Ivan Silayev facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ivan Silayev
Silayev in 1991
Prime Minister of the Soviet Union
In office 24 August 1991 – 19/25 December 1991
Preceded by	Valentin Pavlov
Succeeded by	Post abolished Boris Yeltsin (as Prime Minister of Russia)
Permanent Representative of Russia to the European Community (later European Union)
In office 18 December 1991 – 7 February 1994
Preceded by	Lev Voronin (for the Soviet Union)
Succeeded by	Vasily Likhachev
Chairman of the Inter-republican Economic Committee of the Soviet Union
In office 20 September 1991 – 14 November 1991
Preceded by	Post established
Succeeded by	Post abolished
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR
In office 15 June 1990 – 26 September 1991
Preceded by	Alexander Vlasov
Succeeded by	Boris Yeltsin (acting)
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union
In office 1 November 1985 – 9 October 1990
Premier	Nikolai Ryzhkov
Minister of Aviation Industry
In office 20 February 1981 – 1 November 1985
Premier	Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Ryzhkov
Preceded by	Vasily Kazakov
Succeeded by	Appolon Systov
Minister of Machine-Tool and Tool Building Industry
In office 19 December 1980 – 20 February 1981
Premier	Nikolai Tikhonov
Preceded by	Anatoly Kostousov
Succeeded by	Boris Balmont
Full member of the 26th, 27th, 28th Central Committee
In office 3 March 1981 – 26 July 1991
Personal details
Born	(1930-10-21)21 October 1930 Baktyzino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR
Died	8 February 2023(2023-02-08) (aged 92) Nizhni Novgorod, Russia
Nationality	Soviet/Russian
Political party	Independent
Other political affiliations	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1959–1991)
Residences	Moscow, Russia
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Ivan Stepanovich Silayev (Russian: Ива́н Степа́нович Сила́ев; 21 October 1930 – 8 February 2023) was an important politician from the Soviet Union and later Russia. He served as the very last Prime Minister of the Soviet Union. This happened during the final years of the Soviet Union, when he was in charge of the economy. He took over from Valentin Pavlov in this role.

After finishing his studies in the 1950s, Silayev started his career in the aviation industry. By the 1970s, he became a minister in charge of aviation. During the time when Leonid Brezhnev was in power, Silayev became the Minister of Aviation Industry and also the Minister of Machine-Tool and Tool Building Industry. He also became a member of the Central Committee, a very important group in the Communist Party.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev appointed him as a deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. This was a high-ranking position in the Soviet government. In October 1990, he left his central government jobs to focus on being the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR. He had been appointed to this role in June of that year.

During his time as the head of the Russian government, he faced many challenges. While he supported most of Boris Yeltsin's plans, he did not agree with Yeltsin's ideas for republics to break away from the Soviet Union. This disagreement happened while Silayev was also serving as the Soviet Prime Minister. Because of this, he was removed from his Russian Prime Minister role in September 1991.

Silayev became the de facto (meaning "in practice") Prime Minister of the Soviet Union on 28 August 1991. This happened after a failed attempt by some officials to take over the government, known as the August coup. After the Soviet Union broke apart, he continued to work for the Russian government. He served as Russia's representative to the European Community (which later became the European Union) until 1994. In 2007, Silayev ran as a candidate for the Agrarian Party of Russia in an election.

Early Life and Career Path

Silayev was born on 21 October 1930, in a place called Baktyzino, in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast region of the Russian SFSR (which was part of the Soviet Union). He studied at the Kazan Aviation Institute and became a mechanical engineer in 1954. In 1959, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

He started working at the Gorky Aviation Plant in 1954. He worked his way up from a low position to become the plant's foreman between 1971 and 1974. Later, he became the Deputy Minister of Aviation Industry. In 1981, he was appointed Minister of Aviation Industry. He also briefly served as the Minister of Machine-Tool and Tool Building Industry from 1980 to 1981.

Silayev was elected to the important Central Committee at the 26th Congress. In 1985, during Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership, Silayev was made a deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. He also chaired the Machine-Building Bureau. He held these positions until he became the Premier of the Russian SFSR in 1990. In 1986, he led a government group investigating the Chernobyl disaster.

Leading the Russian Government

Becoming Premier of Russia

Choosing a new leader for the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR (often called the Premier of the Russian SFSR) was not seen as a very big event at first. Boris Yeltsin, who was the chairman of the Russian SFSR Supreme Soviet (a top governing body), was asked to pick candidates for this job.

Three people were chosen as candidates: Mikhail Bocharov, a successful businessman; Yuri Ryzhkov, a university rector; and Ivan Silayev. Ryzhkov later decided not to run. During the election, Bocharov shared a bold plan for economic changes. He wanted to sell off state-owned industries and stop giving money to businesses that weren't making a profit. Silayev didn't have such a detailed plan, but many believed Yeltsin preferred him for the role.

In the first round of voting, Silayev received more votes than Bocharov. Since neither candidate got more than half the votes, a second round was needed. Because Silayev was Yeltsin's favorite and had more votes, he ran unopposed in the second round and won by a large number of votes.

