Brezhnev's 18-year steward of the party treasury and 'party gold'
Weeks after the failed August 1991 coup, the 80-year-old Pavlov stepped off the balcony of his apartment on Moscow's Granatny Lane.
Georgy Pavlov was Administrator of Affairs of the CPSU Central Committee from 1965 to 1983, overseeing the party apparatus's material and administrative base for eighteen years. A Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Institute classmate of Brezhnev, he rose to first secretary of the Mari ASSR and headed a Party-State Control Committee department before Brezhnev made him Administrator upon taking power. He controlled party finances, construction, publishing and sanatoria, earning Hero of Socialist Labour in 1980. Weeks after the failed August 1991 coup, the 80-year-old Pavlov fell to his death from his Moscow balcony; his successor Nikolay Kruchina had died the same way a month earlier, leaving the 'party gold' unaccounted for.
Career Timeline
- 1930sTeacher at FZU school, Dniprodzerzhynsk; studied at Metallurgical Institute
- 1939Joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
- 1940–1941Instructor → Head of Metallurgical Dept, Dniprodzerzhynsk City Committee
- 1941–1943Evacuated to Orsk; worked in the city party committee
- 1943–19472nd Secretary → 1st Secretary, Dniprodzerzhynsk City Committee
- 1947–1949Inspector, CC Cadres Directorate → Instructor, CC Party Organs Dept
- 1949–19501st Secretary, Magnitogorsk City Committee
- 1950–19512nd Secretary, Chelyabinsk Oblast Committee (removed over father's occupation-era record)
- 1951–1957Deputy Chair, Kostroma Oblast Executive Committee → Oblast Secretary → City 1st Secretary → Oblast 2nd Secretary
- 1957–19631st Secretary, Mari ASSR Party Committee
- 1961–1971Candidate member, CPSU Central Committee
- 1963–1965Head of Dept, Party-State Control Committee
- 1965–1983Administrator of Affairs of the CPSU Central Committee
- 1971–1986Full member, CPSU Central Committee
- 1980Awarded Hero of Socialist Labour