Nuclear industry minister who inherited Sredmash in the shadow of Chernobyl
Ryabev later recalled: 'I was in Chernobyl from 2 May and worked there more than a month. All that time I felt something terrible, heavy for all of us had happened — and pain and resentment at what had occurred.'
A physicist from Vologda who trained at MIFI and began his career at the secret nuclear weapons institute VNIIEF in Sarov. As director of VNIIEF from 1974, he led development of new nuclear warheads before moving to the Central Committee's Defense Industry Department to oversee the entire medium machine-building sector. In November 1986, in the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl, he succeeded Yefim Slavsky as Minister of Medium Machine-Building, taking command of the entire Soviet nuclear weapons and atomic energy complex. He later served as Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers with responsibility for the fuel and energy complex. After the Soviet collapse, as First Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, he helped preserve the nuclear weapons complex and devoted himself to the multi-volume documentary history of the Soviet atomic project.
Career Timeline
- 1957–1963Engineer, senior engineer at VNIIEF (KB-11), Sarov
- 1963–19672nd Secretary, Kremlyov City Party Committee
- 1967–1969Deputy chief engineer for production, VNIIEF
- 1974–1978Director, VNIIEF
- 1978–1984Head of medium machine-building sector, Defense Industry Dept., CC CPSU
- 1984–1986Deputy, then 1st Deputy Minister of Medium Machine-Building
- 1986–1989Minister of Medium Machine-Building, USSR
- 1989–1991Deputy Chairman, USSR Council of Ministers; Chairman, Bureau for Fuel-Energy Complex
- 1993–20021st Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy, Russian Federation