Nikolai Ryzhkov

Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov (; ; 28 September 1929 – 28 February 2024) was a Russian politician. He served as the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and was succeeded by Valentin Pavlov as prime minister. The same year, he lost his seat on the Presidential Council, going on to become Boris Yeltsin's leading opponent in the 1991 presidential election of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He was the last surviving premier of the Soviet Union following the death of Ivan Silayev on 8 February 2023.

Ryzhkov was born in the city of Shcherbynivka, Ukrainian SSR (now Toretsk) in 1929. After graduating in 1959, he worked first in local industry before being moved into government in the 1970s, working his way up through the hierarchy of Soviet industrial ministries. He was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee in 1979. Following Nikolai Tikhonov's resignation as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Ryzhkov was voted into office in his place. During his tenure he supported Mikhail Gorbachev's 1980s reform of the Soviet economy.

Elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in December 1995 as an independent, Ryzhkov subsequently led the Power to the People voting bloc, later becoming the formal leader of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia alongside Gennady Zyuganov, who was an unofficial leader. On 17 September 2003, he resigned his seat in the Duma and became a member of the Federation Council representing Belgorod Oblast, which he held until he retired in 2023. Provided by Wikipedia