Patolichev, Nikolay Semyonovich (September 10 [23], 1908, village of Zolino, Vladimir Governorate, now in Volodarsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region — December 1, 1989, Moscow) was a Soviet party and state figure, Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1958 to 1985, twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1975, 1978), and holder of twelve Orders of Lenin — an absolute record among Soviet figures. A native of the Nizhny Novgorod area, Patolichev rose from seasonal laborer to one of the longest-serving Soviet ministers.

Nizhny Novgorod Roots

Patolichev was born in the village of Zolino, which at the time of his birth belonged to the Vladimir Governorate and later became part of Nizhny Novgorod Region (Volodarsky District).[1] His father, Semyon Mikhailovich Patolichev, was a brigade commander and a hero of the Civil War; Nikolay was orphaned at the age of 12 and grew up in his uncle's family.[1] In 1921–1925 he worked as a seasonal laborer, and in 1925–1926 as a worker at the Ya. M. Sverdlov Plant in the workers' settlement of Rastyapino (now the city of Dzerzhinsk). There, in 1926–1928, he also studied at the factory apprenticeship school attached to the plant.[1]

Party Career

From 1928 to 1932 Patolichev was engaged in Komsomol work, and from 1938 he moved to party work, becoming a responsible organizer in a department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In August 1938 he was appointed Central Committee party organizer at the Yaroslavl Rubber Combine and at the same time headed the Rubber Combine District Party Committee: within a few months he succeeded in increasing the output of automobile tires 2.2-fold and bringing the enterprise up to its design capacity.[1] From January 1939 to December 1941 he served as First Secretary of the Yaroslavl Regional and City Party Committees, overseeing the restructuring of the region's economy onto a wartime footing.[1]

From January 1942 to March 1946 Patolichev headed the Chelyabinsk Regional and City Party Committees. During this period he became one of the organizers of the Ural Volunteer Tank Corps (1943) and the direct supervisor of the deployment of evacuated enterprises in the Southern Urals — for which he occupies the place of a particular symbolic figure in the historical memory of Chelyabinsk ("Tankograd").[2] After Chelyabinsk he worked as head of a department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), as Central Committee secretary, as a member of the Central Committee's Organizational Bureau, as head of the Administration for the Inspection of Party Organs, and as deputy chairman of the Council for Collective Farm Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers.[1]

In 1947–1950 Patolichev was First Secretary of the Rostov Regional and City Committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and made a significant contribution to restoring the region's economy, which had been devastated by the war.[1] From July 1950 to 1956 he headed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, and then in 1956–1958 he held the posts of deputy and first deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.[1]

Minister of Foreign Trade

In 1958 Patolichev was appointed Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR and remained in that post until 1985 — 27 years, becoming one of the longest-serving Soviet ministers. He held the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Soviet Union. He retired in 1985.

Awards and Memory

Patolichev was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor twice, in 1975 and 1978, and received twelve Orders of Lenin, as well as the Order of the October Revolution and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.[1] He died on December 1, 1989, in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.[1] His memoirs, "A Test of Maturity" (1977), were published during his lifetime; posthumously, his daughter Natalya Nikolaevna Trubitsina published the book "I Will Not Compromise My Conscience" (1995).[2]

Sources

  1. soundstream.media — Patolichev Nikolay Semyonovich — First Secretary of the Chelyabinsk Regional Party Committee — listen to the podcast
  2. pro-don.dspl.ru — PATOLICHEV Nikolay Semyonovich and the Don Land