Mesiats, Valentin Karpovich

Born May 1, 1928, in Kiselevsk, Kemerovo Oblast. Soviet state and party figure. Member of the CPSU since 1955.

The son of a worker, Mesiats graduated from the K. A. Timi-riazev Moscow Agricultural Academy in 1953. In the period 1953 to 1958 he was chief agronomist and director of a machine-tractor station in Moscow Oblast. He began soviet and party work in 1958. In 1963 and 1964, Mesiats was second secretary of the Moscow rural oblast committee of the CPSU; he was secretary of the Moscow oblast committee of the CPSU in 1964 and 1965. Mesiats served as first deputy minister of agriculture of the RSFSR from 1965 to 1971 and as second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan from 1971 to 1976.

Mesiats became minister of agriculture of the USSR in 1976. He was named a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1971. He served as a deputy to the ninth and tenth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Mesiats has been awarded three orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and various medals.