Nikolai Ryzhkov

Nikolai Ryzhkov (born September 28, 1929, Dzerzhynsk, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. [now Toretsk, Ukraine] —died February 28, 2024, Moscow, Russia) was the premier of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. During his tenure, the U.S.S.R. faced an economic crisis that contributed to the superpower’s collapse. Little is known with certainty of Ryzhkov’s early career. He seems to have begun his working career as a miner and then, by 1950, was a shift foreman at the Ordzhonikidze...