Ivan Pudkov

Born Mar. 5 (18), 1916, in the village of Kanishchevo, in what is now Pichaevo Raion, Tambov Oblast. Soviet state figure. Member of the CPSU since 1945.

The son of a peasant, Pudkov graduated from the S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Institute of Aviation in 1940. He worked as a design engineer, head of a design bureau, and party organizer of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) at an aviation industry plant. In the period 1953 to 1968, Pudkov served as head of production, chief production engineer, chief engineer, and director of an aviation industry plant. In 1968 Pudkov became first deputy minister of machine building for light industry, the food-processing industry, and household appliances of the USSR; he was appointed minister in 1977. A deputy to the tenth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he became a member of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU in 1981.

Pudkov has received the Lenin Prize and has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and various medals.