Fyodor Kulakov
| Fyodor Kulakov Фёдор Кулаков |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Head of the Agricultural Department of the Central Committee | |
|
In office 16 November 1964 – May 1976 |
|
| Preceded by | Vasily Polyakov |
| Succeeded by | Vladimir Korlov |
| First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the Communist Party | |
|
In office 25 June 1960 – November 1964 |
|
| Preceded by | Nikolai Belyaev |
| Succeeded by | Leonid Efremov |
| Full member of the 24th, 25th Politburo | |
|
In office 9 April 1971 – 17 July 1978 |
|
| Member of the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th Secretariat | |
|
In office 29 September 1965 – 17 July 1978 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
4 February 1918 Russian SFSR |
| Died | 17 July 1978 (aged 60) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Citizenship | Soviet |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
| Profession | Agronomist |
Fyodor Davydovich Kulakov (Russian: Фёдор Давыдович Кулаков) (4 February 1918 – 17 July 1978) was a Soviet-Russian statesman during the Cold War.
Kulakov served as Stavropol First Secretary from 1960 until 1964, immediately following Nikita Khrushchev's ouster. During his First Secretaryship in Stavropol, Kulakov met Mikhail Gorbachev; Kulakov became Gorbachev's mentor, and when he left his Stavropol First Secretaryship to enter national politics, Gorbachev took over his former office. Kulakov was elected to several important seats in the 1960s. In 1971 he was elected to the Political Bureau (Politburo). He became a leading figure of Soviet leadership, and impressed Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to such an extent that commentators believed that Kulakov would become Brezhnev's successor. This did not happen since Kulakov died in 1978, four years before Brezhnev.
Kulakov was born in 1918 to a peasant family in Penza Oblast. Like his parents, Kulakov studied and graduated as an agronomist. In 1938 Kulakov started work in a sugar combine, and attended an Agricultural Institute, from which he graduated in 1941. In 1940 he became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) and became a leading figure in the local Komsomol regional committee. Kulakov was later appointed to the position of Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Regional Party Committee of the Penza Oblast. In Penza, Kulakov became a close companion of future Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. He advanced through the Soviet hierarchy quickly and in 1955 he became Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), eventually being promoted to Minister of Grain Products. In 1960 he was appointed to First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Party Committee. During his tenure as Stavropol First Secretary he appointed Mikhail Gorbachev to the provincial level of the party apparatus—a promotion which would prove to be crucial. In 1964 he left his office in Stavropol to pursue national politics; Gorbachev took over his former office as First Secretary. Throughout his tenure in Moscow, Kulakov remained a loyal client of Mikhail Suslov.
...
Wikipedia