First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union

First Deputy Premier of the
Soviet Union
Первый заместитель Председателя Совета Народных Комиссаров СССР (1923–1946)
Первый заместитель Председателя Совета министров СССР (1946–1991)
Первый заместитель премьер-министра СССР (1991)
Coat of arms of the Soviet Union
Longest serving
Kirill Mazurov
26 March 1965 – 28 November 1978
TypeDeputy head of government
Reports toPremier
Formation14 May 1934
First holderValerian Kuybyshev
Final holderVladimir Shcherbakov [ru]
Abolished26 November 1991
SuccessionFirst Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
Politics of the Soviet Union
 
Leadership
Communist Party
General Secretary
Legislature
Congress of Soviets
Supreme Soviet
Congress of People's Deputies
Governance
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Premiership
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The first deputy premier of the Soviet Union was the deputy head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Despite the title, the office was not always held by a single individual. The office bore three different titles throughout its existence: First Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1923–1946), First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (1946–1991), and First Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (1991). The term "first deputy premier" was used by outside commentators to describe the office of first deputy head of government.

A first deputy premier was responsible for a specific policy area. For example, Kirill Mazurov was responsible for industry, while Dmitry Polyansky was responsible for agriculture in the Soviet Union.[1]: 34  In addition, an officeholder would be responsible for coordinating the activities of ministries, state committees, and other bodies subordinated to the government. It was expected that a First Deputy gave these organs guidance in an expeditious manner to ensure the implementation of plans for economic and social development and to check if the orders and decisions of the government were being followed. If the premier could not perform his duties one of the first deputies would take on the role of acting premier until the premier's return.[2] During the late 1970s, when the health of Premier Alexei Kosygin deteriorated, First Deputy Premier Nikolai Tikhonov acted on his behalf as during his absence.[3] Finally, a first deputy was by right a member of the government Presidium, its highest decision-making organ.[1]: 30 

Twenty-six individuals held the office of first deputy premier. The first officeholder was Valerian Kuibyshev, who was inaugurated in 1934. Lavrentiy Beria spent the shortest time in office, serving for 113 days. At more than seventeen years, Vyacheslav Molotov spent the longest time in office, and held his position for most of Joseph Stalin's chairmanship, as well as through the chairmanships of Georgy Malenkov and Nikolai Bulganin.

