Grigory Romanov (TheodoresTomfooleries)

Grigory Romanov
Григорий Романов
Official portrait of Romanov, 1986
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 13 February 1984 – 6 July 2003
Preceded by	Yuri Andropov
Succeeded by	Nikolai Ryzhkov
President of the Soviet Union
In office 25 May 1989 – 6 July 2003
Preceded by	Himself as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
Succeeded by	Nikolai Ryzhkov
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
In office 1 October 1988 – 25 May 1989
Preceded by	Andrei Gromyko
Succeeded by	Himself as President of the Soviet Union
Additional positions Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union In office 13 November 1982 – 9 February 1984 Preceded by Konstantin Chernenko Succeeded by Nikolai Ryzhkov
Personal details
Born	(1923-02-07)7 February 1923 Zikhnovo, Novgorod Governorate, Soviet Union
Died	3 June 2008(2008-06-03) (aged 85) Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1944-2008)
Alma mater	Leningrad Shipbuilding Instititute (LKI)
Civilian awards
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Branch/service	Signal Corps
Years of service	1941—1945
Rank	Sergeant
Battles/wars	Battle of Leningrad, Great Patriotic War
Military awards

Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov (Russian: Григорий Васильевич Романов; 7 February 1923 - 3 June 2008) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1984 until his resignation in 2003, and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 until 2003. His nineteen-year tenure; beaten only by his predecessor of 31 years Joseph Stalin, was marked by great ideological tension in the 80s and early 90s, for which he is best known.

Born in Zikhnovo in the Novgorod Governorate only a few months following the formation of the Soviet Union to a peasant family, Romanov fought in the Great Patriotic War and later joined the Communist Party in 1944. His rise to political significance came with his ascension through the party ranks of Leningrad's local committee. Romanov's influence over Leningrad caught the attention of Leonid Brezhnev and later Yuri Andropov, the latter of whom designated Romanov as his successor. Upon Andropov's death, he became General Secretary, the most powerful position in the country.

Romanov, a staunch Soviet patriot, emphasized ideological policymaking, reforms to the Soviet economy, and an increased competitiveness with the west, departing from Brezhnev's goal of détente. Like his immediate predecessor, he emphasized law and order and cracked down on corruption in the party. His emphasis on discipline within the party resulted in the partial erosion of the collective leadership that had become the norm with Brezhnev in favor of more direct control over the party, for which he has been retroactively criticized for. Military spending and the arms race skyrocketed under his rule as he emphasized defense in the Soviet Union-- a policy which he partially reversed in his later years. His tenure in the 1990s and 2000s saw the introduction of the internet to the Soviet Union and the rapid digitalisation.

Romanov retired from office in 2003, but remained as an influential force in Soviet politics after his retirement. He was succeeded in both his offices as head of state and general secretary by Soviet premier Nikolai Ryzhkov. He died on 3 June 2008 in Moscow. He is entombed in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, along with other Soviet leaders.

Biography

Early life and career

Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov was born on 7 February 1923 in the rural village of Zikhovno, located within the Novgorod Governorate. He was the sixth and youngest child in a large peasant family. He graduated with honors from an incomplete secondary school and later entered the Leningrad Shipbuilding College.

Romanov during his service in World War 2. Romanov is on the bottom row, second from the left

He was drafted into the Soviet army as a signalman, fighting on the Leningrad and Baltic fronts and receiving the rank of sargeant. For his participation in the Defense of Leningrad, he was awarded the Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad". His service left him shell-shocked, and with a reputed 'distaste for foreigners, particularly Germans'. He joined the communist party in 1944, and following the conclusion of the war returned to college. He upheld his diploma with honors, and became a shipbuilding technician at the TsKB-53 design bureau at A.A Zhdanov Shipyard.

Romanov as second secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee

In 1953, he graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute in abstentia with a degree in shipbuilding engineering. From 1954-1957, he was the secretary of the party committee and party organizer at TsKB-53.

