Vasili Kuznetsov (politician)

Vasily Vasilyevich Kuznetsov (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Кузнецо́в; 13 February [O.S. 31 January] 1901 – 5 June 1990) was a Russian Soviet politician who acted as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1983 (after the death of Brezhnev), for a second time in 1984 (after the death of Andropov), and for a third time in 1985 (after the death of Chernenko). He was one of the oldest members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was formally the highest state post. During the term of office, Kuznetsov was 81–82, 82–83, and 84 years old, respectively. He is the oldest head of the Soviet and Russian state in history (he was older than all three predecessors in this post).

 Biography 

 Early life 
Kuznetsov was born on February, 13 [O.S. 31 January] 1901, in the village of Sofilovka, Ovsyanovsky volost, Varnavinsky district, Kostroma province. Vasily's father, Vasily Mikhailov Kuznetsov, was a peasant, the head of a large, poor family. In 1915, He graduated from a rural school and immediately entered a pedagogical school in the village of Poretskoye, Chuvash Republic (then in Simbirsk Governorate). He studied at the school until 1919. With the beginning of the Civil War, he ended up in the ranks of the Red Army, until 1921. After the end of the war, he entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, which he graduated in 1926. In the same year, he went to the Donbas, got a job as a research engineer at the Makeevsky Metallurgical Plant. Soon he was appointed shift engineer, then deputy chief. In 1930, he was the head of an open-hearth shop.