Alexei Kosygin

Alexei Kosygin Алексей Косы́гин
Kosygin at the Glassboro Summit Conference, June 23, 1967
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR
In office 15 October 1964 – 23 October 1980
General Secretary	Leonid Brezhnev
Preceded by	Nikita Khrushchev
Succeeded by	Nikolai Tikhonov
Minister of Finance of the Soviet Union
In office 17 February 1948 – 28 December 1948
First Secretary	Joseph Stalin
Preceded by	Arseny Zverev
Succeeded by	Arseny Zverev
Chairman of the Council of Peoples' Commissars of the Russian SFSR
In office 23 June 1943 – 23 March 1946
First Secretary	Joseph Stalin
Preceded by	Ivan Khokhlov
Succeeded by	Mikhail Rodionov
Born	20 February 1904(1904-02-20) Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia
Died	18 December 1980(1980-12-18) (aged 76) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet
Ethnicity	Russian
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Spouse(s)	Klavdia Andreyevna (died 1966)
Profession	Teacher, civil servant[1]
Military service
Allegiance	Russian Soviet
Service/branch	Red Army
Years of service	1919-1921[2]
Rank	Conscript
Commands	Red Army
Battles/wars	Russian Civil War
Awards	Order of the Red Banner

Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Косы́гин, Aleksej Nikolajevič Kosygin; February 20, 1904 – December 18, 1980) was a Soviet-Russian statesman from the start to the end of the Cold War. He served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1964 to 1980, and as Chairmen of the Council of Peoples' Commissars of the RSFSR, or Russian Premier, from 1943 to 1946. Kosygin was responsible for the economic administration of the Soviet Union, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic and external policies. Kosygin retired in 1980 due to bad health, he was replaced by Nikolai Tikhonov.

Kosygin was born in the Russian city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1904, to a Russian working class family. He was conscripted into the labor army during the Russian Civil War, and after the Red Army's demobilization in 1921, left to work in Siberia as an industrial manager. He returned to Leningrad in the early 1930s, working his way up the Soviet hierarchy. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II) he was a member of the State Defense Committee and was tasked with moving Soviet industry out of territories soon to be overrun by the German military. In the aftermath of the war Kosygin served as Minister of Finance for a year before becoming Minister of the Ministries of Light Industry and Light and Food Industry. One year before his death in 1952 Stalin removed him from the politburo, purposly weakening Kosygin's position within the Soviet hierarchy.

After the power struggle triggered by Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev became the new leader. On March 20, 1959, Kosygin was made the new Chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan), a post he held for little more than a year. But by that time Kosygin had become a First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. After Khrushchev was ousted as leader in 1964, Kosygin was made Premier and Leonid Brezhnev made First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Kosygin, along with Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was part of the new "collective leadership" of the USSR. Kosygin became one of two major power players within the Soviet hierarchy, the other being Brezhnev, he was therefor able to initiate the failed 1965 economic reform, usually referred to simply as the Kosygin reform. This reform, along with his more open stance on solving the Prague Spring, made Kosygin one of the most liberal members of the top leadership.

Some of Kosygin's policies were seen as to radical, particularly by his more conservative politburo members, who had a majority in the politburo. They were, however, never able to depose Kosygin as Premier, even if he and Brezhnev had major strains in their relationships to each other. During most of the 1970s, Brezhnev had consolidated enough power to stop any reform-minded attempts by Kosygin. In 1980 Kosygin retired from office due to bad health, and died two months later on December 18, 1980.

