Anastas Mikoyan
Encyclopedia
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian
Old Bolshevik
and Soviet
statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin
, Joseph Stalin
, Nikita Khrushchev
, and Leonid Brezhnev
.
Mikoyan became an early convert to the Bolshevik cause. Mikoyan was a strong supporter of Stalin during the immediate post-Lenin years. During Stalin's rule, Mikoyan held several high governmental posts, including that of Minister of Foreign Trade. By the end of Stalin's rule Mikoyan was starting to lose favour with him, and in 1949, Mikoyan lost his long-standing post of foreign trade minister. At the 19th Party Congress
Stalin even attacked Mikoyan viciously. When Stalin died in 1953, Mikoyan again took a leading role in policy-making. He backed Khrushchev and his de-Stalinization
policy, and became First Deputy Premier under Khrushchev. Mikoyan's position under Khrushchev made him the second most powerful figure in the Soviet Union at the time.
Mikoyan made several key trips to communist Cuba
and to the United States, acquiring an important stature on the international diplomatic scene. In 1964 Khrushchev was forced to step down in a coup that brought Leonid Brezhnev to power. Mikoyan served as Chairman of the Presidium
of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Head of State, from 1964 until his forced retirement in 1965.
Mikoyan was born in the village of Sanahin
, then a part of the Yelizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire
(presently a part of Alaverdi
in Armenia
's Lori Province) in 1895. His father, Hovhannes, worked as a carpenter and his mother as a rug weaver. He had one younger brother, Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan, who would go on to become the co-founder of the MiG
aviation design bureau which became one of the primary design bureaus of fast jets in Soviet military aviation. Mikoyan received his education at the Nersisyan Theological seminary
in Tiflis and the Gevorkian Theological Seminary
in Echmiadzin
. Religion, however, played an increasingly insignificant role in his life. He would later remark that his continued studies in theology drew him closer to atheism
: "I had a very clear feeling that I didn't believe in God and that I had in fact received a certificate in materialist uncertainty; the more I studied religious subjects, the less I believed in God." Before becoming active in politics Mikoyan had already dabbed in in liberal
and socialist politics.
At the age of twenty, he formed a workers' soviet
in Echmiadzin. In 1915 Mikoyan formally joined the Bolshevik
faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
(later known as the Bolshevik Party) and became a leader of the revolutionary movement in the Caucasus
. His interactions with Soviet revolutionaries led him to Baku
, where he became the co-editor for the Armenian-language newspaper Sotsyal-Demokrat and later for the Russian-language paper Izvestia Bakinskogo Soveta. After the February 1917 revolution
, which toppled the tsarist government, Mikoyan and other Bolsheviks fought against anti-Bolshevik elements in the Caucasus.
Mikoyan became a commissar
in the newly-formed Red Army
and continued to fight in Baku against anti-Bolshevik forces. He was wounded in the fighting and was noted for saving the life of fellow Party-member Sergo Ordzhonikidze. Afterwards, he continued his Party work, becoming one of the co-founders of the Baku Soviet
, which lasted until 1918, when he and twenty-five other commissars fled Baku and were captured by the Transcaspian Government
. Known as the Baku 26, all the commissars were executed with the sole exception of Mikoyan; the circumstances of his survival are shrouded in mystery. In February 1919 Mikoyan returned to Baku and resumed his activities there, helping to establish the Baku Bureau of the Caucasus Regional Committee (Kraikom).
and inspected Macy's
in New York. When he returned, Mikoyan introduced a number of popular American consumer products to the Soviet Union, including American hamburgers, ice cream, corn flakes, popcorn, tomato juice, grapefruit, and corn on the cob.
