Soviet statesman from the start to the end of the Cold War. In 1906, he was born in Alexeyevka, Belgorod Oblast, Russian Empire, to a Russian working-class family. He graduated in the 1920s from a local vocational school, and again in the mid-to-late 1930s from the Rybinsk Aviation Technology Institute. He became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) in 1930. As many like him, Kirilenko climbed up the Soviet hierarchy through the "industrial ladder"; by the 1960s, he was Vice-Chairman of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). After Nikita Khrushchev's forced resignation, he became Leonid Brezhnev's "chief lieutenant" within the Central Committee. His main objective was to ensure Brezhnev's power base and, if possible, to strengthen Brezhnev's position within the Party. He was the first organisational secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from Khrushchev's ouster to the death of Leonid Brezhnev. In 1920, he graduated from one of the local schools; five years later, he graduated from the Alekseevskii vocational technical school. In the mid-to-late 1920s, he started working for a mining enterprise located in the Voronezh Oblast. He became an active member of Komsomol in 1929 and, two years later, became a member of the All-Union Communist Party. In 1936, he graduated from the Rybinsk Aviation Technology Institute. He started working as a design engineer for the aircraft factory, Zaporizhia Engine Plant. During the Great Patriotic War, he was directly involved with evacuating industry to safe zones. From 1941 to 1943, he was a member of the Military Soviet of the 18th Army of the Southern Front. He contributed by improving discipline among soldiers as well as improving the materiel support for the troops. In 1943, Kirilenko was relocated to Moscow, and during his stay there the production of advanced aircraft increased rapidly.