Alexei Rykov

Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (25 February 1881 – 15 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. He was one of the accused in Joseph Stalin's show trials during the Great Purge.

Rykov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. After it split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in 1903, he joined the Bolshevik faction led by Vladimir Lenin. Months prior to the October Revolution of 1917, he became a member of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets and was elected to the Bolshevik Party Central Committee during the Sixth Congress of the Bolshevik Party. Rykov, a moderate, often came into political conflict with Lenin and more radical Bolsheviks but proved influential when the October Revolution finally overthrew the Russian Provisional Government. He served in many roles in the new government, starting October–November (Old Style) as People's Commissar for Internal Affairs on the first roster of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) chaired by Lenin.

During the Russian Civil War (1918–1923), Rykov oversaw the implementation of the "War Communism" economic policy, and helped oversee the distribution of food to the Red Army and the Red Navy. After Lenin was incapacitated by his third stroke in March 1923 Rykov and Lev Kamenev were elected by the Sovnarkom to serve as deputy premiers of the Soviet Union. When Lenin died in January 1924, Rykov was chosen in February by the Council of People's Commissars as premier of both the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and of the Soviet Union. In December 1930 he was removed from the Politburo. From 1931 to 1937, Rykov served as People's Commissar of Communications on the council he formerly chaired. In February 1937 at a meeting of the Central Committee, he was arrested with Nikolai Bukharin. In March 1938, both were found guilty of treason and executed.