In the late 1930s Stalin embarked upon the Great Purge
, a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated against members of the Communist Party, the peasantry, and other unaffiliated persons. Mikoyan, like many other Politburo members, tried to save some close-knit companions from being executed. In assessing Mikoyan's role in the purges, historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore states that he "enjoyed the reputation of one of the more decent leaders: he certainly helped the victims later and worked hard to undo Stalin's rule after the Leader's death". Mikoyan was not without faults; in 1936 he enthusiastically supported the execution of Grigory Zinoviev
and Lev Kamenev
, claiming it to be a "just verdict". As with other leading officials in 1937, Mikoyan signed death-lists given to him by the NKVD
. The purges were often accomplished by officials close to Stalin; he gave them the assignment largely as a way to test their loyalty to the regime. In September 1937 Stalin dispatched Mikoyan, along with Georgy Malenkov
and Lavrentiy Beria
, with a list of 300 names to Yerevan
, the capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), to oversee the liquidation of the Communist Party of Armenia
(CPA), largely made up of Old Bolsheviks. Mikoyan tried, but failed, to save one from being executed during his trip to Armenia. That person was arrested during one of his speeches to the CPA by Beria. Over a thousand people were arrested and seven of nine members of the Armenian Politburo were sacked from office. In several instances, he intervened on behalf of his colleagues; this leniency towards the persecuted may have been one reason why he was selected by Stalin to oversee the purges in the ASSR.
and the Soviet Union each carved out their own spheres of influence in Poland and Eastern Europe via the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviets arrested 26,000 Polish officers in the eastern portion of Poland and in March 1940, after some deliberation, Stalin and number of other high-ranking officials, Mikoyan included, signed an order for their execution
. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Mikoyan was placed in charge of organizing the transportation of food and supplies. His son Vladimir, a pilot in the Red Air Force, died in combat when shot down over Stalingrad
. Mikoyan's main assignment throughout the war was supplying the Red Army
with materials, food, and other necessities. Mikoyan became a Special Representative of the State Defense Committee in 1941 by Stalin's orders; he was until that point not a member because Beria believed he would be of better use in government administration. Mikoyan was decorated with a Hero of Socialist Labor
in 1943 for his efforts during the war. In 1946 Mikoyan became the Vice-Premier of the Council of Ministers.
Shortly before his death in 1953, Stalin considered launching a new purge against Mikoyan, Vyacheslav Molotov
, and several other Party leaders. This never came to fruition as Stalin died before he could put the plan into motion. Mikoyan originally argued in favor of keeping Stalin's right-hand man, Beria, from punishment but later gave in to popular support among Party members for his arrest. Mikoyan remained in the government after Stalin's death, in the post of Minister of Trade, under Malenkov. He supported Khrushchev in the power struggle to succeed Stalin, and became First Deputy Premier in recognition of his services.
In 1956 Mikoyan helped Khrushchev organize the Secret Speech which Khrushchev delivered to the 20th Party Congress that denounced Stalin's personality cult. It was him, and not Khrushchev, who made the first anti-Stalinist speech at the 20th Congress. In 1957 Mikoyan refused to back an attempt by Malenkov and Molotov to remove Khrushchev from power; he thus secured his position as one of Khrushchev's closest allies. He backed Khrushchev because of his strong support for de-Stalinization
and his belief that a triumph by the plotters might have given way to purges similar to the ones in the 1930s.
to gather information on the developing crisis caused by the revolution against the communist government there. Together with Mikhail Suslov
, Mikoyan traveled in an armored personnel carrier to Budapest
, due to the shooting on the streets. He sent a telegram to Moscow reporting his impressions of the situation. "We had the impression that Ernő Gerő
especially, but the other comrades as well, are exaggerating the strength of the opponent and underestimating their own strength," he and Suslov wrote. Mikoyan strongly opposed the decision by Khrushchev and the Politburo to use Soviet troops, believing it would destroy the Soviet Union's international reputation, instead arguing for the application of "military intimidation" and economic pressure. The crushing of the revolution by Soviet forces nearly led to Mikoyan's resignation.
between the two superpowers, many Americans received Mikoyan amiably, including Minnesota
Democrat
Hubert Humphrey
, who characterized him as someone who showed a "flexibility of attitude" and New York governor Averell Harriman, who described him as a "less rigid" Soviet politician.
