Yegor Ligachyov - Misplaced Pages

Soviet politician (1920–2021) In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Kuzmich and the family name is Ligachyov.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (November 2021) Click for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|Лигачёв, Егор Кузьмич}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (November 2021) Click for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Jegor Kusmitsch Ligatschow}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Yegor Ligachyov

Егор Лигачёв

Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

In office
10 March 1985 – 14 July 1990

Preceded by

Mikhail Gorbachev

Succeeded by

Vladimir Ivashko (as Deputy General Secretary)

Head of the Organizational-Party Work Department of the Central Committee

In office
29 April 1983 – 23 April 1985

Preceded by

Ivan Kapitonov

Succeeded by

Georgy Razumovsky

First Secretary of the Tomsk Regional Committee

In office
26 November 1965 – 29 April 1983

Preceded by

Ivan Tikhonovich Marchenko

Succeeded by

Alexander Melnikov

Additional positions


Full member of the 26th, 27th Politburo
In office 23 April 1985 – 14 July 1990
Member of the 26th, 27th Secretariat
In office 26 December 1983 – 14 July 1990
Member of the 26th, 27th Central Committee
In office 3 March 1981 – 14 July 1990

Personal details

Born

(1920-11-29)29 November 1920
Dubinkino, Kainsky district, Tomsk Governorate, Russian SFSR

Died

7 May 2021(2021-05-07) (aged 100)
Moscow, Russia

Resting place

Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, Moscow

Political party

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1944–1991)
Communist Party of the Russian Federation (1993–2021)

Children

Alexander Ligachyov (born 1947)

Yegor Kuzmich Ligachyov (also transliterated as Ligachev; Russian: Егор Кузьмич Лигачёв; 29 November 1920 – 7 May 2021) was a Soviet and Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and who continued an active political career in post-Soviet Russia. Originally an ally of Mikhail Gorbachev, Ligachyov became a challenger to his leadership.

Early life

Ligachyov was born on 29 November 1920 in the village Dubinkino in the Kainsky district [ru] of the Tomsk province (in the present-day Chulymsky District of the Novosibirsk Oblast). 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 [ru] in Moscow in 1951.

Political career

Ligachyov's career began in his native Siberia 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, resigning from his political career at the 28th Party Congress. Ligachyov was critical of Boris Yeltsin 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 Komsomol, before becoming Deputy Chairman of the Novosibirsk Soviet, 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. In 1965, he became First Secretary of the Party in Tomsk, 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 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 Mikhail Gorbachev 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 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 and glasnost began to resemble what were seen as social democratic 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 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" 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. Ligachyov was elected three times to the Russian State Duma as a member for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. 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 candidate Vladimir Zhidkikh's 53 percent.

Ligachyov's memoirs, Inside Gorbachev's Kremlin, were published in 1996. Serge Schmemann of The New York Times 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".

Significance

Ligachyov became one of Gorbachev's primary critics, and was accused of leading a conservative faction. 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. He saw the quick reunification of Germany as being an "impending danger".

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. 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 discerned 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:

Public ownership unites, but private ownership disunites people's interests and indisputably causes social stratification of society.... For what purpose was perestroika started? For the purpose of most fully using the potential of socialism. Then does the sale of enterprises into private hands really promote the revealing of the possibilities inherent in the socialist system? No, it does not.... Lately people have begun saying, "Perestroika will develop, with the party or without it". I think otherwise. With the party, and only with the vanguard party, can we move forward on the way of socialist renewal. Without the party of Communists, perestroika is a lost cause....
— Yegor Ligachyov

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 chief Viktor Chebrikov, Ligachyov took several opportunities before he was demoted to Secretary for Agriculture in 1988 to warn against rapid reform.

