Kortunov, Aleksei

Born Mar. 15 (28), 1907, in Novocherkassk; died Nov. 18, 1973, in Moscow. Soviet statesman; Hero of the Soviet Union (Mar. 24, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1939. Son of a worker.

Kortunov began to work in 1922. He graduated from the Novocherkassk Engineering and Land Reclamation Institute in 1931 and held management positions in the economy from 1936 to 1941. Kortunov was in the Soviet Army from 1941 to 1948, took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, and attained the rank of colonel. He was chief of the Tuimazy territorial-construction board of the Central Board of Petroleum and Gas Construction of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1948 to 1950. Kortunov was deputy minister of the petroleum industry of the USSR in 1950-53 and was among the leadership in the same ministry from 1953 to 1955. He was minister of construction of the petroleum-industry enterprises of the USSR from 1955 to 1957 and head of the Central Board of the Gas Industry of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1957 to 1963. Kortunov was chairman of the State Production Committee of the Gas Industry of the USSR and a minister of the USSR from 1963 to 1965. He was minister of the gas industry of the USSR from 1965 to 1972. Kortunov was appointed minister of the construction of enterprises of the petroleum and gas industries of the USSR in September 1972.

Kortunov was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the Twenty-second (1961), Twenty-third (1966), and Twenty-fourth (1971) Party Congresses. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the sixth through eighth convocations. He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and various medals. [13–653–1; updated]