During November 1958 Khrushchev made an unsuccessful attempt to turn all of Berlin
into an independent, demilitarized "free city", giving the United States, Great Britain, and France a six-month ultimatum to withdraw their troops from the sectors they still occupied in West Berlin, or he would transfer control of Western access rights to the East Germans. Mikoyan disapproved of Khrushchev's actions, claiming they violated "Party principle." Khrushchev had proposed the ultimatum to the West before discussing it with the Central Committee
. Ruud van Djik, a historian, believed Mikoyan was angry because of Khrushchev didn't consult him about the proposal. When asked by Khrushchev to ease tension with the United States, Mikoyan responded, "You started it, so you go!" However, Mikoyan eventually left for Washington and discussed the situation with Dwight D. Eisenhower
, the President of the United States
. While he succeeded in reducing the tension between the two countries, Mikoyan failed to alter the US's Berlin policy.
Mikoyan disapproved of Khrushchev's walkout from the 1960 Paris
Summit over the U-2 Crisis of 1960
, which he believed kept tension in the Cold War high for another fifteen years. However, throughout this time, he remained Khrushchev's closest ally in the upper echelons of the Soviet leadership. As Mikoyan later noted, Khrushchev "engaged [in] inexcusable hysterics".
In November 1963 Mikoyan was asked by Khrushchev to represent the USSR at President John F. Kennedy
's funeral. At the funeral ceremony, Mikoyan appeared visibly shaken by the president's death and was approached by Jacqueline Kennedy, who took his hand and conveyed to him the following message: "Please tell Mr. Chairman [Khrushchev] that I know he and my husband worked together for a peaceful world, and now he and you must carry on my husband's work."
by Fidel Castro
's pro-socialist rebels in 1959. Khrushchev realized the potential of a Soviet ally in the Caribbean
and dispatched Mikoyan as one of the top diplomats in Latin America. He was the first Soviet official to visit Cuba after the revolution, and secured important trade agreements with the new government. He left Cuba with a very positive impression, saying that the atmosphere there made him feel "as though I had returned to my childhood."
Khrushchev told Mikoyan of his idea of shipping Soviet missiles to Cuba; Mikoyan was opposed to the idea, and was even more opposed to giving the Cubans control over the Soviet missiles. During the Cuban Missile Crisis
, Mikoyan was sent to Cuba to persuade Castro to remove the nuclear missiles and bombers the Soviet Union had placed on the island. In this he failed, and the Soviets were forced to remove the missiles and the bombers without any Cuban participation. Just prior to beginning negotiations with Castro, Mikoyan was informed about the death of his wife, Ashkhen, in Moscow; rather than return there for the funeral, Mikoyan opted to stay and sent his son Sergo
there instead.
as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
with Mikoyan. Mikoyan's appointment to the office of head of state was, according to Time
magazine, due to Mikoyan's declining health and old age. Historian William Taubman
states in his book Khrushchev: The Man and His Era that there are some historians who are convinced that by 1964 Mikoyan believed that Khrushchev had turned into a liability to the Party, and that he was involved in the October 1964 coup that brought Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin to power. However, Taubman disputes this, as Mikoyan was the only member of the Presidium (the name for the Politburo at this time) to defend Khrushchev. Mikoyan, however, did vote to force Khrushchev's retirement (so as, in traditional Soviet style, to make the vote unanimous). Alone among Khrushchev's colleagues, Mikoyan wished the former leader well in his retirement, though he never spoke to him again. Mikoyan laid a wreath and sent a letter of condolence at Khrushchev's funeral in 1971. Due to his partial defense of Khrushchev during his ouster, Mikoyan lost his high standing with the new Soviet leadership. The Politburo forced Mikoyan to retire from his seat in the Politburo due to old age. Mikoyan quickly also lost his post as head of state and was succeeded in this post by Nikolai Podgorny
on 9 December 1965. Brezhnev officialised Mikoyan's retirement by awarding him an Order of Lenin
.
in Moscow. He received six commendations of the Order of Lenin
.
