Ivan Poliakov

Born Nov. 12 (25), 1914, in Gomel’. Soviet state and party figure. Hero of Socialist Labor (1973). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

The son of a worker, Poliakov graduated from the Higher Party School Under the Central Committee of the ACP(B) in 1949. He became a worker in Gomel’ in 1933 and began working for the Komsomol in 1939. In 1942 and 1943 he was secretary of the underground Gomel’ oblast committee of the Byelorussian Komsomol and commissar of the 1st Gomel’ Partisan Brigade.

From 1943 to 1946, Poliakov served as first secretary of the Gomel’ and Minsk oblast committees of the Byelorussian Komsomol. Between 1949 and 1953 he held the posts of second and first secretary of the Vitebsk city committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. He was chairman of the Gomel’ oblast executive committee in 1956 and 1957. From 1957 to 1964, Poliakov was first secretary of the Gomel’ oblast committee (the Gomel’ rural oblast committee in 1963–64) of the CPB. From 1964 to 1977 he was first secretary of the Minsk oblast committee of the CPB.

Poliakov became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1977. He was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1961 to 1966 and became a member in 1966.

A deputy to the fifth through tenth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Poliakov has received four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and various medals.