Solomentsev, Mikhail

Solomentsev, Mikhail Sergeevich 

Born Oct. 25 (Nov. 7), 1913, in the village of Erilovka, in what is now Elets Raion, Lipetsk Oblast. Soviet government and party figure. Hero of Socialist Labor (1973). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

The son of a peasant, Solomentsev graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1940. Between 1940 and 1954 he worked in various factories and plants in the city of Lipetsk, in Cheliabinsk Oblast, and in the city of Cheliabinsk. His positions included foreman, shop superintendent, party organizer representing the Central Committee of the ACP(B), chief engineer, and plant director.

In the period 1954–57, Solomentsev was secretary and second secretary of the Cheliabinsk oblast committee of the CPSU, and from 1957 to 1959 he served as chairman of the Cheliabinsk Sovnarkhoz (Council of the National Economy). From 1959 to 1962 he served as first secretary of the Karaganda oblast committee of the Kazakhstan Communist Party, and from 1962 to 1964 as second secretary of the Central Committee of the Kazakhstan Communist Party. Between 1964 and 1966 he was first secretary of the Rostov oblast committee of the CPSU. From 1966 to 1971 he served as secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and as director of a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In July 1971 he became chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR. A member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1961, he became a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU in November 1971.

Solomentsev was a deputy to the fifth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and to the seventh through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. In the period 1966–71 he was chairman of the Commission for Legislative Proposals of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Solomentsev is responsible for important work in the implementation of the domestic and foreign policies of the CPSU and the Soviet state. He has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, three other orders, and various medals.