Vladimir Shatov

Born December 1887 in Kiev; died Aug. 7, 1943. Participant in the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War of 1918–20. Soviet economic figure.

Shatov studied at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and took part in Social Democratic circles. In 1906 he emigrated to the USA, where he became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. He returned to Russia in 1917. During the October Days he was a member of the Petrograd military revolutionary committee as a representative of the Union of Anarchosyndicalist Propaganda. From 1918 to 1921, Shatov was extraordinary commissar for railroad defense for the Petrograd Military District and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Seventh Army of the Western Front. After serving as minister of war and minister of railroad transport of the Far East Republic in 1921 and 1922, he turned to administrative work.

From 1927 to 1930, Shatov directed the construction of Turkestan-Siberian railroad and was head of the Board of Siberian Railroad Construction. From 1932 to 1936 he was head of the People’s Commissariat of Railroads and of the Central Board of Railroad Construction. Shatov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.