Mikoyan, in a description by Simon Sebag-Montefiore, was "slim, circumspect, wily and industrious". He has been described as an intelligent man, understanding English, having learned German
on his own by translating the German version of Karl Marx
's Das Kapital
to Russian
. Unlike many others, Mikoyan was not afraid to come into a heated argument with Stalin. "One was never bored with Mikoyan", Artyom Sergeev notes, while Khrushchev called him a true cavalier
. However, Khrushchev warned of trusting "that shrewd fox from the east." In a close conversation with Vyacheslav Molotov
and Nikolai Bukharin
, Stalin referred Mikoyan as a "duckling in politics"; he noted, however, that if Mikoyan ever took a serious shot he would improve. Mikoyan had so many children, five boys and the two sons of the late Bolshevik leader Stepan Shahumyan
, that he and his wife faced economic problems. His wife Ashkhen would borrow money from Politburo wives who had fewer children. If Mikoyan had discovered this he would, according to his children, have become furious.
Dubbed the Vicar of Bray of politics and known as the "Survivor" during his time, Mikoyan was one of the few Old Bolsheviks who was spared from Stalin's purges and was able to retire comfortably from political life. This was highlighted in a number of popular sayings in Russian, including "From Illich [Lenin] to Illich[ Leonid Illich Brezhnev
] ...without accident or stroke!". One veteran Soviet official described his political career in the following manner: "The rascal was able to walk through Red Square
on a rainy day without an umbrella [and] without getting wet. He could dodge the raindrops."
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
Old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik , also Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for those who were members of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917, many of whom were either tried and executed by the NKVD during Stalin era purges or died under suspicious...
and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, and Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
.
Mikoyan became an early convert to the Bolshevik cause. Mikoyan was a strong supporter of Stalin during the immediate post-Lenin years. During Stalin's rule, Mikoyan held several high governmental posts, including that of Minister of Foreign Trade. By the end of Stalin's rule Mikoyan was starting to lose favour with him, and in 1949, Mikoyan lost his long-standing post of foreign trade minister. At the 19th Party Congress
19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from October 5–14, 1952. It was the last congress of the Stalin regime and the first to take place since before World War II...
Stalin even attacked Mikoyan viciously. When Stalin died in 1953, Mikoyan again took a leading role in policy-making. He backed Khrushchev and his de-Stalinization
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...
policy, and became First Deputy Premier under Khrushchev. Mikoyan's position under Khrushchev made him the second most powerful figure in the Soviet Union at the time.
Mikoyan made several key trips to communist Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and to the United States, acquiring an important stature on the international diplomatic scene. In 1964 Khrushchev was forced to step down in a coup that brought Leonid Brezhnev to power. Mikoyan served as Chairman of the Presidium
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets . This body was of the all-Union level , as well as in all Soviet republics and autonomous republics...
of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Head of State, from 1964 until his forced retirement in 1965.
Early life and career
Sanahin
Sanahin is a village in the northern province of Lori in Armenia, now considered part of the city of Alaverdi...
, then a part of the Yelizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(presently a part of Alaverdi
Alaverdi
Alaverdi formerly Manes, is a city situated in the northeast of the Armenian province of Lori, not far from the border with Georgia. This mining and industrial city with approximately 16,500 inhabitants -down from 26,300 of the 1989- situated at the bottom of the Debed river gorge, is one of the...
in Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
's Lori Province) in 1895. His father, Hovhannes, worked as a carpenter and his mother as a rug weaver. He had one younger brother, Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan, who would go on to become the co-founder of the MiG
Mig
-Industry:*MiG, now Mikoyan, a Russian aircraft corporation, formerly the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau*Metal inert gas welding or MIG welding, a type of welding using an electric arc and a shielding gas-Business and finance:...
aviation design bureau which became one of the primary design bureaus of fast jets in Soviet military aviation. Mikoyan received his education at the Nersisyan Theological seminary
Nersisyan School
Nersisyan School was an Armenian school in Tiflis, Russian Empire . Nersisyan School existed exactly one century, from 1824 to 1924. It was founded by Nerses Ashtaraketsi.- History :...
in Tiflis and the Gevorkian Theological Seminary
Gevorkian Theological Seminary
Gevorkian Theological Seminary is a theological school-college of the Armenian Apostolic Church founded by Catholicos Gevork IV in 1874. It is located in the city of Vagharshapat within the complex of the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin, Republic of Armenia.-History:During the tenure of Catholicos...
in Echmiadzin
Echmiadzin
Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin is a 4th century Armenian church in the town of Ejmiatsin, Armenia. It is also the central cathedral of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church....
