The 20-year formal head of state of the Russian republic under Brezhnev
"He had the firm administrative hand of an authoritative man and knew construction better than anyone." — Contemporary assessment
Mikhail Yasnov rose from leather worker and courier to the formal head of state of the Russian SFSR for nearly two decades. As Moscow City Executive Committee chairman (1950–1956), he directed the second reconstruction of the capital: completing the Stalinist high-rises, launching mass housing in the southwest, opening the metro ring line, and doubling residential construction. He served briefly as RSFSR premier (1956–1957), then spent nineteen years as Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet Presidium (1966–1985), the republic's ceremonial head of state throughout the Brezhnev era. A construction engineer who had directed Moscow's defensive fortifications during the Battle of Moscow, he was remembered by contemporaries as harsh but effective.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1918–1922Courier, People's Commissariat of Health RSFSR
- 1922–1928Leather factory worker
- 1925Graduated workers' faculty, Moscow State University; joined CPSU
- 1928–1930Military service, Red Army
- 1930–1938Managerial posts in Moscow construction trusts
- 1938–1949Deputy/First Deputy Chairman, Moscow City Executive Committee; directed defensive construction during Battle of Moscow
- 1949–1950Deputy Minister of Urban Construction, USSR
- 1950–1956Chairman, Moscow City Executive Committee; simultaneously Chairman of the Soviet of the Union (1950–1954)
- 1956–1957Chairman, Council of Ministers of the RSFSR
- 1957–1966First Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers of the RSFSR
- 1966–1985Chairman, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (republican head of state)
- 1976Awarded Hero of Socialist Labor
Related historical events
From RSFSR premier to deputy premier, 1956-1966
Yasnov left the chairmanship of the Moscow City Executive Committee in February 1956 and was appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR, serving until 1957; in the same period he sat on the Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee for the RSFSR. From 1957 to 1966 he was first deputy chairman of the RSFSR Council of Ministers, working directly under the head of the republican government, and from 1961 to 1966 he again served on the Central Committee Bureau for the RSFSR. Across this decade he provided continuity in republican administration from the Khrushchev years into the Brezhnev years. The path of a construction administrator who had run Moscow's rebuilding, through the premiership and deputy premiership of the republic to the chairmanship of the Supreme Soviet Presidium in 1966, illustrates how the Soviet system elevated construction and administrative specialists to posts at the level of head of state.