Nikolai Baibakov

Nikolai Konstantinovich Baibakov (Никола́й Константи́нович Байбако́в) (6 March 1911, Sabunchu, near Baku, Russian Empire – 31 March 2008, Moscow) was a Soviet statesman, economist and Hero of Socialist Labor. He finished secondary school in 1928 and entered the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute, from which he graduated in 1931 as a mining engineer. In 1935, he was drafted into the armed forces. After completing his military service, he was appointed chief of the oilfield production department in an industrial complex in the USSR. Later he was promoted to chief engineer, then general director. He was in charge of evacuating oil industry facilities to the eastern regions during the Nazi invasion. Then he was appointed as narkom of the oil Industry of the USSR in 1944 serving until 1946. Because of his success in the planning of the oil industry sector of the Soviet Union and experience in economics, he was appointed as the head of Gosplan (State Planning Committee) of the USSR twice (1955–1957, 1965–1985).

Nikolai Baibakov retired in 1985. But he continued to work as a state councilor in the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR as of 1988. Then he was appointed head of the oil and gas section of the Academic Board of the Oil and Gas Institute with the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Honours and awards

 * Hero of Socialist Labour (1981)
 * Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd class (March 7, 2006) - for outstanding services to the state
 * Six Orders of Lenin
 * Order of the October Revolution
 * Order of the Red Banner of Labour, twice
 * Lenin Prize (1963) - for the discovery and development of gas-condensate fields
 * Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS, established in 1996 was awarded the Medal of the Academy)
 * Academician of the Academy of Cosmonautics
 * Laureate of the "Russian National Olympus"
 * Honorary Citizen of Ishimbai (Bashkortostan) - as an active participant in the development of Bashkir oil industry (made with such an initiative in 1940)
 * Istiglal Order (Azerbaijan)