Artur Vader

Born Feb. 16, 1920, in the village of Gorbovo, in what is now Vitebsk Oblast, Byelorussian SSR; died May 25, 1978, in Tallinn. Soviet state and party figure. Candidate of historical sciences (1972). Member of the CPSU since 1943.

The son of a peasant, Vader completed correspondence studies at the Higher Party School Under the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1954. Over a period beginning in 1937 he engaged in teaching and Komsomol work. Vader served in the Soviet Army in 1941 and 1942 and fought in the Great Patriotic War. He took up an administrative pedagogical position in 1943 and turned to party work in 1948.

Vader was secretary of the Tallinn city committee of the Communist Party (CP) of Estonia from 1952 to 1959. From 1959 to 1963 he was a member of the administrative apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1963 and 1964 he served as chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control of the Central Committee of the CP of Estonia and the Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR, as a secretary of the Central Committee of the CP of Estonia, and as deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR. He was second secretary of the Central Committee of the CP of Estonia from 1964 to 1970. Vader was named chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR in 1970 and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1971. He was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1966 to 1971, when he was elected a member. He served as a deputy to the sixth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Vader was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, three other orders, and various medals.