Early Life and Career
Ryzhkov was born on 28 September 1929 in Dzerzhynsk, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. He graduated from the Kirov Ural Polytechnic Institute in 1959. A technocrat, he started work as a welder then rose through the ranks at the Sverdlovsk Uralmash Plant to become chief engineer, then between 1970–1975, Factory Director of the Uralmash Production Amalgamation. Ryzhkov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1956. He was transferred to Moscow in 1975 and appointed to the post of First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Heavy and Transport Machine Building. Ryzhkov became First Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee in 1979 and was elected to the CPSU Central Committee in 1981. He was one of several members of the Soviet leadership affiliated to the "Andrei Kirilenko faction".
Yuri Andropov appointed Ryzhkov head of the Economic Department of the Central Committee where he was responsible for overseeing major planning and financial organs, excluding industry. As head of the department he reported directly to Mikhail Gorbachev and as head of the Central Committee's Economic Department he met with Andropov once a week. Ryzhkov became convinced that had Andropov lived at least another five years, the Soviet Union would have seen a reform package similar to that implemented in the People's Republic of China. During Konstantin Chernenko's short rule, both Ryzhkov and Gorbachev elaborated several reform measures, sometimes in the face of opposition from Chernenko.
When Gorbachev came to power, Nikolai Tikhonov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, was elected Chairman of the newly established Commission on Improvements to the Management System. His title of chairman was largely honorary, with Ryzhkov the de facto head through his position as deputy chairman. Along with Yegor Ligachev, Ryzhkov became a full rather than a candidate member of the Politburo on 23 April 1985 during Gorbachev's tenure as General Secretary. Ryzhkov succeeded Tikhonov on 27 September 1985.
Read more about this topic: Nikolai Ryzhkov
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