Alexander Mikhailovich Puzanov (October 25, 1905 – March 1, 1998) was a Soviet state and party figure and diplomat. He was born in the village of Lezhkovka, Yuryevets Uyezd, Kostroma Governorate (now Puchezhsky District, Ivanovo Region), into a peasant family. He held the posts of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR and ambassador of the USSR to a number of countries, including Afghanistan in the period preceding the entry of Soviet troops.[1]

Early Years and Party Career

He graduated from the Ples Agricultural Technical School. From 1924 to 1930 he worked as chairman of a village soviet, in the apparatus of the executive committee of a volost soviet, and as an agronomist. He joined the Party in 1925. From 1931 he was deputy director of the Ivanovo Regional Trust of Suburban Farms, and from 1933 he served in the bodies of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate and state control. From 1940 he was chief controller of the Soviet Control Commission under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and in 1943 he was appointed deputy People's Commissar of State Control of the USSR.[1]

From June 1944 he was chairman of the executive committee of the Kuibyshev Regional Soviet. From 1946 to 1952 he was first secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee and (until 1950) the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). At the 19th Party Congress in October 1952 he was elected a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU; he belonged to the circle of figures whom Stalin was promoting into the upper echelons of power in the postwar period. After Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, he was removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee.[1]

In June 1953, after Beria's arrest, he took part in opening the safes in Beria's Kremlin office and removing their contents; the detailed inventory of the seized items, which the law required to be drawn up, was never made. From 1952 to 1956 he served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, and from 1956 to 1957 as first deputy chairman of the same government.[1]

At the June 1957 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which crushed the "anti-party group" of Malenkov, Kaganovich, Molotov, and others, Puzanov twice submitted written statements to the Presidium of the Central Committee, demanding that the members of the group be removed from the leading bodies and that the question of their Party membership be considered; Malenkov came in for particular criticism in these texts and was accused of involvement in the "Leningrad Affair." Puzanov was not given the floor at the plenum and handed the text of his undelivered speech to the secretariat.[1]

Diplomatic Work

From 1957 he was in the diplomatic service. He held the posts of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the DPRK (1953–1962), Yugoslavia (1962–1967), Bulgaria (1967–1972), and Afghanistan (1972–1979).[1]

The Afghan period became the most controversial part of his biography. In August 1979 Puzanov reported to Moscow by coded cable on negotiations with Hafizullah Amin, in which Amin set conditions for using the Kabul garrison against the rebels. In September 1979 Puzanov assured Amin that an upcoming meeting with the head of state, Taraki, would be safe; however, when Amin arrived at Taraki's residence, he was fired upon, and Amin survived only by chance. The Afghan foreign minister reported the incident in New York on September 27, 1979. A number of publications accused Puzanov of deliberately misinforming Moscow in order to obtain a seat on the Foreign Ministry's collegium; he denied this, pointing out that personal career considerations were incommensurable with a decision to send in troops. The entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan took place under his tenure, in December 1979.[1]

Nizhny Novgorod Connection

Puzanov was born in the village of Lezhkovka, Yuryevets Uyezd, Kostroma Governorate — a territory that was part of the Volga region and now belongs to Puchezhsky District, Ivanovo Region. Yuryevets Uyezd bordered the lands of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate; his birthplace is tied to the historical and geographic space of the Upper Volga Region.[1]

Sources

  1. biography.wikireading.ru — PUZANOV Alexander Mikhailovich. The Most Secretive People. From Lenin to Gorbachev: An Encyclopedia of Biographies