Nikolai Ryzhkov, the head of the Soviet government during perestroika, the oldest senator of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, has died. The 94-year-old senator from the Belgorod region was called a man of the era, and he fully deserved this title: he began his career in the post-war years in the workshops of Uralmash, went through all career levels in politics in the late Soviet era, in the stormy 80s, and the dashing 90s. He continued to serve the state and country to the end, managing to never tarnish his reputation during all this turbulent time. Izvestia recalls the biography of Nikolai Ryzhkov.
Labor man
Nikolai Ryzhkov was born on September 28, 1929 in the village of Dyleevka near Artemovsk, Donbass, in the family of a hereditary miner. However, like most boys who experienced the hard times of war, Nikolai dreamed of the army after school. Having decided to become a military pilot, after eight years of school he went to the Taganrog Aviation College. True, it turned out on the spot that the dream would not be realized: firstly, the technical school turned out to be an aircraft manufacturing school, and secondly, it did not have its own dormitory. Ryzhkov had to go to nearby Kramatorsk: the mechanical engineering college there, although it did not train aviators, distributed students to apartments, giving each a bed in a residential nook for 10 people. However, for the post-war devastation the conditions were almost royal.
Having completed his studies with “good” and “excellent” marks, Nikolai Ryzhkov received several attractive offers for distribution and settled at the Uralmash plant: he was fascinated by the scale of the grandiose enterprise, and the Ural Polytechnic Institute located here made it possible to subsequently continue his studies. Having entered workshop No. 31 as a shift foreman in 1950, he quickly advanced in his professional field: he became a flight supervisor, and three years later he entered UPI, where he began studying to become an engineer. In his third year, at the age of 26, a promising specialist, at the suggestion of plant director Georgy Glebovsky, Nikolai Ryzhkov, was appointed head of the workshop.
His further career at the plant also turned out to be quite fast and very successful. In 1959, immediately after graduating from the institute, Ryzhkov was appointed director of the welding plant, in 1965 he became chief engineer, and in 1971 – general director of Uralmash. At that time, the plant was transformed into a production association, bringing together five enterprises and a research institute under its roof. Nikolai Ryzhkov was entrusted with managing this most complex system.
Engineering heavyweight
The position of General Director of Uralmash at that time was, without exaggeration, a post of national importance. The enterprise was one of the largest production facilities in the field of heavy engineering of the USSR, confidently occupying the main economic niches from the sphere of state interests. Uralmash was engaged in the production of armored vehicles, equipment for the ferrous metallurgy and mining industries. Nikolai Ryzhkov led this community confidently and effectively. During his work, he was twice awarded the State Prize for professional achievements – for the introduction of advanced methods of steel casting and for the creation of the largest block of welded structures workshops in Europe. It is not surprising that the experienced and talented industrial leader was soon invited to a high government post.
In 1975, Nikolai Ryzhkov moved to the post of Deputy Minister of Heavy and Transport Engineering of the USSR. Later, Nikolai Ivanovich admitted that he himself did not want to go to Moscow, and the move was not easy for him. He had a close-knit team at the plant, he knew all the processes thoroughly and knew how to deal with the troubles that arose from time to time. In Moscow, at first he felt out of place: he was just beginning to understand the intricacies of the civil service and felt completely alone. Ryzhkov more than once asked to return to the plant – or even to any other specialized enterprise, albeit with a reduction in status. But nothing came of it.
Having understood his new responsibilities, Ryzhkov began to perform them no less effectively than before as the general director of Uralmash. Soon, his organizational skills and ability to lead people brought him a new appointment: in 1979, Nikolai Ryzhkov was appointed deputy head of the State Planning Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers, or, in short, Gosplan. Soon, at the instigation of Yuri Andropov, who took the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Ryzhkov was included in the Central Committee, elected its secretary and appointed to head the economic department. Together with the future leader of the country, Mikhail Gorbachev, Andropov included Ryzhkov in the group preparing the reforms. “I don’t regret this work on preparing reforms. The situation was difficult, the crisis was ripe. We began to understand the economy, and from this began perestroika in 1985, where the results of what we did in 1983-84 were practically used. If we didn’t do this, it would be even worse,” Ryzhkov later said in an interview.
On the cutting edge
On September 27, 1985, Nikolai Ryzhkov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. He was a member of Mikhail Gorbachev’s team and supported the reform course, but until the end he remained one of the few who called not to force economic reform and not to precede the introduction of a market system by scrapping all the old management mechanisms.
Nikolai Ryzhkov had the opportunity to lead the government in the most difficult, stormy times. And he handled the most difficult tasks with dignity, demonstrating the toughness and problem-solving skills that earned him a reputation as one of the most effective leaders of Soviet industry. In 1986, he personally headed the headquarters for liquidation of the Chernobyl accident, and, according to academician Valery Legasov, made a significant contribution to the successful organization of work. It was Ryzhkov who initiated the closure of the project to turn the northern rivers to the south, and after a conflict broke out between the Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks in the vicinity of Fergana, he was not afraid to go out alone to the raging crowd for negotiations. In 1988, Nikolai Ryzhkov organized assistance to victims of the earthquake in the Armenian Spitak. For this work, he subsequently received the title of National Hero of Armenia, becoming the first non-Armenian to receive it. As Mikhail Smirtyukov, former manager of the USSR Council of Ministers, later said, working to eliminate the consequences of the earthquake, Ryzhkov showed himself to be an excellent potential minister for emergency situations.
However, Nikolai Ryzhkov did not succeed in such a continuation of his career. Ryzhkov was increasingly in conflict with the team of young reformers that had formed around Gorbachev by that time. His ideas of moderation in carrying out reforms did not find understanding with the leader of the country. On December 26, 1990, Nikolai Ryzhkov suffered a massive heart attack, and while he was undergoing treatment, Mikhail Gorbachev issued a decree on his resignation.
Nikolai Ryzhkov did not even think about returning to Gorbachev’s team after the hospital. “In 1990, there was no longer any power and there was nothing to rely on,” he later said in an interview. Nevertheless, for a quarter of a century, Nikolai Ryzhkov remained in Russian politics. From 1995 to 2003, he remained a deputy of the State Duma, and in 2003 he accepted the offer of the Belgorod governor Yevgeny Savchenko to become his representative in the Federation Council. He remained as a senator until September 2023, when his powers were terminated.
Nikolai Ryzhkov died on December 28 in Moscow. “An amazing and bright person has passed away – Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov. Man-era. A man of unique destiny and a statesman of unique stature,” wrote Federation Council Chairman Valentina Matvienko.
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