Leonid Kostandov (; 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 A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

from 1980 to his death.

Biography

Being a native of

Kerki Kerki is a city in and capital of Kerki District, Lebap Province, Turkmenistan. It was formerly known as Zamm and, between 1999 and 2017, as Atamyrat. Geography It is situated on a plain on the left bank of the Amu Darya river. Nearby towns a ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

, Kostandov was born on 27 November 1915 into an ethnic

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

family. He started his career in a local

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

and then in a silk-weaving mill in 1930. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering in 1940. He joined the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

in 1942. Following his graduation he began to work as a manager in a

chemical plant A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transform ...

in Chirchik. In 1951 he was awarded a

Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to: * The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...

. He was appointed to the central administration of the chemical industry in Moscow in 1953. He was named as the minister of the chemical industry in October 1965 and remained in the post in 1980. The same year he was appointed deputy prime minister responsible for chemical and related industries. Kostandov died of a heart attack on 5 September 1984 while he was visiting a fair in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. He was buried in the

Kremlin Wall Necropolis The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was the national cemetery for the Soviet Union. Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik individuals who died during the Moscow Bolshevik Uprising were buried in m ...

after the official funeral ceremony held in

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...

, Moscow.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kostandov, Leonid 20th-century Russian engineers 1915 births 1984 deaths Burials at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering alumni People's commissars and ministers of the Soviet Union Seventh convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Eighth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Ninth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Tenth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Eleventh convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Stalin Prize winners Lenin Prize winners People from Lebap Region Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Russian people of Armenian descent Russian engineers Soviet chemical engineers