Nikolai Tikhonov

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union

14 May 1905 Kharkiv, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire

1 June 1997(1997-06-01) (92) Moscow, Russia

23 October 1980 – 27 September 1985

Soviet prime minister 1980-1985, metallurgist This article is about the Soviet politician. For the writer, see Nikolai Tikhonov (writer). For the cosmonaut, see Nikolai Tikhonov (cosmonaut). In this Eastern Slavic naming convention, the patronymic is Aleksandrovich and the family name is Tikhonov. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov (Russian: Николай Александрович Тихонов ; 14 May  1905 – 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.