The post-coup foreign minister of the collapsing Union
On August 21, 1991, with the coup still unfolding, Pankin appeared on Czechoslovak television — the only Soviet ambassador to publicly condemn the putsch as 'a fatal mistake on Yanayev's part,' demanding he 'correct it as soon as possible.'
A journalist who transformed Komsomolskaya Pravda into the Soviet Union's boldest youth paper and a literary critic who won the USSR State Prize. As a diplomat, he was the only Soviet ambassador to openly condemn the August 1991 coup. Appointed the last Soviet foreign minister, he established diplomatic relations with Israel and launched US-Soviet disarmament talks in his brief tenure before the Union dissolved.
At the presidential selection in the Supreme Soviet on 25 October 1990, neither he nor Apas Jumagulov won a majority, and Akayev was chosen first president on 27 October. In the 1995 election he lost to Akayev, 71.6 to 24.4 percent.
Kyrgyz Soviet party and state leader, born on 10 April 1933 in Alysh, Osh oblast, died on 31 July 2004 in Bishkek. A mining engineer trained at Kyzyl-Kiya and in Moscow, he began work in 1956 at the Kyzyl-Kiya coal administration and rose through party bodies. Elected first secretary of the Communist Party of Kirghizia on 2 November 1985, he held the post to 6 April 1991, was a member of the CPSU Central Committee from 1986 to 1991 and of the CPSU Politburo from 14 July 1990 to 25 April 1991. Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Kirghiz SSR in 1990, he lost the presidential selection to Akayev and the 1995 election. From September 1992 until 2004 he led the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan. Sources differ on the death date, 31 July or 1 August.
Career timeline
1956–1961Assistant chief engineer at the Komsomolskaya mine of the Kyzyl-Kiya coal administration, then assistant chief engineer of the Kirghizugol trust
1961–1973Instructor of the Osh regional party committee, student at the Alma-Ata higher party school, party-state control posts, head of the Osh regional party department for industry and transport, deputy head of a Central Committee department, first secretary of the Tash-Kumyr city party committee
1972–1974Chairman of the Frunze City Executive Committee
1974–1979Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kirghizia
1979–1985First Secretary of the Issyk-Kul Regional Party Committee
1985–1991First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kirghizia (elected 2 November 1985 at the 21st plenum; released 6 April 1991 to move to the CPSU Central Committee apparatus). Member of the CPSU Central Committee 1986–1991 and of the CPSU Politburo from 14 July 1990 to 25 April 1991
1990Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Kirghiz SSR (elected 10 April 1990 at the first session of the 12th-convocation Supreme Soviet, released at his own request on 10 December 1990)
1991Consultant to the ideological department of the CPSU Central Committee (April–August 1991)
1992–2004Leader of the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan from September 1992; chairman of its central control commission and a member and deputy chairman of the executive council of the Union of Communist Parties–CPSU
1993–1996Director of the State Inspectorate for industrial safety and mining supervision (January 1993–June 1996)
1994–2004Chairman of the I. Razzakov Foundation from 1994
1995–2004Deputy of the Assembly of People's Representatives of the Zhogorku Kenesh (elected April 1995, re-elected April 2000); from 2000 a deputy of the Legislative Assembly
Scientist-president who moved from reformist promise to prolonged rule
At the Supreme Soviet session on 26 August 1991, Akayev declared the draft Union Treaty 'unacceptable' and demanded a confederal revision.
A physicist and former president of Kyrgyzstan's Academy of Sciences, Akayev was elected the republic's first president in 1990 as an outsider to the senior party apparatus. Amid late-Soviet ethnic conflict and demands for sovereignty, he promoted pluralism and market reform, then quickly condemned the 1991 coup attempt and led Kyrgyzstan toward independence. At the Novo-Ogaryovo negotiations he put republican sovereignty first, calling the August treaty draft unacceptable and demanding a revision closer to confederation. His later rule brought extended presidential terms, family-centered politics and corruption allegations, ending in his overthrow during the 2005 popular protests.
Career timeline
1967–1988Researcher and professor, Frunze Polytechnic Institute; head of computer engineering
1987–1989Vice-president, Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR
1989–1990President, Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR
1990.10–1991.08President of the Kirghiz SSR
1991.08–2005.03President of Kyrgyzstan
1991.08.26At the Supreme Soviet, opposed the New Union Treaty draft and demanded a confederal revision
2005–presentProfessor and researcher at Moscow State University, based in Russia
In April 1991, he joined the Soviet Union's final Politburo as Kyrgyzstan's representative.
Amanbayev was an agricultural specialist who rose through the Kyrgyz Communist Party's regional and central apparatus. In 1991, as the Soviet Union moved toward dissolution, he became first secretary of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan and a member of the CPSU Politburo, but both positions ended within months as the Union collapsed. He later served in the government of independent Kyrgyzstan, embodying institutional continuity between the late Soviet party apparatus and the new state.
Career timeline
1966Graduated from the Kyrgyz Agricultural Institute
1971–1973Director of the Osh state breeding station; first secretary of the Alay district party committee
1981–1985Secretary of the Osh regional committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan
1985–1988Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan
1988–1991First secretary of the Issyk-Kul regional committee
1990–1991Chair of the Issyk-Kul regional Soviet; People's Deputy of the USSR
1991First secretary of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan; member of the CPSU Politburo
1993–1995Deputy prime minister of the Kyrgyz Republic
