Legend of the USSR and Stalin's favorite people's commissar Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan began his political career during Lenin's lifetime, and resigned only under Brezhnev. In addition to revolutionary political activity, he was involved in the creation of the food industry in the Soviet Union. It was Mikoyan who brought the recipe for the most delicious ice cream to the country and came up with the “Soviet Champagne”. We will tell about the life and work of a statesman in the article.
Biography
Anastas Mikoyan was born on 1895-13-11 in the village of Sanahin of the Russian Empire (now it is the territory of Armenia). He came from a poor peasant family. Father, Hovhannes Nersesovich, worked in Manes at a copper smelter. Mother, Tamara Otarovna, was engaged in raising children. Anastas had two brothers, Anushavan and Yervand, and two sisters, Voskehat and Astghik. Brother Anushavan, better known as Artem, later became a famous Soviet aircraft designer.
By nationality, Anastas Mikoyan is an Armenian, and as a child he first studied Armenian literacy. Then he mastered Russian and read a lot. He was especially fascinated by books of historical and nationalliberation theme.
In 1906 he entered the Tiflis Theological Seminary. In 1914, he joined Andranik Ozanyan's volunteer Armenian squad and went to fight on the Turkish front. It is not known how the biography of Anastas Mikoyan would have developed further if in the spring of 1915 he had not had to leave the army due to malaria.
The young man returned to Tiflis and graduated from the seminary. Then he entered the Theological Academy of the city of Etchmiadzin. After the February Revolution, he was engaged in party propaganda activities in Baku and Tiflis.
In October 1919, Anastas Mikoyan, whose biography by that time already included participation in many revolutionary movements, was summoned to Moscow and made a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
1920s-1930s
In 1920, the party went to Baku, where he became a representative of the Revolutionary Military Council of the XI Army. Soon he was appointed secretary of the South-Eastern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party. Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan worked in this position until 1924, and then became secretary of the North Caucasian regional committee.
In August 1926, he took the post of People's Commissar of Internal and Foreign Trade. In November 1930 he headed the People's Commissariat of Supply, in 1934 - the People's Commissariat of the Food Industry. Thanks to the clever leadership of Mikoyan, the food industry developed rapidly in the country. In 1936, the People's Commissar flew to the United States, purchased equipment and studied production technologies. In just a few months, he set up the production of sausages, sausages, meatballs, canned food, biscuits, sugar, sweets, bread and tobacco in the USSR.
In 1938 AnastasIvanovich became People's Commissar for Foreign Trade and was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the BASSR.
The Great Patriotic War
With the beginning of the Second World War, Mikoyan took over as chairman of the Red Army Food and Clothing Committee. In addition, he was a member of the evacuation council and the state committee for the restoration of the economy in the liberated areas. From 1942 he was a member of the State Defense Committee.
1942-06-11 On Red Square, Anastas Ivanovich's car was shot by a defecting Red Army soldier, Savely Dmitriev, who mistook it for Stalin's car. To stop the criminal who staged a street fight, it turned out only with the help of two grenades. The politician was not hurt.
In 1943, Mikoyan was given the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, the Hammer and Sickle medal and the Order of Lenin for his services in supplying the army with food and clothing.
Post-war
In 1946, with the transformation of the Council of People's Commissars into the Council of Ministers, Anastas Ivanovich retained the posts of Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Trade. On his initiative, the Chechen Autonomous Region was formed. When the issue of deporting the Ingush and Chechens came up, Mikoyan disagreed with Stalin, saying that such action would undermine the international authority of the Soviet Union. Since then, the politician fell into disgrace of the leader of the peoples, which lasted until the death of Joseph Vissarionovich.
In 1949, Mikoyan was removed from the post of Minister of Foreign Trade. He was elected to the Presidium of the Central Committee, but he was not included in the Bureau of the Presidium.
After Stalin
When the leader of the peoples died, Anastas Ivanovich headed the newly formed Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade. In 1954, Khrushchev sent him to Yugoslavia to solve diplomatic problems. In 1957, the minister visited Asian countries as a confidant of Nikita Sergeevich, and in 1959 he visited the USA in the same capacity.
In 1962, during the Caribbean crisis, fraught with the start of a third world war, it was Mikoyan who was entrusted with conducting negotiations between the USA, the USSR and Cuba. At the cost of incredible efforts, he successfully completed his mission and reached agreements on America's non-aggression against Cuba.
In November 1963, the politician represented the country's leadership at the funeral of John F. Kennedy. From July 1964 to December 1965 Anastas Mikoyan - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was the only member of the Politburo of the Central Committee not involved in the plot to remove Khrushchev. For this, Brezhnev disliked Mikoyan and in December 1965, at the first opportunity, dismissed him as he had reached the age of seventy.
Family
Anastas Ivanovich's father died back in 1918, and then his mother lived with her son for many years. Mikoyan was married to a woman named Ashkhen Lazarevna Tumanyan. Five children were born in her marriage, all boys: Stepan, Vladimir, Alexei, Vano and Sergo.
In 1962, a sad event happened in the personal life of Anastas Mikoyan - his wife died. As for the sons, four of them, following the example of their uncle, devoted themselves to aviation, and the fifth became a historian. Now from childrenMikoyan no one is left alive, but there are grandchildren. One of them is Stas Namin, a famous musician and composer.
During his lifetime, the politician was a good family man, after the death of his wife he remained faithful to her. The children and grandchildren of Anastas Mikoyan spoke of him as a caring father and grandfather.
Recent years
Having retired in 1965, the politician remained a member of the party and the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces. But honor was given to him only in words. In fact, the statesman was deprived of many privileges and benefits, evicted from his dacha, where he lived without a break for almost half a century.
Since 1974, the biography of Anastas Mikoyan was no longer connected with politics. He did not take part in the work of the Supreme Council. In 1976, he did not attend the XXV Congress of the CPSU and was not elected a member of the Central Committee of the party.
1978-21-10 Anastas Ivanovich died in Moscow, a month before his 83rd birthday. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital. There is an epitaph in Armenian on the grave of the politician.
Interesting facts
Anastas Mikoyan was a man of fascinating and instructive fate. In our country, he set an example of unusual political longevity. At the age of thirty, he became the youngest people's commissar in the USSR and a member of the Politburo - before and after him, no one in Russia held such high posts in such early years.
Interestingly, since childhood, Mikoyan was a vegetarian, but later began to eat meat. He also loved ice cream very much and made sure that it was produced in the country with high quality. ExactlyAnastas Ivanovich introduced the well-known "fish days" in the USSR, which were held in all public catering on Thursdays. For dinner these days, dishes were served exclusively from fish - for unloading.
Stalin regularly invited members of the Politburo to his dacha. During dinner, he turned on the gramophone and called everyone to dance. Despite the fact that most of the party members did not know how to do this, they could not refuse the leader and moved clumsily, shifting from foot to foot and not getting in time with the music. The only person who has always danced famously is Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan. Moreover, he could dance to any tune and constantly the same dance - lezginka.
Western politicians have invariably admired the extraordinary nature of Mikoyan. W alter Bedell Smith, the American ambassador to the USSR, spoke of him as "a world-wide smart little Armenian." And Averell Harriman, Smith's predecessor, said that Anastas Ivanovich was the only person in the Kremlin with whom one could talk. Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the FRG, called Mikoyan a great diplomat and at the same time the best economist. Foreign observers characterized Anastas Ivanovich as a "Soviet bottleneck liquidator." And these were not empty words. Whatever foreign policy problem arose, Mikoyan de alt with it. And he solved all issues successfully and competently.
