The trade minister who ran Soviet domestic commerce for 18 years
“Work must be higher than the person — then the desire to know it arises, and from that, skill and experience naturally follow.”
Soviet Minister of Trade who oversaw the USSR's domestic commercial distribution system for 18 years. After serving as First Secretary of the Stalin (Donetsk) and Perm regional party committees, where he led postwar reconstruction and industrialization, he headed the Ministry of Trade from 1965 to 1983, managing consumer goods distribution policy throughout the Brezhnev era. During the Second World War he directed military trade for the Southern, North Caucasus and Fourth Ukrainian fronts, responsible for frontline supply. He was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labour in 1976 and served on the CPSU Central Committee in two stints, 1956–1961 and 1966–1986.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1939–1941Chair, Donetsk Oblast Consumer Cooperatives Union
- 1941Deputy Chair, Stalin (Donetsk) Oblast Executive Committee
- 1942–1943Head, Military Trade Directorate — Southern, North Caucasus & 4th Ukrainian Fronts
- 1944–1947Chair, Stalin Oblast Executive Committee
- 1947–1953First Secretary, Stalin Oblast Party Committee (CP of Ukraine)
- 1954–1958First Secretary, Perm Oblast CPSU Committee
- 1958–1962Deputy Chair, RSFSR Council of Ministers (trade portfolio)
- 1962–1965Chair, USSR State Committee for Trade
- 1965–1983USSR Minister of Trade
Related historical events
Modernising Soviet retail trade
When Struyev became Minister of Trade in 1965, Soviet shops still sold nearly every good from behind the counter. Goods were mostly weighed or ladled out loose, customers stood in long lines, and production of pre-packaged goods was practically nonexistent. Struyev set out to break these routines, driving a shift to open display, free access to goods, self-service and unified checkout, the progressive retail methods of the day. It amounted to rebuilding the material and technical base of Soviet domestic commerce: construction of retail and catering premises, wholesale depots and warehouses, large cold-storage plants and modern fruit-and-vegetable stores began across the country, alongside re-equipment of existing facilities and mechanisation of manual labour. To secure packaged-goods production and trade equipment he had to wage a real struggle, winning capital investment from the Politburo and the Council of Ministers and defending the trade ministry's interests 'like a true fighter'. His pamphlet Trade and Demand (1965) set out the philosophy behind the reforms: trade should not merely distribute, but study consumer demand and feed it into production plans.