Nikolai Podgorny
Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny (, ) (–
January 12,
1983) was a politician and
President of the USSR from
1965 to
1977. His official title was
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
An engineer, trained at the Technological Institute of the Food Industry in
Kiev, he became deputy commissar of the
Ukrainian food industry before entering the official ranks of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1950. He was elected a member of the central committee of the party in 1956 and of the presidium (later known as the
politburo) in 1960.
In 1965 he became chairman of the presidium, or chief of state, succeeding
Anastas Mikoyan. Podgorny was relieved of his chairmanship and removed from the politburo during a 1977 power struggle with
Leonid Brezhnev.
