Bashkir deputy premier who ran Brezhnev's agro-industrial complex
When the KGB pressured Rudolf Nureyev's family after his defection, Nuriyev picked up the phone: 'Leave the family alone — what kind of anti-Soviet elements are they?!' The harassment stopped.
Born into a Bashkir peasant family and starting as a village teacher, Nuriyev led the Bashkir ASSR as First Secretary of the Obkom for twelve years from 1957, overseeing the merger of Ufa and Chernikovsk and a mass housing drive. Brought to Moscow in 1969 as USSR Minister of Procurement, he served from 1973 to 1985 as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and chairman of the Commission on the Agro-Industrial Complex, making him the operational head of Brezhnev-era agricultural and food policy. A Central Committee member for 25 years and a Supreme Soviet deputy for eight consecutive convocations, he represented the rare ascent of a minority-nationality cadre into all-union economic management, and in retirement wrote a memoir titled From the Aul to the Kremlin.
Career Timeline
- 1933–1935Teacher at kolkhoz youth school
- 1935–1938Head of Burayevsky District Education Department
- 1938–1940Red Army service: Komsomol secretary of artillery regiment, 2nd Special Red Banner Army
- 1940–1942Head of Buzovyazovsky District Education Department
- 1942–1944Political dept. chief, Podlubovskaya MTS → 2nd Secretary, Buzovyazovsky District Committee
- 1944–1945First Secretary, Kiginsky District Party Committee
- 1945–1957Bashkir Obkom: agriculture dept. head → secretary → 2nd secretary
- 1957–1969First Secretary, Bashkir Oblast Committee of the CPSU
- 1969–1973USSR Minister of Procurement
- 1973–1985Deputy Chairman, USSR Council of Ministers; Chairman, Agro-Industrial Complex Commission
- 1985–1988State Counsellor, USSR Council of Ministers