Kosygin, Aleksei Nikolaevich, << ko SEE gihn, ah lehk SAY nih ko LAH yuh vihch >> (1904-1980), was premier of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1980. Kosygin rose to power with Leonid I. Brezhnev, who became head of the Communist Party and eventually gained the most power.
Kosygin was born in St. Petersburg on Feb. 20, 1904. He fought on the Communist side in the civil war that broke out in Russia in 1918. Kosygin joined the Communist Party in 1927. He supervised an evacuation of Leningrad (the name of St. Petersburg from 1924 to 1991) after German troops began a siege of the city in 1941, during World War II. After the war ended in 1945, Kosygin held a variety of government posts and earned a reputation as an excellent administrator. In 1960, he was named first deputy premier. He served directly under Nikita S. Khrushchev, the party chief and premier.
When Khrushchev was forced to resign in 1964, Kosygin became premier and Brezhnev became head of the Communist Party. For several years, Brezhnev and Kosygin shared power almost equally. By the early 1970’s, however, Brezhnev had become the country’s most powerful leader. The two men continued to work together despite Kosygin’s loss of power.
Kosygin was an expert on economics and industry. As premier, he worked to develop light industry in the Soviet Union. In 1965, he began a program to give factory managers greater control over their plants. His efforts met with resistance from the Communist establishment and were eventually stopped.
Kosygin resigned as premier in October 1980 because of poor health. He died on Dec. 18, 1980.
