31 Facts About Yegor Ligachyov

Yegor Kuzmich Ligachyov was a Soviet and Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and who continued an active political career in post-Soviet Russia.

Originally an ally of Mikhail Gorbachev, Ligachyov became a challenger to his leadership.

Yegor Ligachyov was born on 29 November 1920 in the village Dubinkino in the Kainsky district of the Tomsk province.

Yegor Ligachyov joined the Communist Party at the age of 24 in 1944, later studying at the Central Committee Higher Party School in Moscow in 1951.

Yegor Ligachyov's career began in his native Siberia and took him to some of the highest functions of the Party.

Yegor Ligachyov was often regarded as Gorbachev's second man, holding important posts such as the Secretary for Ideology.

However, Yegor Ligachyov lost his posts in 1990, a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, resigning from his political career at the 28th Party Congress.

Yegor Ligachyov was critical of Boris Yeltsin and Gorbachev to an extent, although he is often portrayed as having been Gorbachev's primary critic.

Yegor Ligachyov was First Secretary of the Novosibirsk Komsomol, before becoming Deputy Chairman of the Novosibirsk Soviet, and then Secretary of the Novosibirsk Obkom between 1959 and 1961.

Yegor Ligachyov gained his first major post in 1961, when he began working in the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Yegor Ligachyov was to hold this position until 1983, when he was discovered by Yuri Andropov and made head of the Party Organization Department and a Secretary of the Central Committee.

In 1966, Yegor Ligachyov was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee, and ten years later in 1976 he was promoted to a full member.

When Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985, Yegor Ligachyov was promoted to become a Secretary of higher status, and was generally viewed as one of Gorbachev's primary allies: he had helped organize a pro-Gorbachev faction in hope of having Gorbachev succeed Andropov in 1984, although this attempt failed.

Yegor Ligachyov supported reform of the Soviet Union and initially supported Gorbachev; however, as Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost began to resemble what were seen as social democratic policies, he distanced himself from Gorbachev, and by 1988 he was recognized as the leader of the more conservative, anti-Gorbachev faction of Soviet politicians.

Yegor Ligachyov, having made some speeches criticizing Gorbachev, was demoted from his more prestigious position as Secretary for Ideology to Secretary for Agriculture on 30 September 1988.

Yegor Ligachyov was elected three times to the Russian State Duma as a member for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Yegor Ligachyov was a member of its Central Committee from 1993 on.

Yegor Ligachyov became one of Gorbachev's primary critics, and was accused of leading a conservative faction.

Yegor Ligachyov did not support the decision to end the CPSU's monopoly of political power in 1990, nor did he support Gorbachev's response to the gradual withdrawal of Soviet authority in Eastern Europe.

Yegor Ligachyov saw the quick reunification of Germany as being an "impending danger".

However, in 1988, Yegor Ligachyov denied that he was leading a conservative faction, saying that the Party leadership were united behind Gorbachev.

Yegor Ligachyov rejected suggestions after the fall of the Soviet Union that he had been opposed to Gorbachev in his memoirs and in speeches.

Yegor Ligachyov clearly demonstrated conservative ideas in his opposition of Yeltsin's political ideas, on the other hand, opposing the principles of glasnost.

Yegor Ligachyov later repudiated his opposition to Gorbachev's policies, saying it was "only too late [he] discerned a social democrat in Gorbachev".

However, Yegor Ligachyov repeatedly denied he was opposed to Gorbachev in sources including his memoirs.

Yegor Ligachyov stated earlier that "the slackening of state discipline" was "among the reasons for the troubled state of the economy".

Furthermore, together with KGB chief Viktor Chebrikov, Yegor Ligachyov took several opportunities before he was demoted to Secretary for Agriculture in 1988 to warn against rapid reform.

Yegor Ligachyov opposed Yeltsin's idea that Party officials enjoyed greater privilege.

Yegor Ligachyov was considered "Second Secretary" of the Central Committee for most of his time in the Politburo.

Yegor Ligachyov was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia and multiple autonomic disorders according to the doctors; they assessed Ligachyov's condition as extremely serious because of his old age.

Yegor Ligachyov died during his sleep from pneumonia at the age of 100.