Full Name: Alexei Ivanovich Rykov

Russian: Алексе́й Ива́нович Ры́ко

Date of Birth: 25 February 1881
Birth Place: Saratov, Russia
Date of Death: 15 March 1938 (aged 57)
Death Place: Moscow, Soviet Union
Cause of Death: Execution

Gender: Male
Nationality: Russian (1881–1938), Soviet (1922–38)
Father: Ivan Illych Rykov
Children: Natalia Alekseevna Rykova (born 1917)

Education: Middle school, Saratov, University of Kazan

Political Party:
  • Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (1898-1903)
  • Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks) (1903–18)
  • Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) (1918–25)
  • All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) (1925–38)
Alexei Rykov, Russian: Алексе́й Ива́нович Ры́ко (1881-1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician. In 1892 he began his first year of middle school in Saratov. An outstanding student, he started high school at age 13. He excelled in mathematics, physics and the natural sciences. He graduated from high school in 1900 and enrolled at the University of Kazan to study law, which he did not complete. He joined the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) at the age of 20 and supported the Bolsheviks after the split with the Mensheviks in 1903 led by Vladimir Lenin. He played an active part in the 1905 Russian Revolution.

In spite of his differences with Vladimir Lenin, Rykov was appointed Commissar of the Interior (1917-18), Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy (1918-20) and Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1921-24) and Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1924-29). A strong supporter of the New Economic Policy, he supported Joseph Stalin, Nikolay Bukharin and Mikhail Tomsky to defeat the economic radicals Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinovyev, and Lev Kamenev. In 1929 Stalin turned against the right-wing of the party and Rykov was removed from all posts. Alexei Rykov was accused of being involved with Leon Trotsky in a plot against Joseph Stalin and was executed on 15th March 1938.