Long-serving head of Gosbank
Everyone fled. He stayed with the radio. 'I heard the whistle of a 50-kilo shell. Our side started hammering them!' Four tanks burned, two disabled.
Born to a Smolensk peasant family, he served as an artillery officer in the Great Patriotic War and earned the title Hero of the Soviet Union for calling artillery fire onto his own position. Rising through Soviet foreign trade institutions (trade adviser in the US, head of currency administration, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade), he chaired Gosbank from 1976 to 1986, managing the planned economy's monetary and credit system through the Brezhnev years. He left office amid early perestroika financial-reform pressures and the fallout from his daughter's defection to the West.
Career Timeline
- 1947–1950Completes All-Union Academy of Foreign Trade, earns PhD with dissertation on British banks
- 1950–1967Rises through Foreign Trade Ministry research institutes and currency administration; trade adviser in the US
- 1967–1976Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, coordinating Soviet foreign settlements and currency policy
- 1976–1986Gosbank Chairman, managing payments, credit and currency issuance in the planned economy
- 1986Leaves office amid early perestroika financial reforms and the fallout from his daughter's defection
Related historical events
The Hero Who Called Fire on His Own Position
In June 1941, Vladimir Alkhimov, a third-year student at the Leningrad Financial-Economic Institute, volunteered for the front immediately after the German invasion. He joined the VKP(b) in 1942, graduated from the 3rd Leningrad Artillery School, and fought on the Leningrad, Western, and 3rd Belorussian Fronts. On August 7, 1944, Guards Lieutenant Alkhimov faced a decisive moment near the Lithuanian village of Tupiki. When roughly 50 German tanks with infantry counterattacked, the Soviet infantry retreated and the observation post personnel withdrew. But Alkhimov stayed behind with a single radio set. He transmitted coordinates to the divisional artillery, calling fire onto his own position. The heavy barrage set four tanks ablaze and disabled two more; the rest could not break through and turned back. For this action he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on March 24, 1945. He also fought in the Soviet–Japanese War and was demobilized in November 1946 as a Senior Lieutenant.