Philosopher who ran the Central Committee Propaganda Department and directed the Institute of Marxism–Leninism
Born in 1922 in what is now Volgograd Oblast, he worked in the Komsomol in 1942–1947 and joined the Communist Party in 1943. After postgraduate study at the Central Committee's Academy of Social Sciences, completed in 1957, he worked in the Central Committee apparatus, becoming deputy head of the Propaganda Department in 1969 and first deputy head in 1974, and for several years he acted as its head. A philosopher of historical materialism and scientific communism, he published The Soviet Man in 1971. He directed the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1983–1985, was General Secretary Gorbachev's aide for ideology in 1985–1987, and directed the Institute of Marxism–Leninism in 1987–1991; he became a full member of the Academy in 1987.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1942–1947Komsomol official
- 1957–1969Lecturer, head of the lecturers' group and of the consultants' group, CC Propaganda and Agitation Department
- 1969–1974Deputy head of the CC Propaganda Department
- 1974–1983First deputy head of the CC Propaganda Department
- 1974–1977.05Acting head of the CC Propaganda Department
- 1976–1990Candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee
- 1983–1985Director of the Institute of Philosophy, USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1985.11–1987.01Aide for ideology to the General Secretary
- 1987–1991Director of the Institute of Marxism–Leninism under the CC