. Religion, however, played an increasingly insignificant role in his life. He would later remark that his continued studies in theology drew him closer to atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
: "I had a very clear feeling that I didn't believe in God and that I had in fact received a certificate in materialist uncertainty; the more I studied religious subjects, the less I believed in God." Before becoming active in politics Mikoyan had already dabbed in in liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and socialist politics.
At the age of twenty, he formed a workers' soviet
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
in Echmiadzin. In 1915 Mikoyan formally joined the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
(later known as the Bolshevik Party) and became a leader of the revolutionary movement in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. His interactions with Soviet revolutionaries led him to Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, where he became the co-editor for the Armenian-language newspaper Sotsyal-Demokrat and later for the Russian-language paper Izvestia Bakinskogo Soveta. After the February 1917 revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
, which toppled the tsarist government, Mikoyan and other Bolsheviks fought against anti-Bolshevik elements in the Caucasus.
Mikoyan became a commissar
Commissar
Commissar is the English transliteration of an official title used in Russia from the time of Peter the Great.The title was used during the Provisional Government for regional heads of administration, but it is mostly associated with a number of Cheka and military functions in Bolshevik and Soviet...
in the newly-formed Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
and continued to fight in Baku against anti-Bolshevik forces. He was wounded in the fighting and was noted for saving the life of fellow Party-member Sergo Ordzhonikidze. Afterwards, he continued his Party work, becoming one of the co-founders of the Baku Soviet
26 Baku Commissars
The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary members of the Baku Soviet Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku...
, which lasted until 1918, when he and twenty-five other commissars fled Baku and were captured by the Transcaspian Government
Transcaspian Government
The Transcaspian Government was set up by Railway workers of the Trans-Caspian Railway in 1918 and lasted until July 1919. It was based at Ashgabat.-Origin:...
. Known as the Baku 26, all the commissars were executed with the sole exception of Mikoyan; the circumstances of his survival are shrouded in mystery. In February 1919 Mikoyan returned to Baku and resumed his activities there, helping to establish the Baku Bureau of the Caucasus Regional Committee (Kraikom).
Politburo member
Mikoyan supported Stalin in the power struggle that followed Lenin's death in 1924; he had become a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee in 1923. As People's Commissar for External and Internal Trade from 1926, he imported ideas from the West, such as the manufacture of canned goods. In 1935 he was elected to the Politburo, and was among one of the first Soviet leaders to pay goodwill trips to the United States in order to boost economic cooperation. Mikoyan spent three months in the United States, where he not only learned more about its food industry but also met and spoke with Henry FordHenry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
and inspected Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
in New York. When he returned, Mikoyan introduced a number of popular American consumer products to the Soviet Union, including American hamburgers, ice cream, corn flakes, popcorn, tomato juice, grapefruit, and corn on the cob.
In the late 1930s Stalin embarked upon the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated against members of the Communist Party, the peasantry, and other unaffiliated persons. Mikoyan, like many other Politburo members, tried to save some close-knit companions from being executed. In assessing Mikoyan's role in the purges, historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore states that he "enjoyed the reputation of one of the more decent leaders: he certainly helped the victims later and worked hard to undo Stalin's rule after the Leader's death". Mikoyan was not without faults; in 1936 he enthusiastically supported the execution of Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
and Lev Kamenev
Lev Kamenev
Lev Borisovich Kamenev , born Rozenfeld , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was briefly head of state of the new republic in 1917, and from 1923-24 the acting Premier in the last year of Lenin's life....
