Muchamednasar Gapurov

Gapurov in 1980

Muchamednasar Gapurowitsch Gapurow ( Russian Мухамедназар Гапурович Гапуров , Turkmen. Muhammetnazar Gapurowiç Gapurow * 15. February 1922 at Tschardschou , Turkestan ASSR ; † 13. July 1999 in Bersengi ) was from 1969 bis 1985 General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR within the Soviet Union .

Life

Gapurow was born in 1922 near the town of Tschardschou , today's Turkmenabat, and joined the Soviet youth organization Komsomol and later the CPSU at an early age . In Tschardschou he trained as a teacher at the local state educational institute. From 1941 until his wounding in 1943, he served in the Red Army during World War II . Gapurow was released to his homeland and started working as a teacher there. Gapurow was heavily involved in the communist party and rose in their rankings. From 1951 to 1955 he headed the Komsomol of the Turkmen SSR and later took on other important tasks of the party until he finally became general secretary in his home republic in 1969 and replaced Balisch Owesow in this office .

During his tenure, the Turkmen SSR experienced a great boom. The standard of living increased significantly and major modernizations took place, especially in the gas and oil industries . Towards the end of the 1970s, however, economic growth in Turkmenistan stagnated due to mismanagement and attempts at centralization. Corruption and nepotism flourished particularly in the last few years of his tenure . After a scandal in the cotton industry, Muhammetnazar Gapurow was finally removed from his post by party leader Mikhail Gorbachev and replaced by Saparmurat Niyazov , the future Turkmen dictator.

Gapurov then completely distanced himself from politics. He began writing his memoirs in the late 1990s, but died in 1999 near the village of Bersengi in his dacha before he could complete it. He was buried in Ashgabat .

Awards

• Hero of Socialist Labor (1981)
• 5 × Order of Lenin
• 3 × Order of the Red Banner of Labor
• Badge of Honor of the Soviet Union

Individual evidence

• Abazov, Rafis. Historical Dictionary of Turkmenistan , pp. 64-65, Scarecrow Press, 2005, ISBN 0810853620 . (English)
• Мухамедназар Гапурович Гапуров (Russian)
• Soviet Rulers (English)