Officeholders

[edit]
No.[a] Portrait Name
(Birth–Death) 		Term of office Premier Other offices held while
First Deputy Premier 		Ref.
Took office Left office Time in office
1 Valerian Kuybyshev
(1888–1935) 		14 May 1934 25 January 1935 † 256 days Vyacheslav Molotov Chairman of the Soviet People's Control Commission [4][5]
2 Nikolai Voznesensky
(1895–1950) 		10 March 1941 15 March 1946 5 years, 5 days Vyacheslav Molotov
Joseph Stalin 		Chairman of the State Planning Commission [6]
3 A man in a dark suit, light shirt and dark tie, smiling Vyacheslav Molotov
(1890–1986) 		16 August 1942 29 June 1957 11 years, 106 days Joseph Stalin
Georgy Malenkov
Nikolai Bulganin 		Minister of Foreign Affairs [7][8]
4 Nikolai Bulganin
(1895–1975) 		7 April 1950 8 February 1955 4 years, 307 days Joseph Stalin
Georgy Malenkov 		Minister of Defence [9][10]
5 Lavrentiy Beria
(1899–1953) 		5 March 1953 26 June 1953 113 days Georgy Malenkov Minister of Internal Affairs [11]
6 Lazar Kaganovich
(1893–1991) 		5 March 1953 29 June 1957 4 years, 141 days Georgy Malenkov
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikita Khrushchev 		Minister of Building Materials Industry
Chairman of the State Committee of the
Council of Ministers for Labour and Wages 		[12][13]
[14]
7 Anastas Mikoyan
(1895–1978) 		28 February 1955 15 July 1964 9 years, 138 days Nikolai Bulganin
Nikita Khrushchev
Main diplomat to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis
 [15]
8 Mikhail Pervukhin
(1904–1974) 		28 February 1955 5 July 1957 2 years, 127 days Nikolai Bulganin Chairman of the State Economic Commission on Current Economic Planning [16]
9 Maksim Saburov
(1900–1977) 		28 February 1955 5 July 1957 2 years, 127 days Nikolai Bulganin Chairman of the State Planning Committee [17]
10 Joseph Kuzmin
(1910–1996) 		28 February 1955 5 July 1957 2 years, 127 days Nikolai Bulganin Chairman of the State Planning Committee [18]
11 Frol Kozlov
(1908–1965) 		31 March 1958 4 May 1960 2 years, 34 days Nikita Khrushchev Chairman of the State Planning Committee [19]
12 Alexei Kosygin
(1904–1980) 		4 May 1960 15 October 1964 4 years, 164 days Nikita Khrushchev
—
 [20]
13 Dmitriy Ustinov
(1908–1984) 		13 March 1963 26 March 1965 2 years, 13 days Nikita Khrushchev
Alexei Kosygin
—
 [21]
14 Kirill Mazurov
(1914–1989) 		26 March 1965 28 November 1978 13 years, 247 days Alexei Kosygin First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia [22]
15 Dmitry Polyansky
(1917–2001) 		2 October 1965 2 February 1973 7 years, 123 days Alexei Kosygin
—
 [23]
16 Nikolai Tikhonov
(1905–1997) 		2 September 1976 23 October 1980 4 years, 51 days Alexei Kosygin
—
 [24]
17 Ivan Arkhipov
(1907–1998) 		27 October 1980 4 October 1986 5 years, 342 days Nikolai Tikhonov
Nikolai Ryzhkov
—
 [25]
18 A man in a dark suit with a red tie standing in front of the Azerbaijani flag Heydar Aliyev
(1923–2003) 		24 November 1982 23 October 1987 4 years, 333 days Nikolai Tikhonov
Nikolai Ryzhkov 		First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party [26][27]
19 A man in a dark suit, seated, looking to his left Andrei Gromyko
(1909–1989) 		24 March 1983 2 July 1985 2 years, 100 days Nikolai Tikhonov Minister of Foreign Affairs [28][29]
20 Nikolai Talyzin
(1929–1991) 		14 October 1985 1 October 1988 2 years, 353 days Nikolai Ryzhkov Chairman of the State Planning Committee [30]
21 Vsevolod Murakhovski
(1926–2017) 		1 November 1985 7 June 1989 3 years, 218 days Nikolai Ryzhkov Chairman of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers for Agriculture [31]
22 Yuri Maslyukov
(1937–2010) 		5 February 1988 26 December 1990 2 years, 324 days Nikolai Ryzhkov Chairman of the State Planning Committee [32][33]
23 Lev Voronin
(1928–2008) 		17 July 1989 26 December 1990 1 year, 162 days Nikolai Ryzhkov
—
 [34]
24 Vladilen Nikitin
(1936–2021) 		27 July 1989 30 August 1990 1 year, 34 days Nikolai Ryzhkov
—
 [35]
25 Vladimir Velichko
(born 1937) 		15 January 1991 26 November 1991 315 days Valentin Pavlov
Ivan Silayev 		Minister of Heavy Machine Building [36][37]
26 Vitaly Doguzhiyev
(1935–2016) 		15 January 1991 26 November 1991 315 days Valentin Pavlov
Ivan Silayev
—
 [37]
27 Vladimir Shcherbakov

(born 1949)

