Muhammetnazar Gapurowiç Gapurow (; 15 February 192213 July 1999) was a Turkmen politician who was the first secretary of the

Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR The Communist Party of Turkmenistan (; ) was the ruling communist party of the Turkmen SSR which operated as a republican branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1985, it was led by Saparmurat Niyazov. On 16 December 1991, as ...

from 1969 until 1985. He spent his entire career in the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

and Communist Party apparatus, becoming the republic's most influential politician for almost two decades in the

Brezhnev era Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982 as well as the fourth chairman of the Presidium ...

Early life and career

Gapurow was born in a small village close to Charjou, Charjou Oblast (now

Türkmenabat Türkmenabat (), formerly Amul, Cärjew/Chardzhou (until 1924 and from 1940-1999), and Novy Chardzhuy (from 1927-1940), is the second-largest city in Turkmenistan and the administrative centre of Lebap Province. , it had a population of approxima ...

, Lebap Province). In December 1941, he was drafted into the army, serving as the commander of a gunners' section in the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade of the

Central Asian Military District The Red Banner Central Asian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, which existed in 1926–1945 and 1969–1989, with its headquarters at Tashkent (1926–1945) and Almaty (1969–1989). By USSR Order No.304 of 4 ...

. From 1941 to 1944, he was on active duty in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1948, he joined the Communist Party ''nomenklatura'' as head of the Propaganda Department at the district level in Charjou oblast and gradually climbed the party ladder. He graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Ashkhabad in 1954. From 1951 to 1955, he worked as first secretary of the Komsomol organisation, and later he held various party posts before assuming the republic's leadership.

Leadership of Turkmenistan

In 1969, he was appointed first secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR. During his time in office, the republic received considerable investment in its modernisation of the gas and oil sectors, and living standards rose significantly for the general population. However, excessive centralised control over economic development and macroeconomic mismanagement led to a stagnation of economic growth in most sectors of the republic's economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Gapurow's era also witnessed further growth in nepotism, regional rivalries and corruption. In 1985, the incoming general secretary,

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

, removed Gapurow from his post due to a cotton-related corruption scandal and sent him into retirement.

Later life

He never returned to the political arena and held several minor positions in the late 1980s. He wrote several books and articles during the Soviet era, mainly on Communist Party and Turkmenistan development issues. In the 1990s, he began writing his memoirs but they were unfinished when he died on 13 July 1999. He was known to have one son, Batyr, who died of cardiac arrest in September 2015 at the age of 61.

Notes

References

Sources

*Abazov, Rafis. ''Historical Dictionary of Turkmenistan'', p. 64-5. Scarecrow Press, 2005, .

External links

Rulers of Soviet Republics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gapurow, Muhammetnazar Soviet military personnel of World War II 1922 births 1999 deaths People from Türkmenabat First secretaries of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan Candidates of the Central Committee of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Sixth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Seventh convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Eighth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Ninth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Tenth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Eleventh convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Heads of government of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic People's commissars and ministers of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic