Anastas Mikoyan

Anastas Mikoyan was in Sanain, Armenia, on 13th November, 1895. He studied theology but he abandoned the priesthood to join the Bolsheviks in 1915 and took part in the October Revolution in the Caucasus.

During the Civil War he was arrested in Baku by the British Army but escaped and made his way to Moscow where he met Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin and other Bolshevik leaders.

After the death of Vladimir Lenin Mikoyan became a supporter of Joseph Stalin, and was appointed to the Central Committee in 1923 and three years later was appointed people's commissar for external and internal trade. He was willing to learn from advances in the West and introduced the manufacture of canned goods.

In 1935 Mikoyan was elected to the Politburo and during the Second World War served on the State Defence Committee with special responsibility for organizing the transport of supplies. Mikoyan served as minister of trade under Georgy Malenkov. However, he supported Nikita Khrushchev against Malenkov and in February, 1955, was rewarded with the post of deputy premier of the Soviet Union.

After Khrushchev's fall from power, Mikoyan was appointed as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1964-66). Anastas Mikoyan died in Moscow on 21st October, 1978.