Yegor Kuzmich Ligachyov (also transliterated as Ligachev; ; 29 November 1920 – 7 May 2021) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

(CPSU), and who continued an active political career in post-Soviet Russia. Originally an ally of

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

, Ligachyov became a challenger to his leadership.Лидеры сибирского и новосибирского комсомола
/ref>

Early life

Ligachyov was born on 29 November 1920 in the village Dubinkino in the of the Tomsk province (in the present-day Chulymsky District of the

Novosibirsk Oblast Novosibirsk Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative center, administrative and economic center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of N ...

). Between 1938 and 1943 he attended the Ordzhonikidze Institute for Aviation in Moscow and attained a technical engineering degree. Ligachyov joined the Communist Party at the age of 24 in 1944, later studying at the Central Committee Higher Party School in Moscow in 1951.

Political career

Ligachyov's career began in his native

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and took him to some of the highest functions of the Party. He was often regarded as Gorbachev's second man, holding important posts such as the Secretary for Ideology. However, Ligachyov lost his posts in 1990, a year before the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, resigning from his political career at the 28th Party Congress. Ligachyov was critical of

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

and Gorbachev to an extent, although he is often portrayed as having been Gorbachev's primary critic.

In the USSR

Ligachyov was First Secretary of the

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

Komsomol, before becoming Deputy Chairman of the Novosibirsk

, and then Secretary of the Novosibirsk Obkom between 1959 and 1961. Ligachyov gained his first major post in 1961, when he began working in the

Central Committee of the CPSU The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the Central committee, highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Congresses. Elected by the ...

. In 1965, he became First Secretary of the Party in

Tomsk Tomsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom (river), Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six univers ...

, Siberia. He was reputed to be an effective administrator. In a memoir published in 1984, Nikolai Baibakov, the chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee, praised Ligachyov for introducing "modern management methods" in Tomsk, and for his "tremendous contribution to all branches of the region's economy." During his time there he led the cover-up of the Stalin-era mass grave at Kolpashevo. He was to hold this position until 1983, when he was discovered by

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...

and made head of the Party Organization Department and a Secretary of the Central Committee. In 1966, Ligachyov was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee, and ten years later in 1976 he was promoted to a full member. When

became General Secretary in 1985, Ligachyov was promoted to become a Secretary of higher status, and was generally viewed as one of Gorbachev's primary allies: he had helped organize a pro-Gorbachev faction in hope of having Gorbachev succeed Andropov in 1984, although this attempt failed (instead,

Konstantin Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ( – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1984 until his death a year later. Born to a poor family in Siberia, Chernenko jo ...

was chosen as a stop-gap candidate). Ligachyov was made head of the Secretariat. Ligachyov supported reform of the Soviet Union and initially supported Gorbachev; however, as Gorbachev's policies of

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

and

glasnost ''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...

began to resemble what were seen as

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

policies, he distanced himself from Gorbachev, and by 1988 he was recognized as the leader of the more conservative, anti-Gorbachev faction of Soviet politicians. During this period, Ligachyov began to utter the phrase " Boris, you are wrong" when referring to Yeltsin in a political discourse. Ligachyov served in the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

between 1985 and 1990. Ligachyov, having made some speeches criticizing Gorbachev, was demoted from his more prestigious position as Secretary for Ideology to Secretary for Agriculture on 30 September 1988. At the 28th Congress of the CPSU in 1990, he criticized Gorbachev for circumventing the Party via the Soviet Presidency, and he argued Glasnost had gone too far. During the Party Congress, Ligachyov challenged Gorbachev for the office of General Secretary, standing as the "

Leninist Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

" candidate. Having been defeated, Ligachyov left the Politburo for temporary retirement.

Russian Federation

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ligachyov became a communist politician in the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Ligachyov was elected three times to the Russian

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

as a member for the

Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; ) is a communist political party in Russia that officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist philosophy. It is the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia. The youth o ...

. Ligachyov was a member of its Central Committee from 1993 on. However, he lost his seat in the Duma in 2003, when he polled 23.5 percent of the vote against

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

candidate Vladimir Zhidkikh's 53 percent. Ligachyov's memoirs, ''Inside Gorbachev's Kremlin'', were published in 1996. Serge Schmemann of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote that the author was driven "to seek explanations for what went wrong, to understand his own role" and while the reviewer wished for more intrigue (in the form of detailed accounts of events other than the dissolution of the USSR), he believed the book was an interesting and detailed account of that period from the perspective of an "honest

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Significance

Ligachyov became one of Gorbachev's primary critics, and was accused of leading a conservative faction."Ligachev Says Kremlin Is United on Changes"
New York Times, 5 June 1988. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
The Guardian, 26 April 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2007. Although publicly endorsing perestroika, Ligachyov was opposed to Gorbachev's attempts to expand Soviet authority and limit the responsibilities of party officials. Ligachyov did not support the decision to end the CPSU's monopoly of political power in 1990, nor did he support Gorbachev's response to the gradual withdrawal of Soviet authority in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. He saw the quick

reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

as being an "impending danger"."Evolution in Europe; Excerpts From Speeches at the Communist Party Congress"
New York Times, 4 July 1990. Retrieved 22 November 2007. However, in 1988, Ligachyov denied that he was leading a conservative faction, saying that the Party leadership were united behind Gorbachev. He also rejected suggestions after the fall of the Soviet Union that he had been opposed to Gorbachev in his memoirs and in speeches.
Time, 31 March 2003. Retrieved 22 November 2007. Ligachyov clearly demonstrated conservative ideas in his opposition of Yeltsin's political ideas, on the other hand, opposing the principles of glasnost. He later repudiated his opposition to Gorbachev's policies, saying it was "only too late ediscerned a social democrat in Gorbachev". However, Ligachyov repeatedly denied he was opposed to Gorbachev in sources including his memoirs. Ligachyov's economically hard-line views were upheld in speeches he made to the CPSU's Congress in 1990. The following deplored privatization of the economy: However, in this speech he also rejected the idea he was a conservative, saying he was a realist. Ligachyov also stated earlier that "the slackening of state discipline" was "among the reasons for the troubled state of the economy". Furthermore, together with

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

chief Viktor Chebrikov, Ligachyov took several opportunities before he was demoted to Secretary for Agriculture in 1988 to warn against rapid reform.rulers.org
Retrieved 22 November 2007. Although not mentioned in his memoirs to any notable extent, Ligachyov played a significant role in dismissing Yeltsin, arguing with him for long periods of time in 1987. Ligachyov opposed Yeltsin's idea that Party officials enjoyed greater privilege. Ligachyov was considered "Second Secretary" of the Central Committee (and thus the Soviet Union) for most of his time in the Politburo.

Death

On April 5, 2021, he was hospitalized at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital. A few days before his death, he was admitted to intensive care, where he was connected to a ventilator. He was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia and multiple autonomic disorders according to the doctors; they assessed Ligachyov’s condition as extremely serious because of his old age. Ligachyov died during his sleep from pneumonia at the age of 100. He was buried at the Troekurovskoye cemetery.

Awards and honorary titles

Honorary titles

* Honorary title “Honorary Citizen of the Tomsk Region” (20 November 2000) * Medal “For outstanding contribution to the development of Siberia” (2003) * Order "Tomsk Glory" (20 May 2014) * Honorary citizen of the city of Tomsk (27 November 2015)

References

Bibliography