Leningrad party leader during the Thaw who became ambassador to China
In 1970, the Leningrad party chief with no diplomatic background was suddenly appointed ambassador to China. Brezhnev reportedly found his independent character and wartime authority discomfiting.
A civil engineer who graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport, Tolstikov fought in World War II and then threw himself into the postwar reconstruction of Leningrad. Appointed First Secretary of the Leningrad Oblast Party Committee by Khrushchev in 1962, he led the city's implementation of the 1965 economic reform and drove large-scale construction projects. In 1970 he was unexpectedly reassigned as Soviet ambassador to China, a move widely seen as Brezhnev's response to Tolstikov's independent authority. Despite having no diplomatic experience, he maintained a working channel of dialogue with Beijing during the Sino-Soviet split, and later served as ambassador to the Netherlands before retiring.
Career Timeline
- 1934–1940Construction technician, then graduated Leningrad Railway Transport Institute, chief engineer of military construction unit
- 1941–1946Red Army service, fought on Karelian front, head of transport section with occupation forces in Germany
- 1948–1960Held construction, soviet and party posts in Leningrad, rising to Second Secretary of Leningrad Oblast Committee
- 1962–1970First Secretary of Leningrad Oblast Committee; member, CC CPSU Bureau for the RSFSR (1962–1966)
- 1962–1971Member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
- 1970–1978Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to China
- 1979–1982Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the Netherlands