Suslov, Mikhail Andreyevich 1902-82
Soviet politician

Born in Shakhovskoye, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1921, and was a member of the Central Committee from 1941 until his death. Throughout his long political career he showed himself to be an ideologist very much of the Stalinist school. A graduate of the Moscow Institute of Economics and the Plekhanov Economic Institute, he became a ruthless and strongly doctrinaire administrator. Among other posts, he was the editor of Pravda (1949-50). He was first appointed to the Presidium (politburo) in 1952, then permanently from 1955. Suslov differed greatly from Nikita Khrushchev both in temperament (Suslov was introverted and aloof) and in political outlook (he disagreed with Khruschev's 'de-Stalinization', liberalizing measures in literature and the arts, economic reforms and foreign policy), and was instrumental in unseating Khrushchev in 1964.

Bibliography: Serge Petroff, The Red Eminence: A Biography of Mikhail A Suslov (1988)