Mikhail Suslov - Definition and Overview

Mikhail Alexandrovich Suslov (November 21, 1902 - January 25, 1982) was a member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, having joined the party in 1921.

Sent to reimpose Soviet rule on Lithuania after World War II, he sent whole villages to prison camps in Siberia. Promoted to the Politburo (at that time called Presidium) in 1952, he was later a mover behind the coup that removed Nikita Khrushchev and installed Leonid Brezhnev in 1964. He was in charge of party ideology for much of his time in the Secretariat. His death is viewed by some as starting the battle to succeed Brezhnev, in which Yuri Andropov, who secured Suslov's ideology brief, sidelined Andrei Kirilenko and Konstantin Chernenko.

A curious rumor about Suslov is that, when Stalin would be nervous, he would be called in his office so Stalin could relax kicking his buttocks.