Carpenter-turned-minister who led the Soviet building-materials industry for 14 years
In 1924, eighteen-year-old Ivan Grishmanov began work as a carpenter at Leningrad's Vorovsky cement plant. Half a century later, the Soviet cement industry he led as minister was turning out 127 million tons a year — first in the world.
Born into a peasant family in Tver gubernia, Grishmanov picked up a hammer at eighteen and rose from carpenter to foreman to chief engineer on Leningrad construction sites, then directed post-war urban reconstruction as a hands-on administrator. When Khrushchev's mass housing drive took off, Grishmanov was brought to Moscow as head of the CPSU Central Committee Construction Department (1956–1961), where he coordinated building policy across the entire USSR, then chaired Gosstroy to set national construction standards. As Minister of the Building Materials Industry throughout the Brezhnev years (1965–1979), he boosted cement output by 54.4 million tons and made the Soviet Union the world's largest cement producer. The network of large-scale cement plants he built provided the physical foundation for Soviet urban landscapes, from the Khrushchevka to the Brezhnevka.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1936–1949Foreman, chief engineer and trust manager on Leningrad construction sites
- 1944–1949Head of post-war reconstruction trusts including Pskovstroy
- 1949–1955Chairman of Leningrad's Kirov District Executive Committee → First Deputy Chairman of Leningrad City Executive Committee
- 1956–1961Head of the Construction Department, CPSU Central Committee
- 1961–1962Chairman of Gosstroy USSR
- 1963–1965Chairman of the State Committee for the Building Materials Industry under Gosplan USSR
- 1965–1979USSR Minister of the Building Materials Industry
Postwar reconstruction and cement-industry expansion
In 1944, Grishmanov was appointed to head the Pskovstroy trust, which undertook postwar reconstruction; he later headed the Lenkirovotractorstroy and Kirovstroy trusts in Leningrad. After serving as chairman of Leningrad’s Kirov District Executive Committee from 1949, he became first deputy chairman of the city executive committee in 1951 and held that post until 1955. That year he moved to Moscow to head the CPSU Central Committee’s Construction Department. He chaired USSR Gosstroy from 1961 and the State Committee for the Building Materials Industry from 1963. Appointed Minister of the Building Materials Industry in October 1965, he pursued expansion and technical upgrading of the cement industry. By 1978, Soviet cement production had increased by 54.4 million tons compared with 1965, and the USSR retained its position as the world’s largest producer.