Statesman.
The chief ideologist and the most prominent party functionary in the cabinet of Leonid Brezhnev. Suslov was an ultra-reactionary and conservative politician.
Background
Lived: 1902-1982.
Mikhail Suslov studied economics and joined the communist party in 1921.
Career
He had a successful career as a party apparatchik and proved himself as a strong theoretician and expert in communist ideology. He also supervised purges and deportations in Stalin’s time.
As a member of Politburo since 1952, his speciality was foreign relations with other communist parties of Eastern Europe. He was behind the decision to put down the Hungarian Revolution (1956) by military force.
Second Secretary
Suslov helped Khrushchev expose the 1957 coup attempt. Thereafter the “Anti-Party Group” was expelled.
Although, Suslov himself had a key role in plotting Khruschev out of power in 1964. The Politburo was not pleased with one man acquiring too much power and Suslov proposed a new system of “collective leadership”. He and other comrades chose Leonid Brezhnev to become the First Secretary and Suslov officially became the Second Secretary.
During the Brezhnev era, Mikhail Suslov was considered the Ideological chief of the party. When he died in 1982, the party elite had already begun fighting each other to succeed Brezhnev.
Mikhail Suslov
Statesman.
The chief ideologist and the most prominent party functionary in the cabinet of Leonid Brezhnev. Suslov was an ultra-reactionary and conservative politician.
Background
Lived: 1902-1982.
Mikhail Suslov studied economics and joined the communist party in 1921.
Career
He had a successful career as a party apparatchik and proved himself as a strong theoretician and expert in communist ideology. He also supervised purges and deportations in Stalin’s time.
As a member of Politburo since 1952, his speciality was foreign relations with other communist parties of Eastern Europe. He was behind the decision to put down the Hungarian Revolution (1956) by military force.
Second Secretary
Suslov helped Khrushchev expose the 1957 coup attempt. Thereafter the “Anti-Party Group” was expelled.
Although, Suslov himself had a key role in plotting Khruschev out of power in 1964. The Politburo was not pleased with one man acquiring too much power and Suslov proposed a new system of “collective leadership”. He and other comrades chose Leonid Brezhnev to become the First Secretary and Suslov officially became the Second Secretary.
During the Brezhnev era, Mikhail Suslov was considered the Ideological chief of the party. When he died in 1982, the party elite had already begun fighting each other to succeed Brezhnev.
Andrey Gromyko