Early life and career (1904–1964)

Kosygin was born into a Russian^[3] working class family consisting of his father and mother Nikolai Lenin and Matron Alexandrovna and his siblings. The family lived in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Kosygin was baptized one month after his birth on March 7.^[4] As many like him, he was conscripted into a labor army to fight with the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. After the demobilization of the Red Army in 1921, Kosygin attended the Leningrad Co-operative Technical School^[5] and found work in the system of consumer co-operatives in^[6] Novosibirsk,^[7] Siberia. When asked why he worked in cooperative sector of the economy, Kosygin replied, referrnig to Vladimir Lenin's slogan,; "Co-operation – the path to socialism!".^[8] He'd stay there for six years, applying for a membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1927,^[6] he returned to Leningrad in 1930 to study at the Leningrad Textile Institute; he graduated five years later in 1935.^[8] After finishing his graduation he got work as a director of a textile mill. Three years later Kosygin was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Soviets of Working People's Deputies by the Leningrad Communist Party, and the following year he was appointed Commissar for Textile and Industry and earned a seat in the Central Committee.^[6] In 1940 he became a Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and from 1943 to 1946 became Chairmen of the Council of Peoples' Commissars of the Russian SFSR.^[6] Kosygin worked for the State Defense Committee during the Great Patriotic War.^[6] As Deputy Chairman of the Council of Evacuation^[9] his task was to evacuate industry from territories soon to be overrun by the Germans. He broke the Leningrad Blockade by organizing the construction of a supply route and pipeline on the bottom of Lake Lagoda.^[10] From 1946 and onwords, Kosygin held top party positions within the Soviet hierarchy. He was a candidate member of the Politburo from 1946 to 1949 becoming a full-member during the end of Joseph Stalin's rule, but lost his seat in 1952.^[11] He briefly served as Minister of Finance in 1948^[10] and then as Minister of Light Industry from 1949 to 1953.^[12]

His administration skills^[13] had led to Stalin taking him under his wing. Stalin shared certain information with Kosygin, such as how much the families of Viacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan and Lazar Kaganovich possessed, spent and payed their staff. It should be noted that a Politburo earned a modest salary by Soviet standards^[14] but enjoyed unlimited access to consumer goods. Kosygin was therefor sent to each home to put their houses in proper order. Assignments such as these made Kosygin unpopular within the Soviet leadership. Kosygin told his son-in-law NKVD officer Mikhail Gvishiani of the accusations leveled against his co-worker Nikolai Voznesensky, chairman of the Gosplan and Deputy Premier, because of his possesions of guns. Gvishiani and Kosygin threw all the weapons they possessed into a lake and searched both their houses of listening devices. They found one at Kosygin's house, but it might have been installed to spy on Marshal Georgy Zhukov who lived there before him. According to his memoirs, Kosygin never left his home without reminding his wife what to do if he did not return. After two years of living in fright they reached the conclusion that Stalin would not harm them.^[15] Kosygin, along with Alexey Kuznetsov and Voznesensky formed a Troika in the aftermath of the war, with all three being promoted up the Soviet hierarchy by high standing officials, such as Premier Stalin. It is rumoured that Lavrentiy Beria and Georgy Malenkov were plotting against them, which led to the Leningrad Affair in 1950 which consisted of several fabricated criminal charges against Kuznetsov and Voznesensky. Both Kuznetsov and Voznesensky were sentenced to "collective sentencing", and eventually executed. Kosygin's life, who was connected to Kuznetsov through marriage, was hanging by a thread. How or why Kosygin survived the show trials has been left unexplained, but he, as some jokes say, "must have drawn a lucky lottery ticket".^[16] Nikita Khrushchev blamed Beria and Malenkov for the innocent deaths of Kuznetsov and Voznesensky, accussing Malenkov in 1957 to have been plotting against so one of them could succeed Stalin when he died.^[13]

Following Stalin's death in March 1953 Kosygin was demoted but as a staunch ally of Khrushchev his career soon turned around. While never one of Khrushchev's protëgës, he quickly moved up the party ladder and was promoted to head of the State Planning Committee and became Khrushchev's First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1960 and regained his old seat in the politburo.^[10]

Premier (1964–1980)

Collective leadership (1964–70)

Kosygin and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson during the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference.

