Minister of Communications Equipment Industry who oversaw Soviet military C3 infrastructure
At an April 1976 exhibition of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, fellow minister Valentin Proleyko noted: "He was stung that his own work was falling behind, caustic at every opportunity, and interested only in lodging complaints."
A communications engineer who began on Siberian installation sites, from 1974 to 1989 he spent fifteen years as USSR Minister of the Communications Equipment Industry, overseeing the secure communications, radio-relay, and radar equipment that formed the backbone of Soviet military command, control, and communications (C3). Moving to Minister of Communications in 1989, he pursued a unified network, and after the Soviet collapse he led Russian telecom firms through privatization.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1955–1957Engineer, Tomsk installation section, Design and Assembly Trust No. 5
- 1957–1959Head, Krasnoyarsk installation section, Design and Assembly Trust No. 5
- 1959–1961Deputy Chief Engineer, Design and Assembly Trust No. 5, Moscow
- 1965–1969Administrator, All-Union Design and Assembly Trust, USSR Ministry of the Radio Industry
- 1970–1974Deputy Minister of the Radio Industry of the USSR
- 1974–1989Minister of the Communications Equipment Industry of the USSR
- 1989–1990Minister of Communications of the USSR
- 1991–1992Chairman of the Board, Telecom concern
Ministerial tenure and the reorganization of telecommunications
After serving as a deputy minister of the Radio Industry from 1970 to 1974, Pervyshin became the first and only minister of the newly established Communications Equipment Industry Ministry in 1974. The ministry was one of the nine departments making up the Soviet military-industrial complex, and he remained in the post until 1989. In 1978 he received the USSR State Prize for developing new special-purpose communications equipment under government assignments. When the Communications Equipment Industry Ministry and the Ministry of Communications were merged in 1989, he became minister of communications. One chronology lists his term through 1990, while a 2004 obituary gives 1991.
With Pervyshin's active participation, the Telecom concern of telecommunications systems and equipment producers was formed in 1991; he chaired its board until 1992. He subsequently became president of Orbital and of the Mir Telecom association, and in 1997 took the presidency of Andrew International Corporation. He thus moved from leadership of a Soviet ministry to management in telecommunications companies and an industry association after the Soviet breakup.