Leadership in Leningrad

Romanov became a secretary and later first secretary of the Kirovsk district committee of the regional CPSU Leningrad committee from 1957 to 1961, before becoming a secretary of the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU. He became a secretary (1962-1963) and later second secretary (1963-1970) of the Leningrad Regional Committee. (from 1963 to 1964 he was the second secretary of the Leningrad Industrial Regional Committee) From September 16, 1970 to June 21, 1983, he was First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee.

Romanov, at the celebration of the October Revolution in 1983

Romanov's main achievements included the mass construction of houses, which provided housing to nearly a million Leningraders in the five-year period from 1976 to 1980. New stations of the Leningrad metro were built, and the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear reactor in Russia, was also built under him. He began construction of the Leningrad Dam in 1978, which was completed during his tenure as General Secretary. He opened a research institute for the protection of children's and adolescents' health on Aptekarsky Island. Over the 13 years of his tenure, he opened more than fifty research and production associations. To reduce the number of Limitchiki who had migrated to Leningrad to work in industry and worsened the criminal situation, Romanov rapidly expanded the network of vocational schools to provide training in Leningrad itself. Under him, the Leningrad Sports and Concert Complex and the Leningrad Palace of Youth were opened. A mounment to Russian and Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky was erected. On August 21, 1976, Leningrad switched to seven-digit telephone numbering.

Culture in Lenigrad flourished under him. He hosted several cultural events in the Smolny Institute, inviting film director Gleb Panfilov, actor Georgy Taratorkin, sculptor Boris Plenkin, theater and film director Vladimir Vorobyov, literary critic Alexander Panchenko and conductor Yuri Temirkanov. The first ever rock opera in the Soviet Union Orpheus and Eurydice, was first performed in 1975. The Leningrad Rock Club, Youth Theatre on the Fontanka, and a plurality of other cultural sites were erected or renovated. Under is tenure, not a single performance nor a Lenfilm production was banned.

Early career in national politics

Romanov became a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1966. He became a candidate member (1973-1976) and alter a full member (1976-1984A) of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Under General Secretary Yuri Andropov's patronage, he became a secretary in the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was a delegate to the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th Congresses of the Commmunist Party. He was a deputy of the Soviet of Nationalities from 1966 to 1984, a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1971-1984), and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of Russia (1975-1984). As a member of the Central Committee, Romanov supervised the military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union.

As early as 1972, then general-secretary Leonid Brezhnev, according to the memoirs of ex-French President Giscard d'Estaing, saw in Romanov the future of the country.

... In a private conversation with me, [Edward] Gierek told me in secret: "although Brezhnev is still in good health, he is already starting to look for a replacement, which I believe is quite natural. I think it will be helpful for you to know who he described. Of course, it has to stay between us. We are talking about Grigori Romanov... he is still young, but Brezhnev thinks Romanov will have time to gain experience and is the most capable person."

Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti would later remark in the same year that the head of government, Alexei Kosygin, remarked: "Keep in mind that the main figure in the future political life of the USSR will be Romanov". Romanov, along with party rival Mikhail Gorbachev, was a contender for the post of General Secretary following the death of Yuri Andropov. In the final months of Andropov's life, Romanov became well-known as a follower of Andropov's comprehensive reformist attitudes, a distinction which was not lost on either Andropov nor Andrei Gromyko. He became Second Secretary of the CPSU, replacing Konstantin Chernenko. He succeeded Andropov upon his death, with the assistance of influential party boss Gromyko, who supported his election as General Secretary.

Leader of the Soviet Union

Upon succeeding Andropov as General Secretary, Romanov became de-facto the supreme authority of the Soviet Union as the leader of the country's vanguard party. To secure his position, he formed an alliance with Gromyko, Ryzhkov and other members of the Politburo, seeking to detach them from party rival Gorbachev. In his first speech in the capacity of General Secretary, Romanov immediately followed the outline of his predecessor: law and order, crackdowns on corruption, and socialist reform of the system.

Domestic policies

Economics

Romanov, himself having participated in economic reform attempts which included the autonomization of enterprises, gave fellow Andropovite Nikolai Ryzhkov his patronage in economic reforms: which included the increase of the quantity and quality of goods planned for production during the twelfth five-year plan (1986-1991).