, claiming it to be a "just verdict". As with other leading officials in 1937, Mikoyan signed death-lists given to him by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
. The purges were often accomplished by officials close to Stalin; he gave them the assignment largely as a way to test their loyalty to the regime. In September 1937 Stalin dispatched Mikoyan, along with Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was a Soviet politician, Communist Party leader and close collaborator of Joseph Stalin. After Stalin's death, he became Premier of the Soviet Union and was in 1953 briefly considered the most powerful Soviet politician before being overshadowed by Nikita...
and Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
, with a list of 300 names to Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
, the capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), to oversee the liquidation of the Communist Party of Armenia
Communist Party of Armenia (Soviet Union)
The Communist Party of Armenia was a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union within Armenian SSR, and as such, the sole ruling party in Armenian SSR.-Dissulution and succession:...
(CPA), largely made up of Old Bolsheviks. Mikoyan tried, but failed, to save one from being executed during his trip to Armenia. That person was arrested during one of his speeches to the CPA by Beria. Over a thousand people were arrested and seven of nine members of the Armenian Politburo were sacked from office. In several instances, he intervened on behalf of his colleagues; this leniency towards the persecuted may have been one reason why he was selected by Stalin to oversee the purges in the ASSR.
World War II and de-Stalinization
In September 1939, Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the Soviet Union each carved out their own spheres of influence in Poland and Eastern Europe via the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviets arrested 26,000 Polish officers in the eastern portion of Poland and in March 1940, after some deliberation, Stalin and number of other high-ranking officials, Mikoyan included, signed an order for their execution
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Mikoyan was placed in charge of organizing the transportation of food and supplies. His son Vladimir, a pilot in the Red Air Force, died in combat when shot down over Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
. Mikoyan's main assignment throughout the war was supplying the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
with materials, food, and other necessities. Mikoyan became a Special Representative of the State Defense Committee in 1941 by Stalin's orders; he was until that point not a member because Beria believed he would be of better use in government administration. Mikoyan was decorated with a Hero of Socialist Labor
Hero of Socialist Labor
Hero of Socialist Labour was an honorary title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture...
in 1943 for his efforts during the war. In 1946 Mikoyan became the Vice-Premier of the Council of Ministers.
Shortly before his death in 1953, Stalin considered launching a new purge against Mikoyan, Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
, and several other Party leaders. This never came to fruition as Stalin died before he could put the plan into motion. Mikoyan originally argued in favor of keeping Stalin's right-hand man, Beria, from punishment but later gave in to popular support among Party members for his arrest. Mikoyan remained in the government after Stalin's death, in the post of Minister of Trade, under Malenkov. He supported Khrushchev in the power struggle to succeed Stalin, and became First Deputy Premier in recognition of his services.
In 1956 Mikoyan helped Khrushchev organize the Secret Speech which Khrushchev delivered to the 20th Party Congress that denounced Stalin's personality cult. It was him, and not Khrushchev, who made the first anti-Stalinist speech at the 20th Congress. In 1957 Mikoyan refused to back an attempt by Malenkov and Molotov to remove Khrushchev from power; he thus secured his position as one of Khrushchev's closest allies. He backed Khrushchev because of his strong support for de-Stalinization
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...
and his belief that a triumph by the plotters might have given way to purges similar to the ones in the 1930s.
Foreign diplomacy
Hungary
In October 1956 Mikoyan was sent to the People's Republic of HungaryPeople's Republic of Hungary
The People's Republic of Hungary or Hungarian People's Republic was the official state name of Hungary from 1949 to 1989 during its Communist period under the guidance of the Soviet Union. The state remained in existence until 1989 when opposition forces consolidated in forcing the regime to...
to gather information on the developing crisis caused by the revolution against the communist government there. Together with Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, and as unofficial Chief Ideologue of the Party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the separation of power...
