Nikolai Ryzhkov

National Hero of Armenia Nikolai Ryzhkov
Николай Рыжков
Official portrait, 2016
Senator from Belgorod Oblast
In office 17 September 2003 – 25 September 2023
Preceded by	Alexander Dondukov
Succeeded by	Zhanna Chefranova
Member of the State Duma
In office 17 January 1996 – 17 September 2003
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia
In office 7 August 1996 – 1998
Preceded by	Post established
Succeeded by	Viktor Zorkaltsev
10th Premier of the Soviet Union
In office 27 September 1985 – 14 January 1991
President	Andrei Gromyko Mikhail Gorbachev
Deputy	First Deputy Premiers Ivan Arkhipov Heydar Aliyev Nikolai Talyzin Vsevolod Murakhovsky Yuri Maslyukov Lev Voronin Vladilen Nikitin
Preceded by	Nikolai Tikhonov
Succeeded by	Valentin Pavlov (as Prime Minister)
Head of the Economic Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 1982 – August 1985
Preceded by	Boris Gostev
Succeeded by	Boris Gostev
Full member of the 26th, 27th Politburo
In office 23 April 1985 – 13 July 1990
Member of the 25th Secretariat
In office 22 November 1982 – 15 October 1985
Full member of the 26th, 27th, 28th of the Central Committee
In office 3 March 1981 – 29 August 1991
Personal details
Born	Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov (1929-09-28)28 September 1929 Shcherbynivka, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Died	28 February 2024(2024-02-28) (aged 94) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, Moscow
Political party	Independent (2003–2024)
Other political affiliations	People's Patriotic Union of Russia (1996–2003) Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1956–1991)
Spouse	Ludmila Ryzhkova
Children	Marina

Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov (Russian: Николай Иванович Рыжков; Ukrainian: Микола Іванович Рижков; 28 September 1929 – 28 February 2024) was a Russian politician. He served as the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and was succeeded by Valentin Pavlov as prime minister. The same year, he lost his seat on the Presidential Council, going on to become Boris Yeltsin's leading opponent in the 1991 presidential election of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He was the last surviving premier of the Soviet Union following the death of Ivan Silayev on 8 February 2023.

Ryzhkov was born in the city of Shcherbynivka, Ukrainian SSR (now Toretsk) in 1929. After graduating in 1959, he worked first in local industry before being moved into government in the 1970s, working his way up through the hierarchy of Soviet industrial ministries. He was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee in 1979. Following Nikolai Tikhonov's resignation as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Ryzhkov was voted into office in his place. During his tenure he supported Mikhail Gorbachev's 1980s reform of the Soviet economy.

Elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in December 1995 as an independent, Ryzhkov subsequently led the Power to the People voting bloc, later becoming the formal leader of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia alongside Gennady Zyuganov, who was an unofficial leader. On 17 September 2003, he resigned his seat in the Duma and became a member of the Federation Council representing Belgorod Oblast, which he held until he retired in 2023.