Born into a peasant family in the Moscow gubernia. Came as a young boy to Moscow and became apprentice metal worker at a construction organisation. He studied at the correspondence department of the Moscow Construction Engineering Institute. From 1939 he held management, party and Soviet posts.
From 1954 to 1956 Promyslov was secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, first deputy chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee and head of the Moscow Chief Construction Department. In 1959 he became chairman of the State Construction Committee of the Russian Federation and in 1963, deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation.
He occupied the post of chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet for 23 years. After N.S. Khrushchev, who had often intervened incompetently in the activities of the city authorities, left the political scene in October 1964, Promyslov did much to remove several serious mistakes in the building programme and reconstruction of the city. Under the leadership of the Moscow City Executive Committee a new General Plan for the development of Moscow was completed and approved by the USSR Council of Ministers. In order to perfect control over the city economy, improve services for the inhabitants and increase the role of local Soviets in the decision-making on the building of industrial and recreational facilities, at the end of 1968 the city was redivided into 33 districts instead of 20 districts.
On 8 May 1965 in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Victory Day Moscow received the honorary title of Heroic City.
The chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee persistently promoted the application of the latest results of technological progress to the development of the social sphere. He also made a major contribution to the organisation of the Olympic Games held in Moscow in 1980.
During the 1970s and 1980s the capital turned into one of the world's biggest megalopolises. Architectural groups as well as separate constructions were erected which became an inseparable part of the Moscow landscape: the group of buildings on Kalinin Prospekt, the Ostankino television tower, the House of Soviets of the Russian Federation, Olympic village, and the Rossiya Hotel. Millions of Muscovites moved from barracks, basements and communal rooms into apartments with all the modern conveniences. Instead of the squalid five-storey blocks high-rise apartment buildings started taking the overhand. New underground tracks were built and ground transport was developed as well.
At the same time negative phenomena were also on the increase in Moscow: the environment was being polluted, some buildings were occupied before they had been finished and others were not completed at all. The shortage of work force in the industry, construction and transport became chronic. These problems were addressed by engaging workers from other cities and towns, which aggravated the unsolved housing problem even more.
The Soviet bodies remained an appendage of party structures. According to the then first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, V.V. Grishin, the inertia, insufficient activity and undemandingness of Promyslov had an adverse effect on the functioning of the Moscow Soviet and its services as well: "To a large extent he occupied himself with carrying out purely representative functions. Much of his time was taken up by his countless foreign trips, but he did not have enough time for tackling problems in the city's executive committee... Any attempts to correct the chairman and to improve his work style led to nothing. He had support in the highest echelons of power..."
In January 1986, soon after the election of B.N. Yeltsin as first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, Promyslov retired on pension.
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