How did Anastas Mikoyan feed the entire Soviet Union and save the world from World War III?
Photo source: TASS Avkaz revolutionary, Stalin’s favorite People’s Commissar, long-liver of the Kremlin, who worked “from Ilyich to Ilyich without heart attack and paralysis“, the legendary Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan. He is interesting not only because he was able to politically “survive” all the party purges of Stalin and Khrushchev, but also because of his personal contribution to the development of the entire Soviet Union!
Mikoyan’s almost thirty years of leadership of the Ministries of Trade (both domestic and foreign), Supply and Food Industry introduced the Soviet Union to Soviet “champagne”, delicious American ice cream, which was known to all the inhabitants of the vast country, as well as to “Provencal” mayonnaise.
How did Mikoyan manage to “feed” the whole country, and save the world from World War III to boot? First things first!
In November 1895, Anastas Mikoyan was born into a poor Armenian family. During the First World War, he heroically fought against the Turks as part of the Armenian squad of Andranik Ozanyan. At the age of 20, he joined the RSDLP(b), becoming one of the key people of the party that established the power of the Soviets in the Caucasus.
Friendship with Joseph Stalin allowed the young, 30-year-old revolutionary to take the responsible post of People’s Commissar of Internal and Foreign Trade of the USSR. With minor reshuffles and reorganizations of the People’s Commissariats (ministries), Mikoyan spent almost 30 years in this post.
Fed the entire Soviet Union
Back in 1936, at the head of the Soviet delegation, Mikoyan went to the United States in order to study the American experience in the development of the food industry. It was this trip that radically changed the “diet” of Soviet citizens. Here are Mikoyan’s merits:
- Ice cream brought from the United States in a waffle cup, which was eaten by almost all Soviet children, and even some adults;
- Introduction of mayonnaise production technology, which was called “Provencal”;
- Widespread introduction of industrial bread baking instead of manual baking;
- Mass production of Soviet “champagne”;
- Production of the first Soviet hamburgers according to the American model;
- The introduction of the American experience in meat processing and organization of sausage production is the famous Mikoyan Combine.
A.I. Mikoyan in the USA.
Saved the world from the Third World War
Caution, political dexterity, flexible mind – all these qualities, which are usually characteristic of diplomats, distinguished Mikoyan from many top figures of the Central Committee of the party. Based on this, in the 1950s, after Stalin’s death, Khrushchev used Mikoyan as a man with whom he could come to an agreement.
In 1954, Mikoyan was sent to Yugoslavia to restore relations with Tito; At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, he actively negotiated with Fidel Castro, establishing relations with distant Cuba.
However, the benefit of Mikoyan’s diplomatic efforts was the settlement of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Anastas Ivanovich alternately negotiated with both Castro and Kennedy. As you know, that Soviet-American conflict could at any second escalate into a full-scale Third World War, in which there could be no winner! However, the Soviet and American sides managed to come to an agreement, in which special merit belongs to Mikoyan.
A.I. Mikoyan and F. Castro. Photo source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta
After Khrushchev’s resignation in the autumn of 1964, Mikoyan was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (formally, the highest state position in the country), but in December 1965, upon reaching the age of 70, he was dismissed by Brezhnev and replaced by the loyal Podgorny.
Despite this, Anastas Ivanovich did not leave the political scene, remaining a member of the Central Committee of the party and a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR until 1976.