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Gorbachev’s former ally Yegor Ligachyov dies aged 100

Ligachyov was one of the authors of the Soviet Union’s anti-alcohol campaign

Yegor Ligachyov Vladimir Musaelyan/TASS

Yegor Ligachyov

© Vladimir Musaelyan/TASS

TOMSK, May 7. /TASS/. Yegor Ligachyov, a former high-ranking official of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party and an ally-turned-critic of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, died on Friday at the age of 100, a spokesperson for the administration of Siberia’s Tomsk Region Alexei Savostyanov told TASS.

"On the evening of May 7, a honorary citizen of the Tomsk Region, Yegor Ligachyov, died in Moscow aged 100," he said.

Yegor Ligachyov was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman, who served as a Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee between 1983 and 1990. He was born on November 29, 1920, in the Siberian village of Dubinkino. In 1985-1988, he was the secretary in charge of ideological issues, which made him de-facto second most important Communist Party member after General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. During this period, he was one of the authors of the Soviet Union’s anti-alcohol campaign. He is also famous for the catchphrase "Boris, you are wrong," addressed to Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin.

On March 11, 1985, he supported Gorbachev during the vote to elect the new General Secretary of the Communist Party. Later, he facilitated the promotion of then first secretary of the Sverdlovsk region’s Communist Party branch, Boris Yeltsin, to a party post in Moscow. In 1992, Ligachyov admitted that the decision to support Gorbachev’s candidacy was one of his biggest mistakes.

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