Konstantin Fyodorovich Katushev (October 1, 1927, the village of Bolshoe Boldino, Gorky Region — 2010) was a Soviet state and Party figure, First Secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the CPSU from 1965 to 1968, and later a Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the USSR. A native of Pushkin's Boldino, he spent his childhood and youth in the Avtozavod area of Gorky, where his engineering and political career took shape.[1]
Origins and Education
He was born into a family of village schoolteachers. In 1931 the family moved to Nizhny Novgorod: his father, Fyodor Ivanovich Katushev, took part in the construction and launch of the Gorky Automobile Plant and subsequently worked in its technological departments until his retirement; his mother, Valentina Ivanovna, graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical Institute and taught Russian language and literature in schools of the Avtozavodsky District.[1] In 1945 Katushev graduated from the Gorky Automotive Mechanics Technical School, and in 1951 from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Technology of the Gorky Polytechnic Institute named after A. A. Zhdanov, qualifying as a mechanical engineer.[2]
Engineering Career at GAZ
From 1951 to 1957 he held engineering and technical posts in the Design and Experimental Department (KEO) of the Gorky Automobile Plant: he rose from rank-and-file designer to lead designer and deputy chief designer at GAZ.[2] During this period he worked on the creation of light tracked all-terrain vehicles and eight-wheeled armored personnel carriers.[4] From December 1957 he combined design work with the duties of secretary of the Party bureau of the GAZ KEO.[1]
Party Career in Gorky
From 1957 he was engaged in Party work. He successively served as secretary of the Party bureau of the GAZ KEO, Second Secretary of the Avtozavodsky District Committee of the CPSU in Gorky (from 1959), secretary of the Party committee of the Gorky Automobile Plant (from 1961), and First Secretary of the Gorky City Committee of the CPSU (from 1963).[2] From November 1965 to April 1968 he was First Secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the CPSU. He was succeeded in that post by Nikolay Maslennikov.[2]
According to available information, Katushev made a favorable impression on Leonid Brezhnev during one of the latter's visits to Gorky — with his liveliness, energy, and business-minded ideas, which contributed to his rapid advancement to Moscow.[4]
Federal Career
In April 1968, Katushev was transferred to Moscow and elected Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, becoming the youngest Central Committee secretary of the Brezhnev period.[4] From 1972 he simultaneously headed the Central Committee's Department for Relations with Communist and Workers' Parties of Socialist Countries, succeeding Yuri Andropov, who had moved to the post of Chairman of the KGB.[4] In this capacity he oversaw the USSR's relations with the socialist countries during a difficult period: in 1968 he took part in preparing the Central Committee's position on the eve of the meeting with the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in Čierna nad Tisou, and after the military conflict on Damansky Island he flew with A. N. Kosygin to Beijing to settle Soviet-Chinese relations.[4]
From March 16, 1977, to July 29, 1982, he was Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR; at the same time, in 1977–1980, he was the USSR's Permanent Representative to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon).[2] From July 31, 1982, to November 1985, he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the Republic of Cuba.[2] From November 1985 he was Chairman of the USSR State Committee for Foreign Economic Relations (GKES), and from January 1988 Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the USSR; he remained in that post until December 1991.[2]
Katushev was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 7th through 11th convocations and a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1966 to 1990.[2] After the collapse of the USSR, from 1996 he served as president of the commercial bank Diamant, and from April 2005 as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the VIP-Bank "Viza" joint-stock company (RUAKB), Moscow.[2]
Awards
He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and the Cuban Order of Solidarity.[1]
Sources
- lib-avt.ru — Katushev Konstantin Fyodorovich — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of the City of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — November 1965 – April 18, 1968: KATUSHEV Konstantin Fyodorovich — OPEN TEXT (archive)
- help-rus-student.ru — Katushev Konstantin Fyodorovich.
- deduhova.ru — Konstantin Fyodorovich Katushev — State Administration in Russia in Portraits (archive)