Leonid Kostandov

Leonid Kostandov
Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union
In office February 1980 – 5 September 1984
Premier	Nikolai Ryzhkov
Minister of the Chemical Industry
In office October 1965 – 1980
Personal details
Born	Leonid Arkadevich Kostandov (1915-11-27)27 November 1915 Kerki, Turkmenistan, Russian Empire
Died	5 September 1984(1984-09-05) (aged 68) Leipzig, East Germany
Resting place	Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow
Political party	Communist Party
Alma mater	Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering

Leonid Kostandov (Russian: Леонид Костандов; 27 November 1915 – 5 September 1984) was a Soviet engineer and politician who served as the minister of the chemical industry between 1965 and 1980 and as the deputy premier from 1980 to his death.

Biography

Kostandov's grave sign in Kremlin Wall Necropolis next to that of Dmitriy Ustinov

Being a native of Kerki, Turkmenistan, Kostandov was born on 27 November 1915 into an ethnic Armenian family.[1][2] He started his career in a local cotton gin, and then he worked in a silk-weaving mill in 1930.[1][2] He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering in 1940.[2] He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1942.[2] Following his graduation he began to work as a manager in a chemical plant in Chirchik.[1] In 1951 he was awarded a Stalin Prize.[1] He was appointed to the central administration of the chemical industry in Moscow in 1953.[1] From 1963 to 1964, he was chairman of the State Committee for Chemical and Oil-Refining Machine-Building.[1] He was named as the minister of the chemical industry in October 1965[2] and remained in the post in 1980.[1][3] The same year he was appointed deputy prime minister responsible for chemical and related industries.[1]

Kostandov was a close friend of Armand Hammer and, in 1981 following US President Ronald Reagan lifting the United States agricultural embargo against the Soviet Union on 25 April 1981, assisted the David Murdoch and Occidental Petroleum controlled Iowa Beef Processors (IBP), which was the biggest and most advanced beef-packer in the world, to gain access to the Soviet market for IBP's United States beef.[4]

Kostandov died of a heart attack on 5 September 1984 while he was visiting a fair in Leipzig, East Germany.[1][3] He was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis after the official funeral ceremony held in Red Square, Moscow.[3][5]

References

1. "Leonid Kostandov, 68; Soviet Deputy Premier". The New York Times. Reuters. 6 September 1984. Archived from the original on 26 November 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
2. "Leonid Kostandov". Great Soviet Encyclopedia. 1979. Archived from the original on 17 January 2021.
3. "Deputy Premier Leonid Kostandov died Wednesday of a heart attack". United Press International. Moscow. 5 September 1984. Archived from the original on 26 November 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
4. "The Riddle of Armand Hammer". The New York Times. 29 November 1981. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 25 November 2024. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
5. Philip Hanson (2010). "The Soviet Union's acquisition of Western technology after Stalin: Some thoughts on people". In Sari Autio-Sarasmo; Katalin Miklóssy (eds.). Reassessing Cold War Europe. London; New York: Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-136-89835-8.