, Mikoyan traveled in an armored personnel carrier to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, due to the shooting on the streets. He sent a telegram to Moscow reporting his impressions of the situation. "We had the impression that Ernő Gerő
Erno Gero
Ernő Gerő was a Hungarian Communist Party leader in the period after World War II and briefly in 1956 the most powerful man in Hungary as first secretary of its ruling communist party.-Life and career:...
especially, but the other comrades as well, are exaggerating the strength of the opponent and underestimating their own strength," he and Suslov wrote. Mikoyan strongly opposed the decision by Khrushchev and the Politburo to use Soviet troops, believing it would destroy the Soviet Union's international reputation, instead arguing for the application of "military intimidation" and economic pressure. The crushing of the revolution by Soviet forces nearly led to Mikoyan's resignation.
The United States
Khrushchev's liberalization of hard-line policies led to an improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States during the late 1950s. As Khrushchev's primary emissary, Mikoyan visited the United States several times. Despite the volatility of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
between the two superpowers, many Americans received Mikoyan amiably, including Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
, who characterized him as someone who showed a "flexibility of attitude" and New York governor Averell Harriman, who described him as a "less rigid" Soviet politician.
During November 1958 Khrushchev made an unsuccessful attempt to turn all of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
into an independent, demilitarized "free city", giving the United States, Great Britain, and France a six-month ultimatum to withdraw their troops from the sectors they still occupied in West Berlin, or he would transfer control of Western access rights to the East Germans. Mikoyan disapproved of Khrushchev's actions, claiming they violated "Party principle." Khrushchev had proposed the ultimatum to the West before discussing it with the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
. Ruud van Djik, a historian, believed Mikoyan was angry because of Khrushchev didn't consult him about the proposal. When asked by Khrushchev to ease tension with the United States, Mikoyan responded, "You started it, so you go!" However, Mikoyan eventually left for Washington and discussed the situation with Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. While he succeeded in reducing the tension between the two countries, Mikoyan failed to alter the US's Berlin policy.
Mikoyan disapproved of Khrushchev's walkout from the 1960 Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
Summit over the U-2 Crisis of 1960
U-2 Crisis of 1960
The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on May 1, 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower and during the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union.The United States government at...
, which he believed kept tension in the Cold War high for another fifteen years. However, throughout this time, he remained Khrushchev's closest ally in the upper echelons of the Soviet leadership. As Mikoyan later noted, Khrushchev "engaged [in] inexcusable hysterics".
In November 1963 Mikoyan was asked by Khrushchev to represent the USSR at President John F. Kennedy
State funeral of John F. Kennedy
The state funeral of John F. Kennedy took place in Washington, DC during the three days that followed his assassination on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas....
's funeral. At the funeral ceremony, Mikoyan appeared visibly shaken by the president's death and was approached by Jacqueline Kennedy, who took his hand and conveyed to him the following message: "Please tell Mr. Chairman [Khrushchev] that I know he and my husband worked together for a peaceful world, and now he and you must carry on my husband's work."
Cuba
The Soviet government welcomed the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio BatistaFulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
by Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
's pro-socialist rebels in 1959. Khrushchev realized the potential of a Soviet ally in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and dispatched Mikoyan as one of the top diplomats in Latin America. He was the first Soviet official to visit Cuba after the revolution, and secured important trade agreements with the new government. He left Cuba with a very positive impression, saying that the atmosphere there made him feel "as though I had returned to my childhood."
Khrushchev told Mikoyan of his idea of shipping Soviet missiles to Cuba; Mikoyan was opposed to the idea, and was even more opposed to giving the Cubans control over the Soviet missiles. During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, Mikoyan was sent to Cuba to persuade Castro to remove the nuclear missiles and bombers the Soviet Union had placed on the island. In this he failed, and the Soviets were forced to remove the missiles and the bombers without any Cuban participation. Just prior to beginning negotiations with Castro, Mikoyan was informed about the death of his wife, Ashkhen, in Moscow; rather than return there for the funeral, Mikoyan opted to stay and sent his son Sergo
Sergo Mikoyan
Sergo Anastasi Mikoyan was one of the Soviet Union's leading historians who specialized on the foreign policies of the Soviet Union and the United States in Latin America...
there instead.
