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.
Party career ) during a visit to the
US in 1963 He joined the
CPSU in May 1927. In 1931, Kuznetsov was among the workers of the Makeevka plant who went on an internship in the
United States, at the
Carnegie Institute of Technology. In 1936, he moved from Makeevka to the
Moscow region, got a job at the Elektrostal plant as head of the metallographic laboratory. In September 1937, he began to rise to the highest echelons of power: Vasily began working in the apparatus of the
People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the
USSR. In 1940, he was promoted to deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan), a key role in Soviet economic planning. He also served as an alternate member of the State Defense Committee during the war years, contributing to the wartime economic efforts. In 1946, he became chairman of the
Soviet of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet and a Deputy of the Soviet of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet. He held the position until March 1953, at the same time being a member of the
Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1953, he went to work at the USSR Foreign Ministry, for some time he headed the Soviet embassy in China. In 1955, he became the first deputy
minister of foreign affairs of the USSR. After the head of the USSR Foreign Ministry
Dmitri Shepilov was transferred to the secretariat of the
Central Committee of the CPSU, He became one of the main candidates for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. However,
Andrei Gromyko took the position. Kuznetsov made an invaluable contribution to the settlement of the Caribbean crisis. As an official representative of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Kuznetsov repeatedly met with the Americans, explaining to them the position of the USSR, in every possible way preventing a nuclear war. Another major achievement of Kuznetsov is the establishment of negotiations with China after the bloody clash on
Damansky Island, which threatened to escalate into a full-scale war. He was the head of the Soviet delegation at the negotiations with the
PRC on the demarcation of the border. In 1971, he was awarded the
Hero of the Socialist Labor after his 70th birthday. Kuznetsov was engaged in the settlement of the Indo-Pakistani crisis, his diplomatic activity at least temporarily helped to avoid deepening the bloody conflict. in October 1973 In 1977, Kuznetsov became the first deputy chairman of the
Presidium of the USSR. On 10 November 1982, after the
death of Brezhnev, Kuznetsov became the acting Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR until on 16 June 1983, he was succeeded by
Yuri Andropov. Andropov was the head of the USSR for a short time – on 9 February 1984, he died at the age of 69. Kuznetsov succeeded Andropov from 9 February to 11 April 1984, when
Chernenko took the position. Kuznetsov headed the USSR on 10 March 1985 after the death of Chernenko. On 27 July 1985, Gromyko was chosen by the Central Committee and succeeded Kuznetsov. == Later life and death ==