DINMOHAMMED KUNAYEV

Dinmohammed Kunayev - also transliterated as Dinmohammed Kunaiev, or Dinmukhamed Kunaev (Kazakh: Дінмұхаммед Қонаев, Dіnmuhammed Qonaev; Russian: Динмухаммед Ахмедович Кунаев) - (12 January 1912 [O.S. 31 December 1911] – 22 August 1993) was a Kazakh Soviet communist politician who served as the First Secretary of the Commmunist Party of Kazakhstan.

Kunayev was deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Kazakh SSR from April 1942 to 1946. From 1946 to 1952, he was deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR. In 1952, he was elected President of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, and he served in that post until 1955. In that time the Academy conducted research with the aim of developing and improving industry and agriculture, and more efficient use of Kazakhstan's natural resources.

In1955, Kunayev became Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR, and on January 19, 1960, he was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.

As First Secretary, Kunaev supported the Virgin Lands campaign, which opened millions of hectares of lands in central Kazakhstan to agricultural development and caused a large influx of Russian immigrants into Kazakhstan. However, in 1962 he was dismissed from his position after disagreeing with Nikita Khrushchev's plans to incorporate some lands in southern Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan.

After his dismissal as First Secretary, Kunayev served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR until 1964, when he again became First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan after Khrushchev's ouster. He kept his position for twenty-two more years.

Kunayev was also an alternate member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1967, and a full member from 1971 to 1987.

WRITINGS AND STATEMENTS

1959: Kazakhstan: Seven-Year Plan for Prosperity