Anastas Mikoyan with his grandchildren, Zubalovo, 1960

Anastas Mikoyan with his grandchildren at the government dacha on the Zubalovo estate, Moscow Region, 1960. In the photograph he stands by the entrance of the house with five young people and a middle-aged woman.

Anastas Mikoyan was Deputy Head of the Government of the USSR, one of the first Bolsheviks and one of the highest-ranking officials of the Soviet Union. He worked with four leaders of the country, from Lenin to Brezhnev. He was born in the village of Sanahin in Lori, finished an Armenian school and entered a seminary. During the Caribbean Crisis he was sent to Cuba to meet Fidel Castro and conducted successful negotiations.

Thanks to Mikoyan, many American-style foods appeared in the Soviet Union, among them frozen cutlets, sausages and ice cream, which he loved most of all.