When Khrushchev was dismissed as leader in October 1964,^[17] Kosygin took over Khrushchev's position as Premier in what initially was a "collective leadership" with Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary and Anastas Mikoyan, and later Nikolay Podgorny, as Chairman of the Presidium.^[18] The new politburo was more conservative than that under Khrushchev. Kosygin, along with Andrei Kirilenko and Nikolai Podgorny, were the most liberal while Brezhnev, Kirill Mazurov and Arvīds Pelše belonged to the moderate faction. Mikhail Suslov retained his leadership of the stalinist-wing of the party. Early in Kosygin's tenure, the Brezhnev-Kosygin attempt at creating stability was failing on various fronts. From 1969-1970 differences grew among the factions concerning the handling of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia^[19] (which Kosygin initially resisted),^[6] the decline in agriculture production, the Sino-Soviet border conflict^[19] (advocated restraint),^[6] the Vietnam War and the Soviet-American talks on the limitation of strategic missiles. There were held two summits between the US and USSR, the Warsaw Pact summit and Moscow summit, which both failed at gaining support for Soviet policies. By 1970 these differences had not been resolved and Brezhnev postponed both the 24th congress and the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The delay in resolving in these issues led to rumours circulating Soviet society that Kosygin, or even Brezhnev, would lose their posts to Podgorny. By March 1971 it became apparent that Brezhnev was the supreme leader of the USSR, with Kosygin as the spokesman of the five-year plan and Podgorny becoming an even more important member of the "collective leadership".^[19] Kosygin would prove to be a very competent administrator, with the Soviet standard of living rising considerably due to his moderately reformist policy.^[13]

Kosygin would later challenge Brezhnev on the rights of the general secretary to represent the country abroad; a function Kosygin believed should fall into the hands of the Premier, a common trait in non-communist countries.^[10] This was actually implemented for a period,^[10] which led Henry A. Kissinger to believe that he was the leader of the Soviet Union.^[20] During this period, Kosygin acted as a mediator between India and Pakistan in 1966 and got both nations to sign the Tashkent Declaration and later as the chief spokesman on the issue of arms control. In retrospect, many of Kosygin's co-workers felt he carried out his work "stoically", but lacked the "enthusiasm" that went with it, and therefor never developed a real taste for international politics. The Sino-Soviet split chagrined Kosygin a great deal, and for a while refused to accept its irrevocability; he briefly visited Beijing in 1969 during the height of these tensions. He said, in a close knit-circle, that; "We are communists and they are communists. It is hard to believe we will not be able to reach an agreement if we met face to face".^[21] Kosygin who had been the chief negotiator with the democracies of the west during the 1960s, was hardly to be seen outside the Second World^[22] after Brezhnev strengthened his position within the Politburo^[10] and due to Andrey Gromyko's dislike of Kosygin meddling into his ministerial affairs.^[23]

The "Kosygin reform" (1965)

Like Khrushchev before him, Kosygin tried to reform the command economy within a communist framework. In 1965, Kosygin initiated the 1965 Soviet economic reform, but widely referred to as the Kosygin reform. Kosygin sought to make Soviet industry more efficient by including some market measures seen in the west such as profit making – and the quantity of production, increasing incentives for managers and workers, and freeing managers from centralized state bureaucracy.^[24] The reform had already been proposed to Khrushchev in 1964, who evidently liked it and took some preliminary steps to implement it. Brezhnev allowed the reform to proceed, because the Soviet economy was entering a period of low growth.^[25] The reform, in its testing phase, was applied to 336 enterprises in light industry.^[26]

A propaganda poster promoting the reform. The poster reads; "We're forging the keys of happiness"

The reform had originated from Soviet economist Evsei Liberman. Liberman's work influenced him, but Kosygin had overestimated the Soviet administrative machine to develop the economy. This led to "corrections" to some of Liberman's more controversial beliefs of decentralization. The changes brought on by Kosygin to Liberman's original vision, led, according to critics, the reform to fail.^[25]

