Babken Sarkisov

Born Nov. 25 (Dec. 8), 1913, in Shusha, in what is now Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Azerbaijan SSR. Soviet state and party figure. Member of the CPSU since 1939.

The son of an office worker, Sarkisov graduated from the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute in 1938 and from the Higher Party School Under the Central Committee of the ACP(B) in 1944. In 1929 he became a fitter at a machine shop in Baku. Beginning in 1938 he held a series of positions at the S. M. Buddenyi Baku Oil Refinery, working as an engineer, senior engineer, and deputy chief mechanical engineer. From 1941 to 1943 he was a party organizer of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) at the refinery.

Sarkisov was on the staff of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1944 to 1955. From 1955 to 1961 he was secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia. He served as chairman of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR on the Coordination of Scientific Research from 1961 to 1966 and as minister of motor vehicle transportation of the Armenian SSR from 1966 to 1970. From 1970 to 1975, Sarkisov was chairman of the State Price Committee of the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR. He was named chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR in 1975 and deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1977. He became a member of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU in 1976.

A candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1981 and a deputy to the ninth and tenth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Sarkisov has been awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.