Ivan Stepanovich Silayev
Иван Степанович Силаев
The last head of government of the Soviet Union: from aviation minister to liquidator of an empire
In the aftermath of the August 1991 coup, Silayev — now effectively the Soviet Union's last premier — sent Yeltsin an open letter asking him to halt decrees transferring union property to Russia. He was dismissed a month later.
Born to a peasant family in Nizhny Novgorod, Silayev rose from shop-floor engineer to director of the Gorky Aviation Plant. As Minister of Aviation Industry (1981–1985) he oversaw the MiG-29, Su-27, Tu-160, and Buran space shuttle, and in 1986 he chaired the government commission on Chernobyl. In 1990 Yeltsin made him RSFSR premier; after the August 1991 coup he became chairman of COMSE, making him the Soviet Union's de facto last head of government. When he tried to halt Yeltsin's unilateral seizure of union property, he was dismissed within a month: a transitional figure who could not stop the dissolution he came to oppose.
Career timeline
- 1954–1974Gorky Aviation Plant: engineer → director
- 1974–1977Deputy Minister of Aviation Industry, USSR
- 1977–1980First Deputy Minister of Aviation Industry, USSR
- 1980–1981Minister of Machine-Tool and Tool Building Industry, USSR
- 1981–1985Minister of Aviation Industry, USSR
- 1985–1990Deputy Chairman, USSR Council of Ministers (Machine-Building)
- 1986Head, Government Commission on Chernobyl
- 1990–1991Chairman, RSFSR Council of Ministers
- 1991.08–12Chairman, COMSE — de facto last head of Soviet government
- 1991–1994Permanent Representative of Russia to the European Community