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.
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