Ruben, Vitalii Petrovich

Born Feb. 13 (26), 1914, in Moscow. Soviet statesman and party official. Member of the CPSU since 1939. Son of an office worker.

Ruben graduated from a technicum of grasslands seed farming in 1934 and from the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) in 1951. From 1934 to 1941 he worked as a sector agronomist and then as a teacher in Rybinsk Raion, Yaroslavl Oblast. From 1941 he held responsible posts in the party, economy, and government. He was secretary of the Daugavpils district committee of the Latvian CP in 1947–48. Ruben served as deputy representative of the Council on Kolkhoz Affairs of the government of the USSR for the Latvian SSR in 1952–53 and as deputy representative of the Ministry of Procurements of the USSR for the Latvian SSR in 1954–55. From 1956 to 1958 and in 1960–61 he worked for the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Latvian CP. He served as deputy chairman in 1961–62 and chairman from 1962 to 1970 of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR and from May 1970 as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Ruben has been chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR since July 1974. He was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1966 and has been a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1974. He is a member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Latvian CP. He was a deputy to the sixth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Ruben has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and various medals. [22–1006–6; updated]