On July 12, Soviet party leader Vadim Medvedev died. Many media obituaries claimed that he was the last surviving member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. We have verified the accuracy of this information.
About Medvedev's death reported press service of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, which he headed during Soviet times. Many of the media that wrote about this called Medvedev the last member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Among those who used this formulation were "RIA Novosti», "Kommersant", "RBC", RTVI, "Gazeta.ru", Lenta.ru, "New newspaper"etc.
Political Bureau Central Committee of the CPSU was the leading party body in the USSR. The Politburo was elected by members of the Central Committee and included the most prominent political figures of the country, leaders of the highest party and state bodies. Thus, the Central Committee, formed on XXVII Congress of the CPSU March 6, 1986 approved Politburo members Mikhail Gorbachev, Heydar Aliyev, Vitaly Vorotnikov, Andrei Gromyko, Lev Zaikov, Dinmukhamed Kunaev, Yegor Ligachev, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Mikhail Solomentsev, Viktor Chebrikov, Eduard Shevardnadze and Vladimir Shcherbitsky. Subsequently, the composition of the Politburo changed: some members left (most often to retire), and new ones were introduced in their place. Vadim Medvedev joined the Politburo on September 30, 1988 at the next plenum of the CPSU Central Committee.
From that Politburo at the time of writing this analysis, indeed, no one was left alive. However, this was not the last composition of the party's governing body. In July 1990, the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU was held, at which, on the initiative of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev happened another reorganization of the Central Committee. To the original composition of the new Politburo entered 24 people. Later, as in previous times, the composition changed slightly, and this process continued until the end of July 1991. Then I passed last plenum of the party Central Committee. In August, President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin suspended, and then finally ceased the activities of the CPSU.
Many of the members of the Politburo formed in 1990 are still alive. Among them is the first president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, former Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Egor Stroev, former President of Moldova Petr Luchinsky, former member of the European Parliament from Latvia Alfred Rubix, party leader Ivan Polozkov, who this year turned 90 years old, Vice President of the Russian International Affairs Council Alexander Dzasokhov etc.
Thus, although Vadim Medvedev was indeed the last surviving member of the Politburo, formed in 1986, he cannot be called the last living member of this body in principle. In 1990, a new Politburo was formed, which operated until the CPSU was banned, and many of its members are still alive.
Cover photo: Participants in the May Day demonstration carry portraits of Politburo members. Screenshot oinfo.ru
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