Anastas Mikoyan

Anastas Mikoyan
Анастас Микоян Անաստաս Միկոյան
Mikoyan in 1941
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
In office 15 July 1964 – 9 December 1965
Preceded by	Leonid Brezhnev
Succeeded by	Nikolai Podgorny
First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union
In office 28 February 1955 – 15 July 1964
Premier	Nikolai Bulganin Nikita Khrushchev
Preceded by	Nikolai Bulganin
Succeeded by	Alexei Kosygin
Additional positions Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union In office 27 April 1954 – 28 February 1955 Premier Georgy Malenkov In office 19 March 1946 – 5 March 1953 Premier Joseph Stalin Minister of Foreign Trade In office 15 March 1946 – 4 March 1949 Premier Vyacheslav Molotov Joseph Stalin Preceded by Himself (as People's Commissar for Foreign Trade) Succeeded by Evgeny Chvyalev In office 24 August 1953 – 22 January 1955 Premier Georgy Malenkov Preceded by Dmitry Pavlov Succeeded by Basil Lark
Personal details
Born	Anastas Ovaneysovich Mikoyan (1895-11-25)25 November 1895 Sanahin, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	21 October 1978(1978-10-21) (aged 82) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
Citizenship	Soviet
Nationality	Armenian
Political party	CPSU (1918–1966)
Other political affiliations	RSDLP (Bolsheviks) (1915–1918)
Spouse	Ashkhen Tumanyan ​ ​ (m. 1920; died 1962)​
Children	5 (Stepan, Vladimir, Aleksei, Vano, and Sergo)
Occupation	Civil servant, statesman
Signature
Central institution membership 1942–1945: Member, State Defense Committee 1935–1966: Full member, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd Politburo 1926—1935: Candidate Member, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th Politburo 1923–1976: Full member, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, & 24th Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Other offices held 1938–45: People's Commissar for Foreign Trade 1934–38: People's Commissar for Food 1930–34: People's Commissar of Supplies 1926–30: People's Commissar for Trade

Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (English: /miːkoʊˈjɑːn/; Russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; Armenian: Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան, romanized: Anastas Hovhannesi Mikoyan; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman. Having been elected to the Central Committee in 1923, he was the only Soviet politician who managed to remain at the highest levels of power within the Communist Party from the latter days of Lenin, through the eras of Stalin and Khrushchev, to his peaceful retirement under Brezhnev.

An early convert to the Bolshevik cause, Mikoyan participated in the Baku Commune under the leadership of Stepan Shahumyan during the Russian Civil War in the Caucasus. In the 1920s, he served as the First Secretary of the North Caucasus region. During Stalin's rule, Mikoyan held several high governmental posts, including that of Minister of Foreign Trade. However, by the 1940s, Mikoyan began to lose favour with Stalin. In 1949, he lost his long-standing post of minister of foreign trade, and in October 1952, Stalin attacked him harshly at the 19th Party Congress. When Stalin died in 1953, Mikoyan again took a leading role in policy-making. Together, he and Khrushchev crafted the de-Stalinization policy and later he became First Deputy Premier under Khrushchev. Mikoyan's position during the Thaw made him the second most powerful figure in the Soviet Union at the time.

Mikoyan made several key trips to communist Cuba and to the United States, acquiring an important stature on the international diplomatic scene, especially with his skill in exercising soft power to further Soviet interests. In 1964 Khrushchev was forced to step down in a coup that brought Brezhnev to power. Mikoyan served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Head of State, from 1964 until his forced retirement in 1965.