Gosplan chairman of the perestroika era who built the world's first satellite TV broadcasting system
When Orbita went live in 1967, tens of millions across Siberia and the Far East watched Moscow Central TV for the first time. Talyzin said: "We will be the first country to send a signal from space."
A Soviet technocrat trained as a communications engineer, Talyzin led the scientific development of Orbita, the world's first satellite TV broadcasting network, which brought central television to nearly 90 million people in Siberia and the Far East after its launch in 1967. As Minister of Communications (1975–1980), he modernized Soviet communications infrastructure, and in 1985 Gorbachev appointed him Gosplan chairman to steer early perestroika economic reforms. Criticized for the slow pace of change, he was removed from Gosplan in 1988 and dismissed from government as a conservative in 1989.
Career Timeline
- 1955Engineer, lead designer, senior researcher, and deputy director at the Radio Research Institute (NII Radio), Ministry of Communications
- 1965Deputy Minister of Communications of the USSR
- 1970First Deputy Minister of Communications of the USSR
- 1975–1980Minister of Communications of the USSR
- 1980–1985Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and Permanent Representative of the USSR to Comecon
- 1985–1988First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and Chairman of Gosplan
- 1988Chairman of the Bureau for Social Development, USSR Council of Ministers
- 1988–1989Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and Permanent Representative of the USSR to Comecon
Related historical events
Orbita: The World's First Satellite TV Broadcasting System
Talyzin's most important scientific and technological legacy is Orbita (Орбита), the world's first satellite television broadcasting network, which went live in 1967. After graduating from the Moscow Electrotechnical Institute of Communications (МЭИС) in 1955, Talyzin joined the Radio Research Institute (NII Radio) under the Ministry of Communications, where he rose from engineer to lead designer, senior researcher, and deputy director while spearheading the Orbita concept.
Orbita's central challenge was overcoming the vast distances of Siberia and the Far East. Since terrestrial relay towers could not carry TV signals across permafrost and mountain ranges, Talyzin's team adopted a system of retransmission via Molniya-1 communications satellites in highly elliptical orbits. Each ground station used a 12-meter parabolic antenna to receive satellite signals and relay them to local TV centers, engineered to withstand Arctic cold and Central Asian sandstorms alike. On October 25, 1967, the first 20 stations began regular broadcasts; by 1973 the network had grown to 40 stations, bringing Moscow Central Television to some 90 million citizens.
Under Talyzin's direction, the more compact 'Moscow' satellite TV system and the internationally oriented 'Moscow-Global' system followed. The success of Orbita earned Talyzin two USSR State Prizes (1968, 1975), and he himself authored the 'Orbita' entry in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (БСЭ). In his memoirs, space-program veteran Boris Chertok reflected: 'Soviet satellite communications technology was clearly lucky that the future Minister of Communications stood at its origins as a lead engineer.'
Planner of Perestroika: The Gosplan Years
In October 1985, Gorbachev appointed Talyzin chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan), replacing Nikolai Baibakov. The choice reflected a desire for a technocrat who would anchor the first phase of perestroika, the "uskorenie" (acceleration) policy, within the planning system. Talyzin simultaneously became First Deputy Premier and a candidate (non-voting) member of the Politburo.
The 12th Five-Year Plan (1986–1990), overseen by Talyzin, directed 200 billion rubles into modernizing machine-building and targeted 4.1% growth in national income for 1987. Presenting the draft plan to the Supreme Soviet in November 1986, Talyzin said the targets aligned with Gorbachev's drive to raise efficiency and make the economy competitive with the West. The Law on State Enterprises, enacted the following year, introduced enterprise autonomy in an attempt to reshape the central planning framework. But uskorenie stumbled: the 1986 oil-price collapse, revenue losses from the anti-alcohol campaign, and the Chernobyl disaster combined to produce the Soviet budget's first postwar deficit.
Gosplan was expected to evolve from a dispenser of production quotas into a strategic economic body, but Gorbachev's circle, dissatisfied with the pace of reform, branded Talyzin a conservative. In February 1988 he was removed as Gosplan chairman and replaced by Yuri Maslyukov, shunted to the obscure Bureau for Social Development, and dismissed from government entirely in 1989. His ouster symbolized institutional resistance to restructuring; a CIA report at the time observed that Talyzin's removal "should reduce that organization's resistance to restructuring."