Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman.
66 Facts About Anastas Mikoyan
2.
Anastas Mikoyan was the only Soviet politician who managed to remain at the highest levels of power within the Communist Party while that power oscillated between the Central Committee and the Politburo.
3.
Anastas Mikoyan's career extended from the days of Lenin, to the eras of Stalin and Khrushchev, to his peaceful retirement under Brezhnev.
4.
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.
5.
However, by the 1940s, Anastas Mikoyan began to lose favour with Stalin.
6.
When Stalin died in 1953, Anastas Mikoyan again took a leading role in policy-making.
7.
Anastas 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.
8.
Anastas Mikoyan served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Head of State, from 1964 until his forced retirement in 1965.
9.
Anastas Mikoyan was born to Armenian parents in the village of Sanahin, then part of the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire in 1895.
10.
Anastas Mikoyan's father, Hovhannes, was a carpenter and his mother, a rug weaver.
11.
Anastas Mikoyan had one younger brother, Artem Mikoyan, who would be the co-founder of the MiG aviation design bureau, which became one of the primary design bureaus of fast jets in Soviet military aviation.
12.
Anastas Mikoyan received his education at the Nersisian School in Tiflis and the Gevorgian Seminary in Vagharshapat, both affiliated with the Armenian Apostolic Church.
13.
In 1915 Anastas Mikoyan formally joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and became a leader of the revolutionary movement in the Caucasus.
14.
Anastas Mikoyan became a commissar in the newly formed Red Army and continued to fight in Baku against anti-Bolshevik forces.
15.
Anastas Mikoyan was wounded in the fighting and was noted for saving the life of fellow Party-member Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
16.
Anastas Mikoyan directed the seizure of the banks in April 1918, and the defence of Baku against the advancing Turkish army in July 1918.
17.
Anastas Mikoyan supported Stalin, whom he had first met in 1919, in the power struggle that followed Lenin's death in 1924; During the 11th Congress of the CPSU, in 1922, before the power struggle between Stalin and Leon Trotsky had broken out into the open, Anastas Mikoyan characterised Trotsky as "a man of the state but not of the party".
18.
Anastas Mikoyan spent three months in the United States, where he not only learned more about its food industry but met and spoke with Henry Ford and inspected Macy's in New York.
19.
Anastas Mikoyan spearheaded a project to produce a home cookbook, which would encourage a return to the domestic kitchen.
20.
Anastas Mikoyan helped initiate the production of ice cream in the USSR and kept the quality of ice cream under his own personal control until he was dismissed.
21.
In several instances, Anastas Mikoyan had intervened on behalf of his friends and colleagues to save them.
22.
The Soviets arrested 26,000 Polish officers in the eastern portion of Poland and in March 1940, after some deliberation, Stalin and five other members of the Politburo, Anastas Mikoyan included, signed an order for their execution as "nationalists and counterrevolutionaries".
23.
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Anastas Mikoyan was placed in charge of organizing the transportation of food and supplies.
24.
Anastas Mikoyan is credited for his significant role in the 1941 relocation of Soviet industry from the threatened western cities, such as Moscow and Leningrad, eastward to the Urals, Western Siberia, the Volga region, and other safer zones.
25.
In February 1942, by order of Stalin, Anastas Mikoyan became a Special Representative of the State Defense Committee.
26.
Anastas Mikoyan had not been a member until that point because Beria believed he would be of more use in government administration.
27.
Anastas Mikoyan was decorated with a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1943 for his efforts.
28.
Anastas Mikoyan originally argued against punishing Stalin's right-hand man, Beria, but later gave in to popular support among Party members for his arrest.
29.
Anastas Mikoyan remained in the government after Stalin's death, in the post of Minister of Trade under Malenkov.
30.
Anastas Mikoyan supported Nikita Khrushchev in the power struggle to succeed Stalin, and became First Deputy Premier in recognition of his services.
31.
In 1956, Anastas Mikoyan helped Khrushchev organize the "Secret Speech", delivered by Khrushchev at the 20th Party Congress, which denounced Stalin's personality cult.
32.
In 1957, Anastas Mikoyan refused to back an attempt by Malenkov and Molotov to remove Khrushchev from power, and thus secured his position as one of Khrushchev's closest allies during the Thaw.
33.
Anastas Mikoyan backed Khrushchev because of his strong support for de-Stalinization, and his belief that a triumph by the plotters might have given way to purges similar to those in the 1930s.
34.
Anastas Mikoyan was the first Politburo member to make direct contact with the Chinese Communist Party chairman, Mao Zedong.
35.