Silayev's Government Challenges

Silayev often said that if he received different instructions from the Soviet Prime Minister and Yeltsin, he would always follow the laws of the Russian SFSR, meaning he would obey Yeltsin. During his time as Premier, Silayev was very loyal to Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet. Unlike the leader before him, Aleksandr Vlasov, Silayev tried to make the Russian Government more modern.

Silayev wanted to choose government members based on their skills, not just the old Soviet system (called nomenklatura). He even asked psychologists to interview candidates. However, his government lacked a clear shared vision. Some conservative members were chosen for the cabinet in July 1990.

One big problem Silayev faced was that the Supreme Soviet was taking power away from the government's executive branch. They created new groups that did the same jobs as existing ministries. For example, the Minister of Industry, Viktor Kisin, joked that he was the only employee in his entire ministry. In December 1990, Silayev and his government were asked to create a new plan for economic changes. This plan, called the "Yeltsin–Silayev Plan," was finished in April 1991. It supported selling state-owned businesses and moving towards a market economy.

Leading the Soviet Government

During the August Coup, a group of hardline officials tried to take control of the Soviet Union. However, they failed to arrest Silayev or other important Russian officials. Silayev was among the Russian politicians who went to Mikhail Gorbachev's summer home right after the coup failed.

On 24 August, the Russian SFSR government issued a rule that gave the Russian government control over central Soviet economic and communication ministries. They also took control of the Communist Party and KGB archives. With the central Soviet government's power greatly weakened, Gorbachev created a special committee led by Silayev. This committee's job was to choose a new Cabinet of Ministers.

This committee later became the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet economy (COMSE), also led by Silayev. Its purpose was to manage the Soviet economy. On 28 August 1991, the Supreme Soviet temporarily gave COMSE the same powers as the Cabinet of Ministers. This made Silayev the de facto (in practice) Premier of the Soviet Union.

The COMSE, which was mostly controlled by Russia, was soon replaced by the Inter-republican Economic Committee (IEC). This new committee was better suited to work with the different Soviet republics. Its job was to coordinate economic policy across the Soviet Union. Silayev also became the chairman of the IEC on 20 September. This officially strengthened his position, but he was leading a Soviet Union that was quickly falling apart. He was removed as Russian Premier just a few days later.

As the USSR continued to break up, with several republics becoming independent countries, the IEC changed again. On 14 November, it became the Interstate Economic Committee of the Economic Community [ru]. This new committee was supposed to coordinate relations between the remaining republics and those that had left the USSR. Silayev remained its chairman and was called "Prime Minister of the Economic Community." However, this office and community had no future, as the Soviet Union officially dissolved just weeks later.

When he first became Soviet Premier, while also holding the Russian premiership under Boris Yeltsin, Silayev wanted to reduce the central government's power. He wanted to give more power to the Soviet Republics. However, as he saw Yeltsin quickly trying to weaken the Soviet Union's institutions, his opinion changed. He then demanded that Yeltsin give back much of the central government's authority that he had taken after the August Coup. He failed in this, and his position as Russian SFSR Premier became very weak. He was replaced only a month after becoming Soviet Premier.

Oleg Lobov, who was Silayev's First Deputy Premier, led a group against Silayev in the Russian SFSR Council of Ministers. They managed to remove him on 26 September 1991. Lobov then became the acting Premier of the Russian SFSR. Silayev, as the person overseeing the economy, was given the job of starting economic changes in the Soviet Union. These changes needed to work for both the central government and the Soviet republics. Silayev tried to keep the economy together while also moving it towards a market system.

On 19 December 1991, Yeltsin announced that the COMSE committee, which was the Soviet Union's last government, was dissolved. Silayev then retired from his post. The legality of this dissolution was unclear because Gorbachev had not agreed to it. However, on 25 December 1991, Gorbachev announced he was resigning as President of the USSR. This meant the Soviet government officially stopped existing.

After the Soviet Union

On 18 December 1991, Boris Yeltsin appointed Silayev as Russia's Permanent Representative to the European Community in Brussels. He held this diplomatic position until 7 February 1994.

In late 1994, Silayev became the President of the Machine-Building Association of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This group included many civilian and military businesses, mostly from Russia. In 1995, he joined the Ecological Movement "Cedar". From 1998, he was the President of Industrial Machine, a large industrial and financial group. At the same time, he led the National Committee, which worked to improve economic cooperation with Latin America.

On 26 September 2002, Silayev became the Chairman of the Russian Union of Mechanical Engineers. His wife passed away on 18 March 2006. In the 2007 Russian legislative election, Silayev ran as a candidate for the Agrarian Party of Russia, but he was not elected.

Ivan Silayev died on 8 February 2023, at the age of 92.

Awards and Recognition

Silayev received several important awards during his life. He was given an Order of Lenin twice, once in 1971 and again in 1975. In 1975, he was also awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour, which was a very high honor for his work.

In 1972, he won a Lenin Prize. He also received the Order of the October Revolution in 1981 and the National Prize of Peter the Great in 2002. The Russian government also recognized him with the Diploma of the Government of the Russian Federation on 19 October 2000 and 21 October 2005.

See also

In Spanish: Iván Siláyev para niños