Ivan Kairov

Born Dec. 14 (26), 1893, in Riazan’. Soviet educator and prominent figure in Soviet public education. Doctor of pedagogical sciences. Member (from 1944) and president (1946–67) of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR. Hero of Socialist Labor (1963). Member of the CPSU since 1917.

Kairov graduated from the natural sciences division of thedepartment of physics and mathematics of Moscow Universityin 1917. From 1925 to 1929 he was head of the agriculturaleducation department in the Central Administration for Profes-sional Education of the RSFSR People’s Commissariat for Edu-cation. From 1930 to 1934 he was deputy director of theScientific Reaserch Institute for Agricultural Cadres. From 1929to 1948 he headed various pedagogical subdepartments at highereducational institutions in Moscow, including Moscow StateUniversity. From 1942 to 1950 he was editor in chief of thejournal Sovetskaia pedagogika (Soviet Pedagogy). From 1949 to1956 he was minister of education of the RSFSR. Under hisdirection and with his help pedagogical textbooks have beencompiled for pedagogical institutes and universities. At theTwentieth Party Congress he was elected a member of the Cen-tral Auditing Commission of the CPSU. At the Nineteenth andTwenty-second Congresses he was elected a candidate memberof the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was a deputy to thethird through sixth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of theUSSR. He has been awarded three Orders of Lenin and variousmedals 11–534–1]