Nikolai Grinko

Nikolai Grinko was a Soviet and Ukrainian actor, best known for his roles in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, such as Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror, and Stalker. He also starred in the 1981 film Teheran 43. He studied law at the University of Lviv, where he organized Histadrut organizations in the region. He made aliyah and moved to Mandate Palestine in 1929. He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949, and served briefly as the leader of the Histadrut in 1949-50. He was appointed Minister of Agriculture in David Ben-Gurion's second government. He retained his seat in the 1951 elections, and in 1952 was appointed Minister without Portfolio. Following Ben-Gurion's resignation, he was appointed Minister of Defense in 1954. However, he resigned from the cabinet after he was accused of authorizing an Israeli false flag operation in Egypt, which came to be known as the Lavon Affair. Nevertheless, he remained an MK following elections in 1955 and 1959 and returned to the leadership of the Histadrut from 1956 to 1961. Grinko was later absolved of any involvement in the Egyptian bombings. He retired from public life in 1964 after a long-standing discord with Ben-Gurion and died in Kyiv in 1989.