a conversation with her director, she asked him for a cigarette. He offered him cigarettes that he smoked himself - handed him a pack of American production. The minister turned around and left. The factory director has been replaced.
During the reign of Khrushchev, Kosygin was promoted again. In 1960, he became first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. And after the “palace coup” in 1964, Leonid Brezhnev promoted Kosygin to head of government. At the same time, Brezhnev does not like an overly experienced manager. And only his unambitiousness and lack of desire to pry and intrigue become the reason for further career growth.
It is noteworthy that Alexei Kosygin was the only one from the Politburo who voted against the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, for which Leonid Ilyich’s entourage, and he himself, looked askance at him.
He was a brilliant diplomat who knew how to quickly solve various international problems. With his direct participation, the Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1967 and 1973 were resolved. He helped bring about an end to American bombing of Indochina in the early 1970s. But his main victory in the diplomatic field is considered to be the resolution of the most acute Soviet-Chinese conflict. They say that it was thanks to the brilliantly conducted 4-hour negotiations of Alexei Nikolaevich at Beijing airport that the Soviet-Chinese war was prevented.
His economic reforms in industry are considered more than successful. They are also called “Kosyginsky”. The head of the Council of Ministers advocated for expanding the independence of enterprises and for the decentralization of the national economy. Thanks to him, such a concept as gross production has become a thing of the past, replaced by the indicator of sold products.
Alexei Kosygin had a hard time. After all, his vision of economic development significantly diverged from “Leninist principles” and even smacked of a “bourgeois approach.” This is probably why the reforms of the head of the Council of Ministers met with considerable resistance from old-school officials and were not brought to their logical conclusion. But the main thing that Alexei Nikolaevich was unable to accomplish due to deteriorating health was to make the main budget line not the export of crude oil and gas, but their processed products.
Death[]
He died on the morning of December 18, 1980, on the eve of Brezhnev's birthday. In order not to overshadow the Secretary General’s holiday, the funeral was organized only 6 days later, on December 24, 1980.