Nikolai Konstantinovich Baibakov (; 6 March 1911 – 31 March 2008) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

statesman and economist who served as Minister of Oil Industry from 1944–1946 and 1948–1955, and Chairman of the State Planning Committee from 1955–1957 and 1965–1985. He was awarded a

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

in 1981.

Biography

Born in Sabunchu, near

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, Baibakov finished

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in 1928 and entered the

Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute Azerbaijan State Oil and Industrial University (formerly Azerbaijan State Oil Academy) () is a tertiary education institution in Baku, Azerbaijan. History The rise of what became ASOIU is tied to the rise of the petroleum industry in the Ba ...

, from which he graduated in 1931 as a

mining engineer Mining engineering is the extraction of minerals from the ground. It is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, metallurgy, geotechnical engineering and surveying. A mining engineer m ...

, and worked for the oil industry in Azerbaijan. In 1935, he was drafted into the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

, in the Far East. After completing his military service, in January 1937, he returned to Azerbaijan and received rapid promotion during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. After a few months, he was appointed chief of the oilfield production department in Azerbaijan, then in January 1938, was transferred to Kuibyshev (Samara) as head of the association for oil production in east Russia. In 1940-44, he was Deputy People's Commissar for Oil under

Lazar Kaganovich Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich (; – 25 July 1991) was a Soviet politician and one of Joseph Stalin's closest associates. Born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, Kaganovich worked as a shoemaker and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ...

. In 1941-42, Baibakov was responsible for evacuating oil industry facilities from Baku,

Kuban Kuban ( Russian and Ukrainian: Кубань; ) is a historical and geographical region in the North Caucasus region of southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and separated fr ...

and the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

to the eastern regions during the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...

. He was in

Tuapse Tuapse (; , Ṫuapsă ) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. Population: Tuapse is a sea port and the northern center of a resort zone which extends sou ...

just before it was overrun by the Germans, and it was reported that he had been killed, though he had escaped through woods, under heavy fire. Baibakov was appointed to the Narkomat as People's Commissar for Oil, in November 1944. In 1948-68, he was Minister for Oil in the South and Western Regions. in 1948-55, he was USSR Minister of Oil Industry. He was a member of the

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the Central committee, highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Congresses. Elected by the ...

, 1952-61. In May 1955, USSR State Planning Committee, commonly known as

Gosplan The State Planning Committee, commonly known as Gosplan ( ), was the agency responsible for economic planning, central economic planning in the Soviet Union. Established in 1921 and remaining in existence until the dissolution of the Soviet Unio ...

, was divided into two. and Baibakov was appointed chairman of the part responsible for long term planning, which retained the name, Gosplan. The historian, Robert Conquest, interpreted this as a maneouvre by

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

to undermine his main rival,

Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (8 January 1902 O.S. 26 December 1901">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 26 December 1901ref name=":6"> – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who br ...

in the struggle to succeed the former dictator,

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, with Baibakov being promoted because he was 'pliable', and not linked to either faction. But he did not hold the post for long, evidently having clashed with Khrushchev, who had supplanted Malenkov as chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. In May 1957, he was sidelined to the post of Chairman of the

RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

Gosplan. In March 1958, he was appointed head of the

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

regional economic council - a further demotion which meant that he lost his seat on the Central Committee, though in his memoirs he referred to this period as one he remembered "with special warmth." Despite having lost favour with Khrushchev, Baibakov evidently had powerful allies, probably including

Alexei Kosygin Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (–18 December 1980) was a Soviet people, Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1980 and, alongside General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, was one of its most ...

, who was First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers as well as being a former Chairman of Gosplan. On 10 March 1963, Baibakov was brought back to Moscow as Chairman of the State Committee on Chemistry, but in January 1964, the committee was divided into three, and Baibakov was given the chairmanship of the least important of the successor bodies, the State Committee on Petroleum Extraction. In September 1965, after Kosygin had replaced Khrushchev as head of government, Baibakov was reinstated as Chairman of the USSR Gosplan, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. He also had his membership of the Central Committee restored. He remained in this post for almost 20 years. After stepping down in 1985, he continued to work as a state councillor in the

Presidium A presidium or praesidium is a council of executive officers in some countries' political assemblies that collectively administers its business, either alongside an individual president or in place of one. The term is also sometimes used for the ...

of the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

until 1988. Then he was appointed head of the oil and gas section of the Academic Board of the Oil and Gas Institute with the Russian Academy of Sciences. He died in 2008 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Honours and awards

(1981) *

Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" The Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" () is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was instituted on 2 March 1994 by Presidential Decree 442. Until the re-establishment of the Order of St. Andrew in 1998, it was the highest order of ...

, 2nd class (March 7, 2006) - for outstanding services to the state * Six

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on 31 October 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferred upon individuals or groups for services furthering communis ...

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

, twiceto *

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

(1963) - for the discovery and development of gas-condensate fields * Honorary Member of the

Russian Academy of Natural Sciences The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (Russian language, Russian: Российская академия естественных наук) is a Russian non-governmental organization founded on August 31 1990 in Moscow in the former Soviet Uni ...

(RANS, established in 1996 was awarded the Medal of the Academy) * Academician of the Academy of Cosmonautics * Laureate of the "Russian National Olympus" * Honorary Citizen of Ishimbai (Bashkortostan) - as an active participant in the development of Bashkir oil industry (made with such an initiative in 1940) *

Istiglal Order Istiglal Order (), is the highest supreme order of the Republic of Azerbaijan, along with Heydar Aliyev Order. presented by the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan. ''Istiglal'' translates to Sovereignty in Azerbaijani. History and statu ...

(Azerbaijan)

References

External links

Inside Gosplan

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baibakov, Nikolai 1911 births 2008 deaths Members of the Central Committee of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members 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 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 20th-century Russian engineers Deputy heads of government of the Soviet Union Engineers from Baku People from Baku Governorate Honorary members of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the Istiglal Order Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Azerbaijani people of Russian descent Soviet economists Marxian economists Soviet engineers Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Azerbaijani people of World War II Baku in World War II Chairman of Gosplan