Kosygin, who had for a long-time been conscious of the West's superiority, believed the key to catching up with them was decentralization, semi-public companies and cooperatives. His reform sought for a gradual change from a "state-administered economy" to an economy were "the state restricts itself to guiding enterprises". Kosygin also believed in various forms of property and management. To his disgruntlement, Khrushchev had fully nationalized all Soviet cooperatives and Brezhnev hampered any genius discussion of the topic taking. Kosygin criticised Brezhnev's defence and foreign aid policy, believing the expenditures were to heavy of a burden for the economy.^[27] The reform was implemented, but it showed several malfunctions early on contain numerous inconsistencies and difficulties.^[24] With the hostility towards the failed reform growing, the grim results and his reformist stance led to a popular backlash against him. While losing most of the priveliges he had enjoyed before, Brezhnev was never able to remove him from the office of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, despite his weakened position.^[20]

The salary for Soviet citizens increased abruptly almost 2.5 times. Real wages in 1980 amounted to 232.7 rubles, whereas 166.3 rubles before the reform. The first period, 1960-1964 is characterized by four years of low growth, while the second period, 1965-1981 had a stronger growth rate. The second period vividly demonstrated the success of the Kosygin reform, with the average annual growth in retail turnover being 11.2 billion rubles, 1.8 times higher than in the more than in the first period and 1.2 times higher than the third period (1981-1985). Consumption of goods and daily demands also increased under the reform. The consumption of home appliances such as refrigerators greatly increased, increasing from a low 109 in 1964 to 440 thousand units by the of 1973, but declined during the reversal of reform. Car production increased, but would continue to increase until the late 1980s, this can be explained by the fact that the Soviet leadership under the pressure of money sought to provide more attractive goods for Soviet consumers. The removal of Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 signalled the end of his "housing revolution". The truth is that the input declined already between 1960-64 to an average 1.63 million square meters. Following the sudden sharp decrease, it was once again followed by a sharp increase between 1965-66, then again a sudden decrease just to be followed by a steady growth (average annual growth rate being 4.26 million square meters). This came largely to the expense of businesses. While the housing shortages were never fully resolved, and still remains a problem in present-day Russia, they reform managed to overcome the negative trend and renew growth of housing construction. We can conclude with this information that the reform, while having it errors, improved the standard of living dramatically amongst Soviet households.^[28] The Eight Five-Year Plan (1965-1970) is considered to be one of the most successful years for the Soviet economy and the most successful when it comes to consumer goods.^[9]

Later life (1970–80)

By the early 1970s Brezhnev had created a strong enough power base to effectively become supreme leader, however, Kosygin was to retain his position until 1980 when he resigned due to bad health.^[18] Early signs in the 1970s showed that Brezhnev had taken control and had been able to push Kosygin aside. During the economic report of the 25th party congress pointed more clearly that Brezhnev had won the power struggle against Kosygin. The Tenth-Five Year Plan was less ambitious than its predecessors, with targets of national industrial growth being no higher than what the rest of the world had already achieved. While growth in Soviet agriculture was necessary, the plan contemplated a growth of only 3% yearly in the sector, but as Kosygin announced, received a share investment of 34%. A share much larger than its proportional contribution to the Soviet economy.^[29] Kosygin was further pushed aside, with Brezhnev writing in his memoirs that he was in charge of major economic decisions, and not Kosygin.^[30] Brezhnev had blocked any future talks of economic reforms within the party and the government apparatus and information on the Kosygin reform of 1965 was suppressed.^[29]

Kosygin, along with Central Committee Secretary Andrei Kirilenko sharply criticised the Afghan Communist Party leadership, with Kosygin saying; "we should tell [Nur Muhammad] Taraki and [Hafizullah] Amin to change their tactics. They still continue to execute those people who disagree with them. They are killing nearly all of the Parcham leaders, not only the highest rank, but of the middle rank, too". He further stated that it would hurt the USSR's foreign relations with the western countries, most notably West Germany. In the Afghan state visit of March 20, Kosygin rejected the proposal of Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, but at the same time promised more military and economic aid to the fragile regime.^[31]

Kosygin suffered his first heart attack in 1976. After his first heart attack, it is said that he changed from having a vibrant personality to becoming tired, fed up and losing the will to continue his work. He twice filled a letter of resignation prior to 1980 to the leadership but both were turned down.^[9] In October 1980, Kosygin resigned from his post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers due to bad health, and maybe under pressure from Brezhnev. In October 1980, when Kosygin was located to the hospital due to health reasons, he wrote a very brief resignation letter. The following day of his resignation he was deprived of government protection, communication, cars and other luxury goods he'd earned during his political life. Kosygin died alone on December 18, 1980, none of his Politburo colleagues, former aidees or security guards visited Kosygin during his last days. Before his death, Kosygin feared the complete failure of the Eleventh Five-Years Plan, further claiming that his fellow Politburo members were reluctant to address the collapse of the Soviet economy. His death was announced three-days later because Brezhnev was celebrating his own birthday the following day (December 19). He was buried in Red Square, Moscow.^[2] On his funeral Kosygin was honored by his peers; Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and future premier Nikolay Tikhonov layed three urns with his ashes in the Kremlin Wall.^[2]

Legacy

Bust of Kosygin in the Moskovsky Victory Park as seen in 2003 in Russia

In the aftermath of the relatively moderate Kosygin reform, reformers pushed for an even more radical reform movement within the CPSU which eventually came to realization under Mikhail Gorbachev. While, it might be said that Leonid Brezhnev was content to maintain the economic system which led to the USSR's collapse in 1991, Kosygin on the other hand, attempted to revitalize through evolutionary change. The conflict between the conservative communists and Kosygin led to a split within the CPSU after Brezhnev's death, between Yuri Andropov's path of rigorous discipline and the reform program of Gorbachev which stood for a radical overhaul of both the Soviet economic and political system.^[23]

Among heads of Soviet agencies involved in foreign policies, Kosygin stood out as a pragmatic and relatively independent leader, when compared to the rest. In a description given by an anonymous high-ranking GRU official, Kosygin was "not inclined to cooperate with the Central Committee. He was on his own. A lonely and somewhat tragic figure. Apparently, he understood our faults and shortcomings of our situation generally and those in our Middle East policy in particular, but, being a highly restrained man, he preferred to be cautious.^[32] Russian academic D. Gvishiani said "Kosygin survived both Stalin and Khrushchev, but did not manage to survive Brezhnev."^[2]

When Kosygin visited Canada for an official state visit, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, in retrospect, said; "He was [Nikita] Khrushchev without the rough edges, a fatherly man who was the forerunner of Mikhail Gorbachev". Moreover, he noted that Kosygin was willing to discuss issues so long that the Soviet position wasn't tackled head-on.^[33][34] Kosygin was viewed with sympathy by the Soviet people, and has been able to hold on his good reputation even after his death amongst the Russian people.^[2]

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Brown, Archie (2009). The Rise & Fall of Communism. Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1-845-95076-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=yWQpAQAAIAAJ&q. 
• Moss, Walter (2005). A History of Russia: Since 1855. Anthem Press. p. 643. ISBN 1843310341. http://books.google.com/books?id=yMwdWFtgV0QC&dq. 
• Elliott, Gregory; Lewin, Moshe (2005). The Soviet Century. Verso Books. p. 416. ISBN 1844670163. http://books.google.no/books?id=ETQpY-32DysC&dq. 
• Law, David A. (1975). Russian Civilization. Ardent Media. pp. 490. ISBN 0842205292. http://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C&dq. 
• Wesson, Robert G. (1978). Lenin's legacy: the story of the CPSU. Hoover Press. p. 318. ISBN 0817969225. http://books.google.no/books?id=ppA1WjqExRwC&dq. 

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