— Ch. 1 · Conscripted At Fourteen —
Alexei Kosygin.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin was born in the city of Saint Petersburg on the 18th of February 1904. He grew up in a Russian working-class family with his father Nikolai Ilyich and mother Matrona Alexandrovna. His mother died when he was an infant, leaving him to be raised solely by his father. The young boy sympathized with the Revolution early in life. During the Russian Civil War that lasted from 1917 to 1922, Alexei joined the Bolshevik side at just fourteen years old. He was conscripted into a labour army rather than fighting as a soldier. This experience placed him directly within the chaotic machinery of the Red Army during its struggle for survival. After demobilization occurred in 1921, the teenager moved to Siberia to work in Novosibirsk. He found employment within the system of consumer co-operatives there. When asked about this choice later, he quoted Vladimir Lenin saying Co-operation is the path to socialism. He remained in that sector for six years until Robert Eikhe advised him to quit before repressions hit the movement.
Rising Through The Purges
Kosygin applied for Communist Party membership in 1927 and returned to Leningrad in 1930 to study. He graduated from technical school in 1935 and began working as a foreman in a textile mill. His career accelerated rapidly during the Great Purge overseen by Andrei Zhdanov. In 1937 he became director of the October Textile Factory. By July 1938 he headed the Industry and Transport department of the provincial party. That same month he served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Soviets. He held the title mayor of Leningrad City at age thirty-four. In 1939 he was appointed People's Commissar for Textile and Industry. This role earned him a seat on the Central Committee. By 1940 Kosygin became Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. Stalin took the younger man under his wing due to these administrative skills. The dictator shared sensitive financial information about Molotov, Mikoyan, and Kaganovich with him. Stalin sent Kosygin to each home to put their houses into proper order. This access to elite housing like the House on the Embankment came after 1931 when that building was completed.