Mikoyan, Anastas << mee ko YAHN, ah nahs TAHS >> (1895-1978), was an important official of the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Union. He served as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1964 and 1965. This government office was sometimes called the presidency. From 1955 to 1964, he was first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, the highest executive body of the Soviet government. Mikoyan was a member of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee from 1922 to 1976 and of its Politburo from 1926 to 1966. He was a specialist in commerce and foreign trade. He first visited the United States in 1936 and introduced a few U.S. foods into the Soviet Union.
Mikoyan was born on Nov. 25, 1895, in Armenia, which was then part of the Russian Empire and later became a Soviet republic. Although he completed a theological course, he did not become a priest. In 1915, he joined the Bolsheviks, the group that later became the Communist Party. He took part in the Russian civil war (1918-1920). Mikoyan died on Oct. 21, 1978.
