Frol Romanovich Kozlov

Frol Romanovich Kozlov (1908-1965), prominent Soviet official and protégé of Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev. Kozlov was born of a peasant family in Loschinino, now in Ryazan’ Oblast, Russia. He began work in a textile factory in Kasimov, rising to become assistant foreman. In 1928 he left the factory to study engineering at Leningrad University.

After joining the Communist Party in 1926, Kozlov rose slowly but steadily in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) through a long series of governmental positions. In 1950 he was elected a deputy to the Supreme Soviet (national parliament). He became party head of the Leningrad district in 1953, and in 1957 he was appointed to the Presidium (Politburo), the presiding body of the Supreme Soviet. Kozlov was made a first deputy chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers in 1958, the year in which Khrushchev formally assumed chairmanship of that body.

In 1959 Kozlov made a whirlwind tour of the United States, visiting a number of cities normally closed to Soviet tourists. As a return gesture for this visit, Vice President Richard M. Nixon made a trip to the USSR, during which he held a widely publicized debate with Khrushchev. In May 1960 Kozlov was appointed a secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee (primary governing body of the Soviet system), and in October 1961 he became Second Secretary of the Communist Party. In 1963 he suffered a serious stroke, and he remained in virtual retirement until his death.