Nikolai Ryzhkov

Nikolai Ryzhkov
Николай Рыжков
Official portrait, 2016
Senator from Belgorod Oblast
In office
17 September 2003 – 25 September 2023
Preceded byAlexander Dondukov
Succeeded byZhanna Chefranova
Member of the State Duma
In office
17 January 1996 – 17 September 2003
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia
In office
7 August 1996 – 1998
Preceded byPost established
Succeeded byViktor Zorkaltsev
10th Premier of the Soviet Union
In office
27 September 1985 – 14 January 1991
PresidentAndrei Gromyko
Mikhail Gorbachev
Deputy
Preceded byNikolai Tikhonov
Succeeded byValentin Pavlov
(as Prime Minister)
Head of the Economic Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office
1982 – August 1985
Preceded byBoris Gostev
Succeeded byBoris Gostev
Full member of the 26th, 27th Politburo
In office
23 April 1985 – 13 July 1990
Member of the 25th Secretariat
In office
22 November 1982 – 15 October 1985
Full member of the 26th, 27th, 28th of the Central Committee
In office
3 March 1981 – 29 August 1991
Personal details
Born
Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov

(1929-09-28)28 September 1929
Shcherbynivka, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Died28 February 2024(2024-02-28) (aged 94)
Moscow, Russia
Resting placeTroyekurovskoye Cemetery, Moscow
Political partyIndependent (2003–2024)
Other political
affiliations
People's Patriotic Union of Russia (1996–2003)
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1956–1991)
SpouseLudmila Ryzhkova
ChildrenMarina

Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov (Russian: Николай Иванович Рыжков; Ukrainian: Микола Іванович Рижков; 28 September 1929 – 28 February 2024) was a Russian politician. He served as the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and was succeeded by Valentin Pavlov as prime minister. The same year, he lost his seat on the Presidential Council, going on to become Boris Yeltsin's leading opponent in the 1991 presidential election of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He was the last surviving premier of the Soviet Union following the death of Ivan Silayev on 8 February 2023.

Ryzhkov was born in the city of Shcherbynivka, Ukrainian SSR (now Toretsk) in 1929. After graduating in 1959, he worked first in local industry before being moved into government in the 1970s, working his way up through the hierarchy of Soviet industrial ministries. He was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee in 1979. Following Nikolai Tikhonov's resignation as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Ryzhkov was voted into office in his place. During his tenure he supported Mikhail Gorbachev's 1980s reform of the Soviet economy.

Elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in December 1995 as an independent, Ryzhkov subsequently led the Power to the People voting bloc, later becoming the formal leader of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia alongside Gennady Zyuganov, who was an unofficial leader. On 17 September 2003, he resigned his seat in the Duma and became a member of the Federation Council representing Belgorod Oblast, which he held until he retired in 2023.