From munitions to material supply, the technocrat who managed the arteries of the planned economy
When Khrushchev's 1957 Sovnarkhoz reform displaced dozens of union deputy ministers to the provinces, Martynov was no exception. Sent to Tashkent, he said: 'It wasn't an assignment I sought, but you go where the work is.'
A Soviet economic administrator who managed munitions supply as Deputy People's Commissar of Ammunition during World War II, then spent twenty years at Gossnab, the State Committee for Material-Technical Supply, making the planned economy's distribution of industrial goods actually work. A worker's son who rose from director of the Tula Arms Plant to Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of Gossnab (1976–1985), he was a hands-on technocrat who underpinned the material base of Soviet industry across five decades.
Career Timeline
- 1925–1929Assistant machinist → electrician
- 1929–1933Electromechanic, foreman, head of energy dept, aircraft plant, Moscow
- 1933–1934Cadet, Yeysk Naval Aviation School
- 1934–1939Energy dept head → chief engineer → deputy director, arms plant, Tatar ASSR
- 1939–1941Director, Tula Arms Plant
- 1941–1946Deputy People's Commissar of Ammunition, USSR
- 1946–1953Deputy → First Deputy Minister of Agricultural Machine Building
- 1953–1955Collegium member → Mobilization Dept head, automotive & farm machinery ministry
- 1955–1957Deputy Minister of Tractor and Agricultural Machine Building
- 1957–1960Deputy Chairman → Chairman, Tashkent Sovnarkhoz
- 1960–1962Chairman, Sovnarkhoz of the Uzbek SSR
- 1962–1964Secretary, CC CP Uzbekistan; Chairman, Bureau for Industry & Construction
- 1964–1965Deputy Chairman, SNKh USSR — Minister of the USSR
- 1965–1976First Deputy Chairman, Gossnab USSR
- 1976–1985Deputy Chairman, USSR Council of Ministers & Chairman, Gossnab