User:Douglian30/sandbox/Anastas Mikoyan

Politburo member
Mikoyan supported Stalin, whom he had first met in 1919, in the power struggle that followed Lenin's death in 1924; he had become a member of the CPSU Central Committee in 1923. As People's Commissar for External and Internal Trade from 1926, he imported ideas from the West, such as the manufacture of canned goods. Mikoyan saw an opportunity to increase trade with the USA when Britain broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. Mikoyan told Louis Fischer:

"After the break with Britain, contacts with the USA became much broader. USA’s purchases of oil equipment, coal-cutting and mining machinery, electrical appliances, automobiles, tractors, and agriculture machines should increase year by year. He favoured direct dealings with American firms in preference to trade through third nations."

Mikoyan's policy was assisted by a favourable impression of the Soviet regime in the minds of the USA public resulting from the dramatic rescue of an Italian polar expedition by Soviet aviators, which was heavily reported in the US press. The US Chamber of Commerce hastened to invite the heroic aviators to visit the USA, an invitation that was accepted.

In 1935 he was elected to the Politburo and was one of the first Soviet leaders to pay goodwill trips to the United States in order to boost economic cooperation. Mikoyan spent three months in the United States, where he not only learned more about its food industry but also met and spoke with Henry Ford and inspected Macy's in New York. When he returned, Mikoyan introduced a number of popular American consumer products to the Soviet Union, including American hamburgers, ice cream, corn flakes, popcorn, tomato juice, grapefruit and corn on the cob.

Mikoyan spearheaded a project to produce a home cookbook, which would encourage a return to the domestic kitchen. The result, The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food (Книга о вкусной и здоровой пище, Kniga o vkusnoi i zdorovoi pishche), was published in 1939, and the 1952 edition sold 2.5 million copies. Mikoyan helped initiate the production of ice cream in the USSR and kept the quality of ice cream under his own personal control until he was dismissed. Stalin made a joke about this, stating, "You, Anastas, care more about ice cream, than about communism." Mikoyan also contributed to the development of meat production in the USSR (particularly, the so-called Mikoyan cutlet), and one of the Soviet-era sausage factories was named after him.

In the late 1930s Stalin embarked upon the Great Purge, a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated against members of the Communist Party, as well as the peasantry and unaffiliated persons. In assessing Mikoyan's role in the purges, historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore states that he "enjoyed the reputation of one of the more decent leaders: he certainly helped the victims later and worked hard to undo Stalin's rule after the Leader's death." Mikoyan tried to save some close-knit companions from being executed. However, in 1936 he enthusiastically supported the execution of Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, claiming it to be a "just verdict." As with other leading officials in 1937, Mikoyan signed death-lists given to him by the NKVD. The purges were often accomplished by officials close to Stalin, giving them the assignment largely as a way to test their loyalty to the regime.

In September 1937 Stalin dispatched Mikoyan, along with Georgy Malenkov and Lavrentiy Beria, with a list of 300 names to Yerevan, the capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), to oversee the liquidation of the Communist Party of Armenia (CPA), which was largely made up of Old Bolsheviks. Mikoyan tried, but failed, to save one from being executed during his trip to Armenia. That person was arrested during one of his speeches to the CPA by Beria. Over a thousand people were arrested and seven of nine members of the Armenian Politburo were sacked from office. In several instances, he intervened on behalf of his colleagues; this leniency towards the persecuted may have been one reason why he was selected by Stalin to oversee the purges in the ASSR.

World War II and de-Stalinization
In September 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union each carved out their own spheres of influence in Poland and Eastern Europe via the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviets arrested 26,000 Polish officers in the eastern portion of Poland and in March 1940, after some deliberation, Stalin and five other members of the Politburo, Mikoyan included, signed an order for their execution as "nationalists and counterrevolutionaries". However, senior Communist leaders did not always act without conscience. Mikoyan’s son Stepan points to the anguish of his father as a member of the Politburo when the resolution to liquidate all the Polish officers was placed on the agenda. Mikoyan agreed as meekly as any other member because "for him not to sign was impossible".

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Mikoyan was placed in charge of organizing the transportation of food and supplies. His son Vladimir, a pilot in the Red Air Force, died in combat when his plane was shot down over Stalingrad. Mikoyan's main assignment throughout the war was supplying the Red Army with materials, food and other necessities.

Mikoyan is also credited for his large role in the 1941 relocation of Soviet industry from the threatened western cities such as Moscow and Leningrad, eastward to the Urals, Western Siberia, the Volga region, and other safer zones.

Mikoyan became a Special Representative of the State Defense Committee in 1941 by Stalin's orders; he was until that point not a member because Beria believed he would be of better use in government administration. Mikoyan was decorated with a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1943 for his efforts. In 1946 he became the Vice-Premier of the Council of Ministers.

Shortly before his death in 1953, Stalin considered launching a new purge against Mikoyan, Vyacheslav Molotov, and several other Party leaders. Mikoyan and others gradually began to fall out of favor and, in one instance, were accused of plotting against Stalin. Stalin's plans never came to fruition, however, as he died before he could put them into motion. Mikoyan originally argued in favor of keeping Stalin's right-hand man Beria from punishment but later gave in to popular support among Party members for his arrest. Mikoyan remained in the government after Stalin's death, in the post of Minister of Trade, under Malenkov. He supported Nikita Khrushchev in the power struggle to succeed Stalin, and became First Deputy Premier in recognition of his services.

In 1956 Mikoyan helped Khrushchev organize the Secret Speech, which Khrushchev delivered to the 20th Party Congress, that denounced Stalin's personality cult. It was he, and not Khrushchev, who made the first anti-Stalinist speech at the 20th Congress. Along with Khrushchev, he helped roll back some of the stifling restrictions on nationalism and culture imposed during Stalin's time. In 1954, he visited his native Armenia and gave a speech in Yerevan, where he encouraged Armenians to republish the works of Raffi and the purged writer Yeghishe Charents.

In 1957 Mikoyan refused to back an attempt by Malenkov and Molotov to remove Khrushchev from power; he thus secured his position as one of Khrushchev's closest allies. He backed Khrushchev because of his strong support for de-Stalinization and his belief that a triumph by the plotters might have given way to purges similar to the ones in the 1930s. In recognition of his support and his economic talents, Khrushchev appointed Mikoyan First Deputy Premier and liked to playfully describe him as "My rug merchant."