Vladimir Matskevich

Born Dec. 1(14), 1909, in the village of Privol’noe, now in Zaporozh’e Raion, Zaporozh’e Oblast. Soviet statesman and economic figure. Member of the CPSU since 1939. Son of an agronomist.

Matskevich graduated from the Kharkov Zootechnical Institute in 1932. From 1932 to 1946 he was an instructor and administrator in secondary specialized and higher educational institutions. From 1946 to 1952 he was deputy minister and minister of animal husbandry of the Ukrainian SSR, deputy minister and minister of agriculture of the Ukrainian SSR, and first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1953-55 he was first deputy minister and in 1955-60, minister of agriculture of the USSR; Matskevich served simultaneously as deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for agriculture from 1956 to 1957 and deputy chairman of the Gosplan (State Planning Committee) of the USSR from 1957 to 1961. He was chairman of the Tselinnyi Krai Executive Committee from 1961 to 1965.

Matskevich was minister of agriculture of the USSR from 1965 to 1973. He has been the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the USSR to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic since April 1973. He was a delegate to the Twentieth through Twenty-fourth Congresses of the CPSU and was elected a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the Twentieth (1956), Twenty-third (1966), and Twenty-fourth (1971) Congresses. He was a deputy to the third through eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Matskevich has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.