Viktor Grishin

Viktor Grishin is also the name of the current head of the State Duma Committee on Federal Matters and Regional Policy of Russia

Viktor Vasilyevich Grishin (Russian: Ви́ктор Васи́льевич Гри́шин; 18 September [O.S. 5 September] 1914 – 25 May 1992) was a Soviet 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.

Grishin was born in Serpukhov, in the Moscow Governorate of the Russian Empire. He served in the Red Army from 1938 until 1940. In 1941, he was a Communist Party functionary. He eventually rose to be the leader of the Communist Party in the city of Moscow from 1967 until 1985. He was renowned for his hardline stance.

During the final months of Konstantin Chernenko's life, Grishin had been considered as a possible contender to succeed Chernenko as the General Secretary and as a possible alternative to Mikhail Gorbachev. 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 General Secretary.

In late-December 1985, Grishin was replaced by Boris Yeltsin as the First Secretary of the Moscow Party Committee. Grishin lost his position as a member of the Politburo soon thereafter.

In an interview with the conservative Russian newspaper Molodaya Gvardiya in 1991, he claims that the only reason he lost was because "younger Party leaders, such as Yegor Ligachev, 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

• Archie Brown, The Gorbachev Factor. Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-288052-9
• Viktor Grishin, Ex-Moscow Party Chief, Dies at 77. New York Times, 27 May 1992. Accessed 14 December 2009.

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