16 May 1991 26 November 1991 194 days Valentin Pavlov
Ivan Silayev
—
 [37]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ These numbers are not official.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Huskey, Eugene (1992). Executive Power and Soviet Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Soviet State. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 1-56324-059-9.
  2. ^ Кабинет Министров СССР. 5 июля 1978 «ЗАКОН О СОВЕТЕ МИНИСТРОВ СССР». (Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. 5 July 1978 Law of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. ).
  3. ^ Zemtsov, Ilya (1989). Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika. New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers. p. 119. ISBN 0-88738-260-6.
  4. ^ Shepilov, Dmitri; Austin, Anthony; Bittner, Stephen (2007). The Kremlin's Scholar: A Memoir of Soviet Politics under Stalin and Khrushchev. Yale University Press. p. 403. ISBN 978-0-300-09206-6.
  5. ^ Hollander, Paul (2006). From the Gulag to the Killing Fields: Personal Accounts of Political Violence and Repression in Communist States. ISI Books. p. 113. ISBN 1-932236-78-3.
  6. ^ McCauley, Martin (1997). Who's Who in Russia since 1900. Routledge. pp. 224–225. ISBN 0-415-13898-1.
  7. ^ Phillips, Steven (2000). Lenin and the Russian Revolution. Heinemann. p. 89. ISBN 0-435-32719-4.
  8. ^ Ulam, Adam (2007). Stalin: The Man and his Era. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 508. ISBN 978-1-84511-422-0. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  9. ^ Trahair, R.C.S. (2004). Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 69. ISBN 0-313-31955-3.
  10. ^ Siddiqi, Asif Azam (2010). The Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857–1957. Cambridge University Press. p. 266. ISBN 978-0-521-89760-0. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  11. ^ Service, Robert (2009). History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century. Penguin Books Ltd. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-14-103797-4.[permanent dead link‍]
  12. ^ Rogovin, Vadim Zakharovich (2009). Stalin's Terror of 1937–1938: Political Genocide in the USSR. Mehring Books. p. 332. ISBN 978-1-893638-04-4. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  13. ^ McCauley, Martin (1997). Who's Who in Russia since 1900. Routledge. p. 106. ISBN 0-415-13898-1.
  14. ^ McAuley, Alastair (1979). Economic Welfare in the Soviet Union: Poverty, Living standards, and Inequality. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 2000. ISBN 0-04-335038-0.
  15. ^ Микоян Анастас Иванович [Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan] (in Russian). War Heroes. Archived from the original on 20 June 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  16. ^ Первухин, Михаил Георгиевич [G. Pervukhin, Mikhail] (in Russian). War Heroes. Archived from the original on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  17. ^ Сабуров, Максим Захарович [Maksim Zakharovich Saburov] (in Russian). hrono. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  18. ^ Государственная власть СССР: Высшие органы власти и управления и их руководители: 1923—1991 [The state power of the USSR: Higher authorities and governments and their leaders: 1923–1991]. Moscow, Russian Federation: Историко-биографический справочник./Сост. В. И. Ивкин. 2004. p. 69. ISBN 978-5-8243-0014-7.
  19. ^ Staff writer. Фрол Романович КОЗЛОВ [Frol Romanovich Kozlov] (in Russian). proekt-wms.narod.ru. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  20. ^ Trahair, R.C.S. (2004). Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 37. ISBN 0-313-31955-3.
  21. ^ Staff writer. Устинов, Дмитрий Фёдорович [Ustinov, Dmitry Fedorovich] (in Russian). warheroes.ru. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  22. ^ Staff writer. Мазуров Кирилл Тимофеевич [Kirill Trofimovich Mazurov] (in Russian). hrono.ru. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  23. ^ Staff writer. Полянский, Дмитрий Степанович [Polyansky, Dmitry Stepanovich] (in Russian). Pseudology. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  24. ^ Ploss, Sidney (2010). The Roots of Perestroika: The Soviet Breakdown in Historical Context. McFarland & Company. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-7864-4486-1.
  25. ^ Ziyang, Zhao; Bao, Pu; Chiang, Renee (1998). Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang. Routledge. p. 289. ISBN 1-4391-4938-0. Archived from the original on 2023-04-14. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  26. ^ Staff writer (16 December 2003). "Azerbaijan's Geidar Aliev dies at 80". China Daily. Archived from the original on 17 December 2003. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  27. ^ Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Routledge. 1998. p. 156. ISBN 1-85743-058-1. Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  28. ^ Ploss, Sidney (2010). The Roots of Perestroika: The Soviet Breakdown in Historical Context. McFarland & Company. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-7864-4486-1.
  29. ^ Laird, Robin F., Hoffmann, Erik P.; Fleron, Fredrick J. (1991). Soviet Foreign Policy: Classic and Contemporary Issues. Transaction Publishers. pp. 445–46. ISBN 0-202-24171-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ Staff writer (26 January 1991). "Nikolai Talyzin, 62; Assisted Gorbachev in Starting Reforms". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 September 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  31. ^ Staff writer. "Всеволод Серафимович Мураховский" [Vsevolod Seraphimovich Murakhovski]. portrets.ru. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  32. ^ Staff writer (1 April 2010). "Скончался депутат Госдумы от КПРФ Юрий Маслюков" [Yuri Maslyukov, a Communist Party State Duma Deputy dies]. Gazeta.ru. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  33. ^ Маслюков Юрий Дмитриевич [Yuri Dmitriyevich Maslyukov] (in Russian). hrono. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  34. ^ Staff writer. Воронин, Лев Алексеевич [Voronin, Lev Alekseyevich] (in Russian). moscow-tombs.narod.ru. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  35. ^ Abrosimov, Igor. Н – Свод персоналий [H – Set of personalities] (in Russian). proza.ru. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  36. ^ Schulz-Torge, Ulrich-Joachim (1992). Who Was Who in the Soviet Union. K. G. Saur Verlag. p. 232. ISBN 978-3-598-10810-5.
  37. ^ a b c Shevchenko, Iulia (2004). The Central Government of Russia: From Gorbachev to Putin. Ashgate Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-7546-3982-4.

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