Mikhail Yefimovich Nikolayev (13 November 1937-4 August 2023) was President of the Sakha Republic from 20 December 1991 to 21 January 2002 (preceding Vyacheslav Shtyrov) and a United Russia senator from 2002 to 2010.
Biography[]
Mikhail Nikolayev was born in Oktyomtsy, Yakut ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in 1937. He worked for the Komsomol in Yakutsk before serving as Minister of Agriculture of the Yakut ASSR from 1979 to 1985, Secretary of the Yakut Regional Committee of the CPSU from 1985 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Yakut ASSR from 1990 to 1991, President of Yakutia from 1991 to 2002 (renaming it to the Republic of Sakha in December 1991), and serving as a member of the Federation Council from 2002 to 2010. He became a member of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, and he died in 2023 at the age of 85.