Talk:Alexei Kosygin

Previous discussions
Kosygin attempted to implement economic reforms to shift the emphasis in the Soviet economy from heavy industry and military production to light industry and the production of consumer goods. Brezhnev did not support this policy and stymied Kosygin's reforms.

The set of historically incorrect allegations.

Role in defusing Sino-Soviet tension in 1969
After the Sino-Soviet border clash on March 2nd, 1969, tensions were high and Alexey Kosygin visited Beijing on his way back from attending Ho Chi Minh's funeral in Hanoi. He was able to reach a political solution and tensions cooled without further major border incidents. His efforts may have averted a major border war between the Soviet Union and the PRC, but there is no mention of this in the article. -- Adeptitus 00:38, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Notes from GAN
At first I planned to write a full-blown GA review (with a fail verdict), but perhaps a word of advice here will be better.

The article contains some factual errors, suggesting that it needs sourcing to a proper biography, rather than general history books. Language needs a second pair of eyes, too. Example:
 * ✅ "As many like him, he fought alongside the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War, and later applied for a membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union."
 * ✅ "As many like him" - unnecessary introduction. Russian Civil War, linked in the phrase, sets the scope of conflict
 * ✅ "fought" - gross factual error. He did not fight. He was conscripted into a labor army, - two years of hard work for a (usually) guaranteed ration. Even his official Party bio says merely "In 1919 K. volunteered into Red Army" and does not mention any specific battles or campaigns (guess why?).
 * ✅ "Later applied for a membership" - later when? He got his Party card in 1927. Should we conclude that he applied shortly after the end of the Civil War, and had to wait many years, or is it just an unnecessary figure of speech?

There some aspects of K's early bio that I think are absolutely necessary:
 * Education. Do you know that before the Civil War he already had a decent school education? Not your typical "working class hero".
 * You're incorrect here, there is not historical record of him having any college education before the revolution. --TIAYN (talk) 11:29, 4 September 2010 (UTC)


 * ✅ 1924-1930. His coming-of-age in Siberia. This is not your fault really: even the detailed biographies usually bypass this period, but there's some recent academic research.
 * ✅ The becoming of Stalin's nominee. The article just marks the milestones of his rapid ascent in late thirties, and it makes an impression that it was an easy ride... but the rewards of this kind usually required some over-the-top achievements. What achievements, specifically? Why was he promoted when others fell or were shelved to insignificant jobs?
 * ✅ The Kosygin-Kuznetsov connection. Mind you, the article is totally silent on K's family life.

Cheers, East of Borschov 17:28, 9 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I think TIAYN has done tremendous job here. There's actually too much text to tell if there are omissions... I'd say the fine polish and thorough reading comes if the article is promoted to featured status. --Sigmundur (talk) 17:46, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Minor, but silly error
Kosygin was born in Petrograd, not Leningrad! St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd then Leningrad, the St. Petersburg again. The error is silly because Lenin died in 1924 and Petrograd was renamed Leningrad after him. Sort of saying that George Washington lived in Washington, DC!

Vadim —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.117.219.28 (talk) 00:29, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Fixed it. --TIAYN (talk) 16:15, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

funeral
The article states: "On his funeral Kosygin was honored by his peers; Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and future premier Nikolay Tikhonov laid three urns with his ashes in the Kremlin Wall." I don't think that what remained of Kosygin's body after cremation was put into THREE separate urns. Three men carrying ONE urn yes, but not one set of ashes divided into three portions. ViennaUK (talk) 15:16, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, your help is appreciated. :D --TIAYN (talk) 17:09, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

January 2011 copy edits
Since Kosygin was born before Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar on 14 February 1918, do you want to show his birth date in both new-style and old-style dates? Example: Constantin Stanislavski. -- Diannaa (Talk) 00:07, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, that would be nice. --TIAYN (talk) 07:06, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Vandalism
The parents now given, such as Lenin, seem to be vandalism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.97.194.200 (talk) 10:40, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Nope, the fathers name was Nikolai Lenin, Kosygin, nor his father does not have any biological ancestry with Lenin, just a common name. --TIAYN (talk) 12:10, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Soviet-Russian
Is there are reason why he is not simply a "Soviet politician" in the first page? Beria is not a "Soviet-Georgian politician", Mikoyan is not a "Soviet-Armenian statesman"? It seems as though this should be change, hopefully this is the proper matter to bring this up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.32.142.106 (talk) 05:16, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Transliteration
Is there a particular reason Алексей is transliterated as Alexei and not Aleksei? There is no one letter in Russian that corresponds to English 'x'; instead, there are two, кс (ks). Should we not stick to the principle of letter by letter transliteration? Iain (talk) 10:09, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * You get more hits when searching "Alexei Kosygin" than "Aleksey(i) Kosyign".. WP articles are named after most common names, and Alexei is more common than Aleksey(i)... Simple as that :) --TIAYN (talk) 15:06, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Birthdate?
Is the birthdate February 20 or February 21? The article is internally inconsistent - the infobox gives the 20th while the lead gives the 21st. I don't see any immediately accessible citations for that either way to verify it. I tripped over this when an editor removed this person from the listings at February 21 - once this is resolved please re-add the entry to the appropriate date (or ping me and I can take care of it). Thanks, -- El Hef  ( Meep? ) 19:54, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

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"This reform, along with his more open stance on solving the Prague Spring (1968),"
This would need some clarification. I've seen a Czech documentary where an angry Kosygin was poertrayed as the most vehement Soviet opponent of Dubček. He probably took a personal grudge on Dubček going for too far and threating his own cautious reform initiatives. More sources are needed.Miacek (talk) 13:46, 15 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Is sourced in the body of the article... --TIAYN (talk) 15:32, 15 May 2018 (UTC)
 * And I pointed out another source disagrees with that conclusion. Will look into it in the coming days.Miacek (talk)!
 * It doesn't. The article only says he wasn't keen to invade... That doesn't mean he didn't hate the Prague Spring. You are discussingg two very different things. --TIAYN (talk) 15:58, 15 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Sadly, I must admit this time I did try to Google Russian sources but found nothing. It was a great surprise to me when I saw him portrayed as such a hardest of the hard in this Czech documentary also, I've seen some other documents corrobarate that, but I'll leave it for the time being as I have no time to dig into it. If you're intrigued, ask My Very Best Wishes about it, he surely knows more than me on this topic. Regards, Miacek (talk) 16:03, 15 May 2018 (UTC)