Sergei Zverev

Born Oct. 5 (18), 1912, in the village of Sofronkovo, present-day Demiansk Raion, Novgorod Oblast. Soviet statesman. Member of the CPSU since 1942.

Zverev, the son of a worker, became a worker in 1930. After graduating from the Leningrad Institute of Precision Engineering and Optics in 1936, he held important posts in industry, including those of design engineer, chief engineer, and deputy director of a plant. From 1947 to 1958 he was chief engineer, head of a central administration, and deputy minister in the Ministry of Armaments and Ministry of the Defense Industry of the USSR.

From 1958 to 1963, Zverev was vice-chairman and first vice-chairman of the State Committee on Defense Equipment of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. He was chairman of the State Committee on Defense Equipment of the USSR and held the rank of a minister of the USSR from 1963 to 1965, when he became minister of the defense industry of the USSR. He was elected a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the Twenty-Third (1966) and Twenty-fourth (1971) Party Congresses and was a deputy to the Seventh through Ninth Supreme Soviets of the USSR. Zverev has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1971), five Orders of Lenin, five other orders, and medals.