Head of state and coup involvement
Nikita Khrushchev, in a three-minute speech, decreed the Supreme Soviet would replace Leonid BrezhnevLeonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets . This body was of the all-Union level , as well as in all Soviet republics and autonomous republics...
with Mikoyan. Mikoyan's appointment to the office of head of state was, according to Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, due to Mikoyan's declining health and old age. Historian William Taubman
William Taubman
William Chase Taubman is an American political scientist. His biography of Nikita Khrushchev won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2004 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 2003....
states in his book Khrushchev: The Man and His Era that there are some historians who are convinced that by 1964 Mikoyan believed that Khrushchev had turned into a liability to the Party, and that he was involved in the October 1964 coup that brought Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin to power. However, Taubman disputes this, as Mikoyan was the only member of the Presidium (the name for the Politburo at this time) to defend Khrushchev. Mikoyan, however, did vote to force Khrushchev's retirement (so as, in traditional Soviet style, to make the vote unanimous). Alone among Khrushchev's colleagues, Mikoyan wished the former leader well in his retirement, though he never spoke to him again. Mikoyan laid a wreath and sent a letter of condolence at Khrushchev's funeral in 1971. Due to his partial defense of Khrushchev during his ouster, Mikoyan lost his high standing with the new Soviet leadership. The Politburo forced Mikoyan to retire from his seat in the Politburo due to old age. Mikoyan quickly also lost his post as head of state and was succeeded in this post by Nikolai Podgorny
Nikolai Podgorny
Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny was a Soviet Ukrainian statesman during the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, or leader of the Ukrainian SSR, from 1957 to 1963 and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1965 to 1977...
on 9 December 1965. Brezhnev officialised Mikoyan's retirement by awarding him an Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
.
Death, personality, and legacy
As with Khrushchev and other companions, Mikoyan in his last days wrote frank but selective memoirs from his political career during Stalin's rule. Mikoyan died on 21 October 1978, at the age of 82, from natural causes and was buried at Novodevichy CemeteryNovodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg....
in Moscow. He received six commendations of the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
.
Mikoyan, in a description by Simon Sebag-Montefiore, was "slim, circumspect, wily and industrious". He has been described as an intelligent man, understanding English, having learned German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
on his own by translating the German version of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
's Das Kapital
Das Kapital
Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
to Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. Unlike many others, Mikoyan was not afraid to come into a heated argument with Stalin. "One was never bored with Mikoyan", Artyom Sergeev notes, while Khrushchev called him a true cavalier
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
. However, Khrushchev warned of trusting "that shrewd fox from the east." In a close conversation with Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
and Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
, Stalin referred Mikoyan as a "duckling in politics"; he noted, however, that if Mikoyan ever took a serious shot he would improve. Mikoyan had so many children, five boys and the two sons of the late Bolshevik leader Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Shahumyan
Stepan Gevorgi Shahumyan was a Bolshevist Russian communist politician and revolutionary active throughout the Caucasus. Shahumyan was an ethnic Armenian and his role as a leader of the Russian revolution in the Caucasus earned him the nickname of the "Caucasian Lenin", a reference to the leader...
, that he and his wife faced economic problems. His wife Ashkhen would borrow money from Politburo wives who had fewer children. If Mikoyan had discovered this he would, according to his children, have become furious.
Dubbed the Vicar of Bray of politics and known as the "Survivor" during his time, Mikoyan was one of the few Old Bolsheviks who was spared from Stalin's purges and was able to retire comfortably from political life. This was highlighted in a number of popular sayings in Russian, including "From Illich [Lenin] to Illich
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
on a rainy day without an umbrella [and] without getting wet. He could dodge the raindrops."
Further reading
- Miklós, Kun. Stalin: An Unknown Portrait. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2003.
- Mikoyan, Anastas I. Memoirs of Anastas Mikoyan: The Path of Struggle, Vol 1. Trans. Katherine T. O’Connor and Diana L. Burgin. Madison, CT: Sphinx Press, 1988. ISBN 0-943071-04-6.
- Mikoyan, Stepan A. Memoirs Of Military Test-Flying And Life With The Kremlin's Elite. Shrewsbury: Airlife Publishing Ltd., 1999. ISBN 1-85310-916-9.