Kosygin joined the Red Army as a volunteer in 1919 and served in the Russian Civil War. Following the war he received some vocational training, joined the Communist Party (1927), and occupied several positions in the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) city government and in industry. By 1939 he had been appointed people's commissar for the textile industry as well as a member of the party's Central Committee. In 1940 he became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (called Council of Ministers after 1946); he held that post, which gave him special responsibility for consumer industries, until 1953. During World War II Kosygin was premier of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. He next served as minister of finance (1948) and as minister for light industry (1948–53). The party elected him to the Politburo in 1948.
Kosygin was demoted to an alternate member when the Politburo was reorganized as the Presidium in October 1952. After Joseph Stalin died (March 1953), Kosygin lost his position on the party Presidium completely and was temporarily removed from his government post. He was reinstated as deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers in December 1953 but was removed once again in December 1956.
Although he continued from 1953 to hold a variety of ministerial and economic posts, Kosygin did not regain his former authority until June 1957, when, as a supporter of Nikita S. Khrushchev, he was readmitted to the party Presidium as an alternate member and was reinstated as deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. Kosygin subsequently worked closely with Khrushchev on economic matters and served as chairman of Gosplan, the Soviet economic planning agency, from March 1959 to May 1960. He was then elected to full membership on the party Presidium and a first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers (May 1960).
In October 1964 Kosygin replaced Khrushchev as chairman of the Council of Ministers, becoming the effective head of the Soviet government, although his role in Khrushchev's ouster is obscure. In 1965 Kosygin introduced comprehensive reforms that were designed to modernize the Soviet economy. He sought to improve the planning process, to encourage greater initiative on the part of plant managers, and to rely more on profit as a means of improving economic efficiency. When he announced in 1966 the new economic five-year plan to govern the Soviet Union from 1966 to 1970, Kosygin adhered to Khrushchev's policy of placing relatively heavy emphasis on the production of consumer goods, and he altered Khrushchev's objectives only by setting more realistic target dates for various economic projects.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Kosygin shared the power of governing with Leonid I. Brezhnev and Nikolay V. Podgorny. He apparently exercised a moderating influence on the other Soviet leaders. The government retreated from fully implementing Kosygin's reforms, but his sensible management style helped preserve efficiency and discipline in the Soviet economy into the 1970s. Kosygin's emphasis on economic decentralization and on expanding light industry placed him increasingly at odds with Brezhnev. From the early 1970s Kosygin governed in a system of collective leadership with Brezhnev, first secretary of the Communist Party, and Podgorny, chairman of the Presidium. Kosygin's role, as well as Podgorny's, diminished, however, as Brezhnev's authority increased. On Oct. 23, 1980, Brezhnev, by then chairman of the Presidium and, in effect, president of the Soviet Union, announced Kosygin's retirement because of ill health.
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