Anastas Mikoyan arrived at Mao's headquarters on 30 January 1949, one day before the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek was forced to abandon Nanjing, which was then China's capital, and move to Guangzhou.
36.
On 11 November 1951, Anastas Mikoyan made a sudden visit to Prague to deliver a message from Stalin to President Klement Gottwald insisting that Rudolf Slansky, former Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, should be arrested.
37.
When Gottwald demurred, Anastas Mikoyan broke off the interview to ring Stalin, before repeating the demand, after which Gottwald capitulated.
38.
In July 1956, Anastas Mikoyan visited the People's Republic of Hungary to oversee the removal of the dictator Matyas Rakosi.
39.
Together with Mikhail Suslov, Anastas Mikoyan traveled to Budapest in an armored personnel carrier, in view of the shooting in the streets.
40.
Anastas Mikoyan sent a telegram to Moscow reporting his impressions of the situation.
41.
Anastas Mikoyan strongly opposed the decision by Khrushchev and the Politburo to use Soviet troops, believing it would destroy the Soviet Union's international reputation, instead arguing for the application of "military intimidation" and economic pressure.
42.
Ruud van Djik, a historian, believed Anastas Mikoyan was angry because Khrushchev didn't consult him about the proposal.
43.
However, Anastas Mikoyan eventually left for Washington DC, which was the first time a senior governing member of the USSR's Council of Ministers visited the United States on a diplomatic mission to its leadership.
44.
Furthermore, Anastas Mikoyan approached the mission with unprecedented informality, beginning with phrasing his visa request to US Embassy as "a fortnight's holiday" to visit his friend, Mikhail Menshikov, the then Soviet Ambassador to the United States.
45.
Anastas Mikoyan disapproved of Khrushchev's walkout from the 1960 Paris Summit over the U-2 Crisis of 1960, which he believed kept tension in the Cold War high for another fifteen years.
46.
In November 1963 Mikoyan was asked by Khrushchev to represent the USSR at President John F Kennedy's funeral.
47.
Anastas Mikoyan was the first Soviet official to visit Cuba after the revolution, except for Soviet intelligence officers, and he secured important trade agreements with the new government.
48.
Anastas Mikoyan was opposed to the idea, and was even more opposed to giving the Cubans control over the Soviet missiles.
49.
Just prior to beginning negotiations with Castro, Anastas Mikoyan was informed about the death of his wife, Ashkhen, in Moscow; rather than return there for the funeral, Anastas Mikoyan opted to stay and sent his son Sergo there instead.
50.
Castro was adamant that the missiles remain but Anastas Mikoyan, seeking to avoid a full-fledged confrontation with the United States, attempted to convince him otherwise.
51.
On 15 July 1964, Anastas Mikoyan was appointed as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, replacing Leonid Brezhnev, who received a promotion within the Party.
52.
Some historians are convinced that by 1964 Anastas Mikoyan believed that Khrushchev had turned into a liability to the Party, and that he was involved in the October 1964 coup that brought Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin to power.
53.
However, William Taubman disputes this, as Anastas Mikoyan was the only member of the Presidium to defend Khrushchev.
54.
Anastas Mikoyan did vote to force Khrushchev's retirement.
55.
Alone among Khrushchev's colleagues, Anastas Mikoyan wished the former leader well in his retirement, and he, alone, visited Khrushchev at his dacha a few years later.
56.
Anastas Mikoyan laid a wreath and sent a letter of condolence at Khrushchev's funeral in 1971.
57.
The Politburo forced Anastas Mikoyan to retire from his seat in the Politburo due to old age.
58.
Anastas Mikoyan quickly lost his post as head of state and was succeeded in this post by Nikolai Podgorny on 9 December 1965.
59.
Anastas Mikoyan died on 21 October 1978, at the age of 82, from natural causes and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
60.
Anastas Mikoyan received six commendations of the Order of Lenin.
61.
Unlike many others, Anastas Mikoyan was not afraid to get into heated arguments with Stalin.
62.
Anastas Mikoyan had five boys, and adopted the two sons of the late Bolshevik leader Stepan Shahumyan.
63.
Anastas Mikoyan had so many children under his care that he and his wife faced financial problems.
64.
Anastas Mikoyan was defiantly proud of his Armenian identity, and in a 1959 meeting with US Vice President Richard Nixon in Washington, he even raised the issue of the treatment of the Armenians in Turkey.
65.
Anastas Mikoyan greatly enjoyed meeting fellow Armenians abroad, including former US ambassador Edward Djerejian.
66.
Anastas Mikoyan's supporters argue that he was a major figure on the global political stage and usually point to his role in defusing the Cuban missile crisis.