Viktor Vasilyevich Grishin (1914-1992) was a senior Soviet party official who ran the Moscow city Communist Party organization from 1967 to 1985. Before that he headed the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (1956-1967). He became a candidate member of the Politburo in 1961 and a full member in 1971.

As Moscow party boss Grishin oversaw the capital during the Brezhnev years, including the 1980 Olympics. After Konstantin Chernenko’s death in March 1985 he was considered a conservative rival to Mikhail Gorbachev for the general secretaryship. Gorbachev replaced him in Moscow with Boris Yeltsin in December 1985, and Grishin was removed from the Politburo in February 1986. His career illustrates the Brezhnev-era party apparatus that the security services served and that Gorbachev’s leadership dismantled.

Sources

• Brown, Archie. The Gorbachev Factor. Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Christian Science Monitor. Report on Moscow party chief Viktor Grishin and the Soviet succession, March 4, 1985.

Summary entry. A fuller, document-based profile is in preparation.