Niiazbekov, Sabir

Born Dec. 2 (15), 1912, in the aul (village) of Ushkol’bai, now in Astrakhanka Raion, Tselinograd Oblast, Kazakh SSR. Soviet statesman and party figure. Member of the CPSU since 1939. Son of a poor peasant. Graduated from the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1956.

Niiazbekov worked in various soviets and conducted komsomol and economic work in the Kazakh SSR between 1928 and 1935. He served in the Soviet Army from 1935 to 1937, and from 1938 to 1945 he worked in soviets and in the party.

Niiazbekov was secretary of the Kustanai oblast committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (CPK) from 1945 to 1951, second secretary of the Severnyi Kazakhstan oblast committee of the CPK from 1951 to 1954, and first secretary of the Zapadnyi Kazakhstan oblast committee of the CPK from 1956 to 1960. He was second secretary of the Tselinnyi (Virgin Lands) regional committee from 1960 to 1961 and first secretary of the Tselinograd oblast committee of the CPK from 1961 to 1963. Niiazbekov was then first secretary of the Iuzhnyi Kazakhstan krai committee of the CPK in 1963–64 and first secretary of the Alma-Ata oblast committee of the CPK in 1964–65. In April 1965 he became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR and deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. A delegate to the Twenty-first through Twenty-fifth Congresses of the CPSU, he was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the Twenty-third Congress and a full member at the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses. He is a member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPK and was a deputy to the sixth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Niiazbekov has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.