Poliakov, Viktor Nikolaevich

Born Feb. 18 (Mar. 3), 1915, in Tomsk. Soviet state figure. Hero of Socialist Labor (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

The son of an office worker, Poliakov graduated from the evening division of the Moscow Road Transportation Institute in 1938. Between 1930 and 1937 he had worked as a mechanic, foreman, and deputy head of a shop at various Moscow automotive enterprises. He served in the Soviet Army from 1938 to 1946 and took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

Between 1946 and 1963, Poliakov worked as head of a laboratory, head of a shop, deputy chief designer, chief engineer, and director at the Moscow Compact Car Plant. In the period 1963 to 1965 he was first deputy chairman and chairman of the Moscow city council of the national economy. Between 1965 and 1975 he served as general director of the Volga Association for the Production of Passenger Cars and deputy minister of the automotive industry of the USSR. He was appointed minister of the automotive industry of the USSR in 1975.

Poliakov became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1976. In 1981, he became a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was a deputy to the ninth and tenth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Poliakov has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.