Viktor Vasilyevich Grishin (russian: Ви́ктор Васи́льевич Гри́шин; – 25 May 1992) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

politician. He was a candidate (1961–1971) and full member (1971–1986) of the

Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (, abbreviated: ), or Politburo ( rus, Политбюро, p=pəlʲɪtbʲʊˈro) was the highest policy-making authority within the Communist Party of th ...

. Grishin was born in

Serpukhov Serpukhov ( rus, Серпухов, p=ˈsʲɛrpʊxəf) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Oka and the Nara Rivers, south from Moscow ( from Moscow Ring Road) on the Moscow—Simferopol highway. The Moscow—Tul ...

, in the

Moscow Governorate Moscow Governorate (russian: Московская губерния; pre-reform Russian: ), or the Government of Moscow, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR, whic ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

. In his early years, he worked on the Moscovy railroad, as a spike driver who retrofitted its railway system. He served in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

from 1938 until 1940. In 1941, he was a Communist party functionary. He eventually rose to become leader of the

Communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

in the city of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

from 1967 until 1985. He was renowned for his hardline stance. During the final months of

Konstantin Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko uk, Костянтин Устинович Черненко, translit=Kostiantyn Ustynovych Chernenko (24 September 1911 – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician and the seventh General Secretary of the Commu ...

's life, Grishin had been considered as a possible contender to succeed Chernenko as

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

, and as a possible alternative to

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...

. In an attempt to stress his closeness to Chernenko, he dragged the terminally ill Soviet leader out to vote in early 1985. This action by Grishin backfired and was almost universally viewed as a cruel act. After Chernenko's death in March 1985, he declined to put himself forward as a candidate for succession and instead offered his support, albeit lukewarm, to Gorbachev. Gorbachev was subsequently unanimously elected as the

. In late-December 1985, Grishin was replaced by

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

as the First Secretary of the Moscow party committee. On 18 February 1986, Grishin lost his position as a member of the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contracti ...

. In a 1991 interview with the conservative Russian newspaper Molodaya Gvardiya, he claimed the only reason he lost was because ''"younger Party leaders, such as

Yegor Ligachev Yegor Kuzmich Ligachyov (also transliterated as Ligachev; russian: Егор Кузьмич Лигачёв, link=no; 29 November 1920 – 7 May 2021) was a Soviet and Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the Communist Party o ...

, supported Gorbachev because they feared that if I had become Party boss, they would lose their posts."'' On 25 May 1992, Grishin died at the age of 77. He suffered a heart attack at a welfare office in Moscow, where he went to register an increase in his state pension.

References

External links

* Archie Brown
''The Gorbachev Factor''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 1997.
Viktor Grishin, Ex-Moscow Party Chief, Dies at 77.

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...