Nikolay Bulganin

Nikolay Bulganin (1895-1975), Soviet statesman, born in Nizhniy Novgorod. He joined the Bolshevik party in 1917, was a secret police officer from 1918 to 1922, and then transferred to the Supreme Economic Council. From 1931 to 1937 he served as chairman (mayor) of the Moscow city soviet. He became a full member of the Central Committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union in 1939 and of the Politburo in 1948. After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Bulganin was appointed deputy premier and minister of defence under Georgy M. Malenkov, and two years later he replaced Malenkov as premier. Together with Nikita S. Khrushchev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist party, he travelled widely in an attempt to establish détente with the West. In 1958, having cast his lot with the losing side in the preceding party struggle, Bulganin was replaced as premier by Khrushchev, who appointed him chairman of the Stavropol Economic Council. In 1960 he retired from public life.