Alexei Ivanovich Rykov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively.
28 Facts About Alexei Rykov
2.
Alexei Rykov was one of the accused in Joseph Stalin's show trials during the Great Purge.
3.
Alexei Rykov played an active part in the 1905 Russian Revolution.
4.
Lenin died from a fourth stroke in January 1924, and in February, Alexei Rykov was chosen by the Council of People's Commissars as premier of both the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and of the Soviet Union, which he served as until May 1929 and December 1930, respectively.
5.
From 1931 to 1937, Alexei Rykov served as People's Commissar of Communications on the council he formerly chaired.
6.
Alexei Ivanovich Rykov was born on 25 February 1881 in Saratov, Russia.
7.
Alexei Rykov's parents were ethnic Russian peasants from the village of Kukarka.
8.
Alexei Rykov excelled in mathematics, physics and the natural sciences.
9.
At 15 Alexei Rykov stopped attending church and confession, and renounced his faith.
10.
Alexei Rykov graduated from high school in 1900 and enrolled at the University of Kazan to study law, which he did not complete.
11.
Alexei Rykov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898 and supported its Bolshevik faction when the party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks at its Second Congress in 1903.
12.
Alexei Rykov worked as a Bolshevik agent in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and played an active role in the Russian Revolution of 1905.
13.
Alexei Rykov was elected a member of the Party's Central Committee at its 3rd Congress in London in 1905 and its 4th Congress in Stockholm in 1906.
14.
Alexei Rykov was elected candidate member of the Central Committee at the 5th Congress in London.
15.
Alexei Rykov returned from Siberia after the February Revolution of 1917 and re-joined the Bolsheviks, although he remained skeptical of their more radical inclinations.
16.
Alexei Rykov became a member of the Petrograd Soviet and the Moscow Soviet.
17.
On 3 April 1918 Alexei Rykov was appointed Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy and served in that capacity throughout the Russian Civil War.
18.
Alexei Rykov was elected to the Communist Party Central Committee on 5 April 1920 after the 9th Party Congress and became a member of its Orgburo, where he remained until 23 May 1924.
19.
Once the Bolsheviks emerged victorious in the civil war, Alexei Rykov resigned his Supreme Council of National Economy post on 28 May 1921.
20.
Alexei Rykov joined the ruling Politburo on 3 April 1922, after the 11th Party Congress.
21.
Alexei Rykov's Premiership encompassed drastic change in the power structure of the Soviet Union.
22.
Alexei Rykov lost his position as Premier of the Russian SFSR to Sergei Syrtsov on 18 May 1929, but retained his other two posts.
23.
Two days later, Alexei Rykov was expelled from the Politburo, taking with him any chance of political advancement.
24.
On 30 May 1931, Alexei Rykov was appointed People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs, a position that he continued to occupy after the Commissariat was reorganized as People's Commissariat for Communications of the USSR in January 1932.
25.
On 26 September 1936, in the wake of accusations made at the first Moscow Show Trial against Kamenev and Zinoviev, and Tomsky's suicide, Alexei Rykov lost his position as People's Commissar of Communications, but retained his membership in the Central Committee.
26.
Alexei Rykov wrote a letter to the Soviet Military board requesting clemency but failed to get them to overturn the verdict.
27.
Alexei Rykov was released in September 1954, after 16 years prison and exile.
28.
Alexei Rykov was then reinstated in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.