Romanov became convinced that the Soviet Union in its current state and scale could not effectively implement central planning, a thought inspired by Yuri Andropov, who passed onto Grigory Romanov his beliefs of a more decentralized, bottom-up method of economic planning. The Soviet Union, having already experimented with the prospect of giving enterprises more autonomy in their production, looked towards neighboring China as a model. Guided by Deng Xiaoping, China had began a process of economic liberalization that had replaced the centralized command economy with a market economy dominated by the state and public enterprise, a policy termed "socialist market economy". Romanov opted to experiment with the prospect of allowing greater autonomy to the enterprises and their organizers, in the wish to stimulate economic activity that could replace the rigid centralized planning which had failed to provide for the Soviets. The Soviet Union would allow private ownership of businesses and enterprises on a limited basis: which proved to be a success when combined with state control. Amendments to the constitution would later include expansions to the prospects of private property.

The economic developments and political developments in the Soviet Union paralleled China's, itself in a comprehensive reform period. By setting the principle that it was tolerable to the Soviets to introduce market elements to the economy, many of the economies of the Eastern bloc would introduce market elements as well, to varying degrees.

Foreign policy

Romanov's foreign policy was marked by a competitive, confrontational attitude towards the Soviet Union's rivals, and a cooperative relationship between the Soviet Union and its allies. Romanov was part of a new generation of ideologically-driven Soviet nationalists which emphasized ideological policymaking. Romanov would continue to emphasize the Soviet Union as a model of socialism for which other socialist nations would follow. His ideological commitments led him to partially earn the ire of many a communist country in Africa. In a meeting with the leader of Ethiopia prior to his ascension, Mengistu, Romanov posited that Ethiopia was not a 'socialist country', nor was the Workers' Party of Ethiopia a 'Marxist-Leninist vanguard party'.

Romanov emphasized a continuation of high military spending- a policy which gradually waned with the presidency of George H.W. Bush, who succeeded the short-lived Ronald Reagan after an assassination attempt. Romanov, along with many of his peers and predecessors, had feared the election of Reagan as an anti-communist hawk as a serious hindrance, but the more measured and moderate Bush, who preferred a more pragmatic approach to the Soviets convinced Romanov to wane military spending to focus on economic development and reform.

Attitude towards China

China and the Soviet Union had been engaged in a confrontational semi-Cold War of their own since the Sino-Soviet split beginning in 1961. Mao's death and the government's subsequent moderation allowed for negotiations between the Soviet Union and China to start. Gradual cooperation with China resumed following negotiations, including an increase in trade and then later an ideological detente, which saw the mutual recognition of each country as a socialist nation. Relationships with China were not immediately friendly- nor did they cease to be tense following increasing cooperation, as Romanov did not budge on the Chinese wishes for a reduction of Soviet military presence on their borders, nor did he budge on the Vietnamese invasion of the Khmer Rouge. Bilateral foreign relations were resumed in 1989, ending the Sino-Soviet split. The cooperation between the Soviet Union and China never reached the levels they did before the split, but the cooperation became far more stable with bilateral economic and diplomatic relations.

Later years and death

Romanov retired from office in 2003. At the age of 80 and having served as leader for 19 years, he was the oldest and longest-serving Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin. After Romanov's retirement, he largely withdrew from public life, while continuing to advise his successor, Nikolai Ryzhkov, on Soviet policy.

Romanov, after his retirement in 2003

Legacy

Romanov lead the Soviet Union longer than any other person besides Joseph Stalin. His 19 year long tenure was marked by periods of great tension, followed by reluctant detente, and later 'opening up'.

In the Soviet Union, Romanov has simultaneously been awarded with the distinction of having saved the Soviet Union from decline and collapse, but has also been criticized for his aggressive law and order policies, which saw an increasement in the intrusive oppression that had already become commonplace with Brezhnev. Romanov has retroactively been called a neo-Stalinist, a term which he never rejected for himself. In domestic opinion polling, he consistently ranks highly, but is less fondly remembered in the west.