Aleksey Nikolaevich Kosigin

Soviet politician. Born February 21 in St. Petersburg to a family of lathe operators. After serving in the Red Army, he joined the party in 1927 while active in a consumer cooperative in Siberia. In 1935 he graduated from the Leningrad (Petersburg) Textile University, worked at a textile factory, and became mayor of Leningrad in 1938. In January 1939 he first joined the cabinet as People's Commissar for Textile Industry. The following year, in 1940, he became Deputy Prime Minister. From 1943, he served as Prime Minister of the Russian Republic, Minister of Finance of the Soviet Union, and Minister of Light Industry. In 1946, he became a candidate member of the Politburo, and in 1948, a member of the Politburo. After Stalin's death in March 1953, he temporarily left the top leadership, but soon returned, and in 1960 he became First Deputy Prime Minister and a member of the Party's Central Committee. After Khrushchev's dismissal in October 1964, he became Prime Minister. He worked to ease international tensions through economic reforms including the introduction of profit-making methods, increased production of consumer goods, mediation in the India-Pakistan conflict (1966), meeting with US President Johnson (1967), and meeting with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai (1969). In the late 1970s, his health deteriorated, and he resigned from his positions as Prime Minister and member of the Party Politburo in October 1980, dying on December 18 of the same year. His later years were overshadowed by the declining rate of economic growth in the Soviet Union, the deterioration of US-Soviet relations, and Brezhnev's strengthening power.

[Osamu Nakanishi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ソ連の政治家。2月21日サンクト・ペテルブルグの旋盤工の家庭に生まれる。赤軍従軍後、1927年シベリアの消費組合で活動中に入党。1935年レニングラード（ペテルブルグ）繊維大学卒業、繊維工場勤務を経て、1938年にレニングラード市長。1939年1月繊維工業人民委員として初入閣。翌1940年副首相。1943年からロシア共和国首相、ソ連蔵相、軽工業相などを兼務。党でも1946年に政治局員候補、1948年に政治局員。1953年3月のスターリンの死後、一時、最高指導部を離れるが、まもなく返り咲き、1960年には第一副首相兼党中央委幹部会員。1964年10月のフルシチョフ解任後、首相に就任。利潤方式の導入による経済改革や消費物資の増産、インド・パキスタン紛争の調停（1966）、ジョンソン米大統領との会談（1967）、周恩来(しゅうおんらい／チョウエンライ)中国首相との会談（1969）などによる国際緊張の緩和に努める。1970年代末、健康状態の悪化により1980年10月、首相と党政治局員の地位を去り、同年12月18日死去。晩年は、ソ連の経済成長率の低下、米ソ関係の悪化、ブレジネフの権力強化などにより影が薄かった。

［中西　治］

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