Petr Vasilevich Dementev

Born Jan. 11 (24), 1907, in the village of Ubei, Tatar ASSR. Soviet statesman and executive, Hero of Socialist Labor (1941). Became a member of the CPSU in 1938. The son of a teacher.

In 1922, Dement’ev went to work as an industrial worker. He graduated from the N. E. Zhukovskii Military Aviation Academy in 1931. From 1931 to 1941 he was engaged in engineering and technical work in research institutes and aviation factories in the capacities of senior engineer, director of a section, chief engineer, and plant director. From 1941 to 1953 he served as first deputy people’s commissar and then as first deputy minister of the aviation industry of the USSR. From 1953 to 1957 he was minister of the aviation industry of the USSR. From 1957 to 1965 he was chairman of the State Committee on Aviation Technology of the USSR, a post of ministerial rank. In 1965 he again became minister of the aviation industry of the USSR. Dement’ev was a delegate to the Twentieth through Twenty-fourth Congresses of the CPSU. He was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the Nineteenth Congress, and the Twentieth through Twenty-fourth Congresses elected him to the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was a deputy to the fourth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Dement’ev was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1953. He has also been awarded eight Orders of Lenin, six other orders, and medals.