Nikolai Podgorny

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Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny (Russian: Никола́й Ви́кторович Подго́рный, Ukrainian: Микола Вікторович Підгорний) (February 18, 1903 [O.S. February 5]–January 12, 1983) was a politician and President of the USSR from 1965 to 1977. His official title was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

An engineer, trained at the Technological Institute of the Food Industry in Kiev, he became deputy commissar of the Ukrainian food industry before entering the official ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1950. He was elected a member of the central committee of the party in 1956 and of the presidium (later known as the politburo) in 1960.

In 1965 he became chairman of the presidium, or chief of state, succeeding Anastas Mikoyan. Podgorny was relieved of his chairmanship and removed from the politburo during a 1977 power struggle with Leonid Brezhnev.