And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold, episode 177, The Henchman of Khrushchev and Stalin, part two.

Last time, we covered Lavrenti Beria,

Nikolai Bogonin, Lazzar Kaganovich, and Georgie Malenkov. Today we're going to talk about Anastas Mikoyan, Vyachislav Molotov, Mikhail Suslov, Klimtvorislov, and Andrejedonov.

Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan

was the only one of the henchmen of Stalin and Khrushchev to pretty much last

without being ousted or purged from 1915 when he joined the

Bolshevik party until his retirement in 1965 after Leonad Breznyev came to power.

Mikoyan was born to Armenian parents on November 13,

1895 in the village of Sanahin. He was educated at the Nersissian School in Tiflis, Georgia and

then in a seminary. But the religious life was not the one he felt comfortable in. He became an avowed atheist because of the school.

As he put it, quote, I had a very clear feeling that I didn't believe in God and that I had in fact received a certificate and

materialistic uncertainty. The more I studied religious subjects, the thus I

believe in God. After joining the Bolshevik party, he became a leader in the Caucasus.

He went to Baku, where he became the co-editor of the Sotsial Democrat, and later Isvestia Pacinscoga Sovieta.

During the Russian Civil War he was a commissar in the Red Army where he saved the life of Sergo or

Kidze. It was as a commissar that he would mysteriously escape

execution as one of the Bakku 26.

The Bakku 26. The Bakku 26 were all commissars that were captured by the

trans-Caspian government with Mikayan somehow being the only one not to be killed.

Early on Anastas was a strong supporter of Joseph Stalin.

He was appointed People's Commissar for external and internal trade in

1926 where he performed admirably. Interestingly, after he was made a member of

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