Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov

Born May 1 (14), 1905, in Kharkov. Soviet state and party figure. Hero of Socialist Labor (1975). Member of the CPSU from 1940.

The son of an office worker, Tikhonov became an assistant locomotive engineer in 1924. After graduating from the Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute in 1930, he held various technical and engineering positions in industry. Between 1933 and 1947 he worked as a shop superintendent or chief engineer at plants in Dnepropetrovsk and Pervoural’sk. From 1947 to 1950 he was director of the Nikopol’ Southern Pipe Metallurgical Plant.

Tikhonov was head of the central board of the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR from 1950 to 1955 and was assistant minister from 1955 to 1957. From 1957 to 1960 he was chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk sovnarkhoz (economic council). Tikhonov served from 1960 to 1965 as deputy chairman, with the rank of minister of the USSR, of the State Scientific Economics Council of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. From 1963 to 1965 he was deputy chairman, again with ministerial rank, of the Gosplan (State Planning Committee) of the USSR. In 1965 he became a deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and in 1976, first deputy chairman. Tikhonov was a candidate member of the Central Committee in 1966. He has been a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1966 and a candidate to the Politburo since 1978. He was a deputy to the fifth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Tikhonov received the State Prize of the USSR in 1943 and 1951. He has been awarded seven Orders of Lenin, three other orders, and various medals.