Anastas Mikoyan

An early convert to the Bolshevik cause, Mikoyan participated in the Baku Commune under the leadership of Stepan Shahumyan during the Russian Civil War in the Caucasus. In the 1920s, he served as the First Secretary of the North Caucasus region. During Stalin's rule, Mikoyan held several high governmental posts, including that of Minister of Foreign Trade. However, by the 1940s, Mikoyan began to lose favour with Stalin. In 1949, he lost his long-standing post of minister of foreign trade, and in October 1952, Stalin attacked him harshly at the 19th Party Congress. When Stalin died in 1953, Mikoyan again took a leading role in policy-making. Together, he and Khrushchev crafted the de-Stalinization policy and later he became First Deputy Premier under Khrushchev. Mikoyan's position during the Thaw 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, especially with his skill in exercising soft power to further Soviet interests. In 1964 Khrushchev was forced to step down in a coup that brought 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.

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