The last chief of the Soviet railways
In his February 1991 resignation letter to Gorbachev: "principled rejection of many aspects of the perestroika policy."
A pure railwayman, Konarev graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Railway Transport Engineers and rose from station engineer to head of the entire Southern Railway by 1972. After Andropov criticized the crisis on the railways at the November 1982 Central Committee plenum, Konarev replaced the dismissed minister and led the Soviet railway system until 1991. On his watch, freight loading reached a historic record of 4.1 billion tonnes in 1988: double the volume of US railroads at the time. He also drove the construction of the Kharkiv metro and other major infrastructure in the city. In February 1991 he resigned, citing principled rejection of perestroika, and spent his final years leading the private transport corporation Intertrans, which he founded.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1949Graduates Kharkiv Institute of Railway Transport Engineers, begins as engineer at Osnova station, Southern Railway
- 1953–1960Assistant station chief, head of operations, and other posts on the Southern Railway
- 1962First deputy chief of the Southern Railway
- 1972–1976Chief of the Southern Railway
- 1976–1977Deputy Minister of Railways of the USSR
- 1977–1982First Deputy Minister of Railways, head of Main Train Operations Administration
- 1982–1991Minister of Railways of the USSR; achieves historic peak freight loading in 1988
- 1991–2007Chairman of Intertrans transport corporation; publishes over 50 scientific works
Related historical events
From wartime boyhood on the Kuban to the Southern Railway, and the years after the ministry
Nikolai Konarev was born on 19 January 1927 in Stalino, now Donetsk, and spent his childhood in the Kuban. Moving through the villages of Petrovskaya and Ivanovskaya to the town of Nevinnomyssk, he lived through the German occupation there and took part in sabotage actions against the retreating enemy. After the town was liberated he finished secondary school, joined the Komsomol and tried to volunteer for the front, but was rejected on account of his eyesight.
In June 1949 he graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Railway Transport Engineers and was assigned to the Southern Railway, starting as a safety engineer at the large Osnova station, a key hub of the Kharkiv railway junction. He went on to serve as deputy head of Lozovaya station, then at 25 as deputy head of the divisional section and head of its operations department, and in December 1953 as assistant to the head of the railway. Later posts included head of the transport conditions department of the Southern Railway commercial service and head of the operations department of the Osnovyansky (Kharkiv) section. In 1959 he became first deputy head of the Osnovyansky section and received the Honorary Railwayman badge; in 1960 he headed the Southern Railway traffic service, introducing integrated technology for the transport process on the railway routes, and in 1962 became first deputy head of the railway itself. From 1972 to 1976 he headed the Southern Railway.
In January 1976 he was appointed a deputy minister of railways, and in January 1977 first deputy minister while simultaneously directing the Main Directorate for Train Movement. In November 1982, after Yuri Andropov criticism of the railways at the Central Committee plenum, the then minister Ivan Pavlovsky was dismissed and Konarev was appointed to the post.
Under his ministry Soviet railways achieved record freight volumes, but the period also brought a series of major disasters: at Koristovka station in 1986, at Kamenskaya station in 1987, at Arzamas and on the Aurora train in 1988, near Ufa in 1989, and at Yelnikovo station in 1990. Between 1983 and 1991 more than 40 major railway disasters occurred in the USSR, killing thousands.
In February 1991 he submitted his resignation to the President of the USSR, stating his principled rejection of many aspects of the policy of perestroika. After leaving the ministry he founded the transport corporation Intertrans in the early 1990s, became a co-owner and served as its chairman until his death. He published more than 50 scholarly works developing the theory of railway joints and integrated technology for rail transport, and died in Moscow on 10 April 2007.