The last leader of the Soviet trade-union system
"The trade unions must no longer be an appendage of the state apparatus," he told the 19th Party Conference in 1988, as perestroika gathered pace.
A Mordvin forestry engineer, he graduated from the Moscow Forestry Technical Institute in 1951 and built his career in the timber and paper industry. He entered trade-union work in 1963, became a VTsSPS secretary in 1968 overseeing the state social-insurance budget, and served as Minister of the Timber, Paper and Wood Processing Industry from 1980 to 1982. As VTsSPS chairman from 1982 to 1990, he led a trade-union apparatus of over 130 million members. A CPSU Central Committee member and Supreme Soviet Presidium member during perestroika, he argued for freeing the unions from the administrative-command system and resigned voluntarily in 1990.
Career Timeline
- 1951–1963Rises as a forestry engineer, chief engineer and director of several timber enterprises
- 1963–1968Chairman of the Timber, Paper and Wood-Processing Workers' Union
- 1968–1980Secretary of the VTsSPS, managing the state social-insurance budget
- 1980–1982Minister of the Timber, Paper and Wood Processing Industry of the USSR
- 1982–1990Chairman of the VTsSPS, member of the CPSU Central Committee and Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
- 1990Resigns voluntarily, becomes a personal pensioner of Union significance
- 1991–2002Director of the Scientific Centre of Trade Unions