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

	Order of Lenin, twice (1970 & 1980)
	Order of the October Revolution (1976)
	Order of the Red Banner of Labour, twice (1948 & 1967)
	Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (23 April 1985)
	Order of the Badge of Honour (1957)
	Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1970)
	Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1945)
	Medal "For the Development of Virgin Lands" (1957)
	Jubilee Medal "75 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (2019)
	Jubilee Medal "70 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (2013)
	Jubilee Medal "65 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (2009)
	Jubilee Medal "60 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (2004)
	Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1993)
	Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1985)
	Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1975)
	Anniversary medal "70 years of the Tomsk region"

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

"Gorbachev's former ally Yegor Ligachyov dies aged 100".
"Zyuganov expressed condolences in connection with the death of Yegor Ligachev – Pledge Times". Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
"Ligachev's son named the cause of his father's death – Pledge Times". Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
Лидеры сибирского и новосибирского комсомола
Baibakov, Nikolai (1986). The Cause of My Life. Moscow: Progress Publishers. p. 249.
Hochschild, Adam (28 March 1993). "The Secret of a Siberian River Bank". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
Cohen, Stephen F. (2009). "The Tragedy of Soviet Conservatism". Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 61–84. ISBN 978-0-231-14896-2.
Garthoff, Raymond L. (1994). The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. pp. 363–364. ISBN 0-8157-3060-8.
Example: CPRF Novosibirsk Website Article (in Russian)
Psephos: Russia 2003
"From Comrade to Critic in Five Years": New York Times, 21 February 1993. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
etext.org Retrieved 22 November 2007.
^ "Ligachev Says Kremlin Is United on Changes": New York Times, 5 June 1988. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
^ "The real Yeltsin legacy": The Guardian, 26 April 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
^ "Evolution in Europe; Excerpts From Speeches at the Communist Party Congress": New York Times, 4 July 1990. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
^ "11 March 1985": Time, 31 March 2003. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
"Excerpts From Remarks by Yeltsin and Ligachev": New York Times, 2 July 1988. Retrieved 20 November 2007.
See also his memoirs (Sources).
"Excerpts From Speech By Ligachev to Party": New York Times, 7 February 1990. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
^ rulers.org: Retrieved 22 November 2007.
"Скончался Егор Лигачев — Российская газета".

Bibliography

Inside Gorbachev's Kremlin: The Memoirs of Yegor Ligachev. Pantheon Books: 1993 (ISBN 0-679-41392-8)
Ligachev on Glasnost and Perestroika. Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, no. 706: 1989.

v t e 27th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1986–1990)
Full members	Heydar Aliyev Vitaly Vorotnikov Mikhail Gorbachev Andrei Gromyko Lev Zaykov Dinmukhamed Kunaev Yegor Ligachyov Nikolai Ryzhkov Mikhail Solomentsev Viktor Chebrikov Eduard Shevardnadze Volodymyr Shcherbytsky Alexander Yakovlev Viktor Nikonov Nikolay Slyunkov Vadim Medvedev Yuri Maslyukov Vladimir Kryuchkov Vladimir Ivashko
Candidate members	Pyotr Demichev Vladimir Dolgikh Boris Yeltsin Nikolay Slyunkov Sergey Sokolov Nikolai Talyzin Yuri Solovyev Alexander Yakovlev Dmitry Yazov Yuri Maslyukov Georgy Razumovsky Alexandra Biryukova Alexander Vlasov Anatoly Lukyanov Yevgeny Primakov Boris Pugo

v t e 26th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1981–1986)
Full members	Yuri Andropov Leonid Brezhnev Mikhail Gorbachev Viktor Grishin Andrei Gromyko Andrei Kirilenko Dinmukhamed Kunaev Arvīds Pelše Grigory Romanov Mikhail Suslov Nikolai Tikhonov Dmitry Ustinov Heydar Aliyev Konstantin Chernenko Volodymyr Shcherbytsky Vitaly Vorotnikov Mikhail Solomentsev Viktor Chebrikov Yegor Ligachyov Nikolai Ryzhkov Eduard Shevardnadze
Candidate members	Heydar Aliyev Pyotr Demichev Tikhon Kiselyov Vasili Kuznetsov Boris Ponomarev Sharof Rashidov Mikhail Solomentsev Eduard Shevardnadze Vladimir Dolgikh Vitaly Vorotnikov Viktor Chebrikov Sergey Sokolov Nikolai Talyzin Boris Yeltsin

Categories: