26 Facts About Valentin Pavlov

Valentin Sergeyevich Pavlov was a Soviet official who became a Russian banker following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Valentin Pavlov was appointed to the post of Chairman of the State Committee on Prices during the Gorbachev Era, and later became Minister of Finance in Nikolai Ryzhkov's second government.

Valentin Pavlov went on to succeed Ryzhkov as head of government in the newly established post of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.

Valentin Pavlov was arrested for his involvement in the coup and went on to work in the banking sector in post-Soviet Russia.

Valentin Pavlov can be seen as the last legitimate Soviet head of government since his successor, Ivan Silayev, was appointed by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in breach of what were the Soviet constitutional principles.

Valentin Pavlov started his nomenklatura career as a government economist; he started working for as an official of the Ministry of Finance in 1959, and became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1962.

Valentin Pavlov started working for the State Planning Committee in 1979, and became a member of the State Planning Committee's board in 1981.

Valentin Pavlov held the office as head of the State Planning Committee's Finance Department, the department which oversaw all aspects of the country's planned economy.

Valentin Pavlov served as First Deputy Minister of Finance in Boris Gostev's ministry from January to August 1986.

Valentin Pavlov was appointed Chairman of the State Committee on Prices on 15 August 1986, and retained that post until 7 June 1989.

Valentin Pavlov succeeded Gostev to become Minister of Finance in Ryzhkov's government in 1989 and his time in the post was considered uncontroversial, even though Lira Rozenova, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Prices, was not elected to the post of Chairman of the State Committee for her advocacy of Pavlov-backed plans for centrally administered price reform.

Valentin Pavlov was the only minister in Ryzhkov's Government who was a member of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers.

Valentin Pavlov set the exchange rate for the ruble against the American dollar on the Soviet black market.

In 1989, Valentin Pavlov gathered together enough information on the errors and omissions of Ivan Silayev, the future Soviet Premier and Russian SFSR Premier, to weaken his position as Deputy Premier.

Valentin Pavlov was considered a conservative upon his election as Prime Minister, and the Soviet press described him as a "bold and complex man" who was against full marketization but who believed that the Soviet Union was even more oppressive towards workers than even the most advanced capitalist societies.

The Soviet monetary reform of 1991, commonly referred to as the Valentin Pavlov reform, was the last monetary reform prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, despite having made a speech 2 weeks before, saying there would be no such reforms.

In June 1991, Valentin Pavlov, who felt that the office of Prime Minister had limited power, discovered that Gorbachev planned to replace him as Prime Minister.

However, Valentin Pavlov blamed this on the ongoing War of Laws between the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which, he argued, could be resolved by introducing a state of emergency across the entire Soviet Union, or at least in certain economic sectors.

Valentin Pavlov received support for the idea from the Soyuz parliamentary faction leader Viktor Alksnis, who called for an immediate vote on the issue.

In retrospect, Alksnis notes that this resolution could have become a coup d'etat had Valentin Pavlov consulted with them earlier.

Shortly after Valentin Pavlov was hospitalized with hypertension whilst remaining in custody.

Valentin Pavlov was released on recognizance not to leave in January 1993 and granted amnesty by the Russian State Duma in 1994.

Valentin Pavlov then worked as an advisor to Promstroybank between 1996 and 1997, and in 1998 became a vice president of the American firm Business Management Systems.

Valentin Pavlov worked both as vice president of both the Free Economic Society and the International Academy of Management and later headed a department of the International Union of Economists.

Valentin Pavlov died in Moscow on 30 March 2003, and was buried on 2 April at Pyatnitskoye Cemetery.

In 2000 with support from Viktor Gerashchenko, Valentin Pavlov's son Sergey Pavlov was a banker at East-West United Bank, Luxembourg.