Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee Nikolai Ryzhkov resigned from the Federation Council

Chairman of the Federation Council (FAC) Valentina Matvienko prematurely terminated the powers of the oldest senator, the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, 94-year-old Nikolai Ryzhkov. Since 2003, he represented the government of the Belgorod region in the upper house of parliament. Ryzhkov was the last member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee to hold an active position in modern Russia. Among the other living members of the Politburo, only 94-year-old Vadim Medvedev, one of the closest associates of the last Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, remains.

Ryzhkov was born on September 28, 1929 in the village of Dyleevka, Donetsk region (now DPR) in the family of a hereditary miner. After graduating from the Kramatorsk Mechanical Engineering College in 1950, he worked at the Ural Heavy Engineering Plant named after. S. Ordzhonikidze (in 1971 renamed to PA Uralmash). In 1959 he graduated from the Ural Polytechnic Institute named after. S. M. Kirov with a degree in mechanical engineer. By 1970, Ryzhkov had grown from a shift foreman to the director of Uralmash, which specialized in the production of armored vehicles and equipment for the ferrous metallurgy. He headed the plant until 1975. In 1975, the future prime minister became the first deputy minister of heavy and transport engineering of the USSR. In 1979 he moved to the position of first deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee. In 1985, he became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, the governing body of the Communist Party. At the beginning of perestroika on September 27, 1985, Ryzhkov became chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.