The first general director of VAZ who built Soviet mass automobility on the banks of the Volga
“Throughout my life I never tried to get myself appointed to any post. But this was the one exception: I went to Minister Tarasov myself and asked him to appoint me director of the plant.” — volunteering to lead the unbuilt VAZ.
The industrial administrator who built the Volga Automobile Plant and led the Soviet auto industry as minister for eleven years, bringing it to sixth in world output. Born in Tomsk and trained at MADI, he rose from engineer to director of the Moscow Small Car Plant (Moskvich). In 1966 he volunteered for the post of general director of the unbuilt VAZ, and under his leadership the FIAT-cooperative plant went from a field to production in three years, topping a million cars by 1973 and launching the Niva 4WD. As minister (1975–1986) he oversaw annual output of two million vehicles; after retiring he continued as a consultant at Yelabuga, KAMAZ, and AVTOVAZ.
Career Timeline
- 1930–1938Apprentice fitter → deputy shop chief, Moscow Auto Repair Plant No. 3; graduates evening division, MADI
- 1938–1946Red Army auto-transport units, Western and Karelian fronts; engineer-major; seriously wounded Oct 1941
- 1946–1963MZMA (Moscow Small Car Plant / Moskvich): engineer → lab chief → deputy chief designer → chief engineer → director (1958)
- 1963–1965First Deputy Chairman → Chairman, Moscow Sovnarkhoz
- 1965–1966Deputy Minister of the Automotive Industry of the USSR
- 1966–1975First General Director, Volga Automobile Plant (VAZ) — builds plant from scratch, reaches 660,000/year capacity, launches Niva
- 1975–1986Minister of the Automotive Industry of the USSR — 2 million vehicles/year, sixth in world output
- 1986–2004Expert at NAMI → consultant at Yelabuga, KAMAZ, and AVTOVAZ; dies aged 89