Valentin Pavlov

Valentin Sergeyevich Pavlov (Валéнтин Серге́евич Па́влов; 26 September 1937 – 30 March 2003) was a Soviet official who became a Russian banker following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Born in Moscow, Pavlov graduated from the Moscow Finance Institute in 1958.

Born in the city of Moscow, then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Pavlov began his political career in the Ministry of Finance in 1959.

Later, during the Brezhnev Era, he became head of the Financial Department of the State Planning Committee.

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.

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

He started his nomenklatura (bureaucratic) 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.

Early in his career he also worked for the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

Mikhail Gorbachev then signed a presidential decree ordering the Soviet financial system to stop accepting and exchanging banknotes issued in 1961.

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

He 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.

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

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

Throughout the period, and later as Minister of Finance, Pavlov supported the centralized price reform proposal posited by Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

He 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.

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

Along with Eduard Shevardnadze – Soviet Foreign Minister – Pavlov was the only nominee from Ryzhkov's second government to be overwhelmingly elected by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.

As Minister of Finance, Pavlov was supportive of the marketization of the Soviet economy, having overseen a rapid increase in the Soviet money supply and the increase in inflation it caused.

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

In 1989, 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.

Silayev never forgave Pavlov and relations between the two grew even more icy when Pavlov became Soviet Premier.

Following the resignation of Nikolai Ryzhkov following a heart attack in December 1990, Pavlov was elected to the new position of Prime Minister as a compromise candidate, and became chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers.

He and his two First Deputy Prime Ministers, Vladimir Velichko and Vitaly Doguzhiev, were approved and elected by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on 14 January, with 279 votes in favor, 75 against, and 66 abstained, while approval for the majority of his ministers followed within a few weeks.

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.

One of his first actions as Prime Minister was to move the headquarters of the Soviet Government – the Cabinet of Ministers – from the Moscow Kremlin to the former headquarters of the State Committee for Construction to strengthen his position.

As Prime Minister Pavlov initiated the 1991 Soviet monetary reform, commonly referred to as the Pavlov reform, in early 1991.

Early on he told the media that the reform was initiated to halt the flow of Soviet rubles transported to the Soviet Union from abroad.

Although ridiculed at the time, the statement was later proven to be true.

In June the same year, Pavlov called for a transfer of power from the President of the Soviet Union to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers.

When that failed, he joined a plot to oust Gorbachev.

In August, he participated in the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, which tried to prevent the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

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

He 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.

The Soviet monetary reform of 1991, commonly referred to as the 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.

Initiated on 22 January 1991, it was intended to withdraw money from circulation for reallocation to the production of consumer goods, which were in short supply.

In a speech, Pavlov stated that the reason for the withdrawal was the government's belief that money was being sent to the Soviet Union from abroad, fueling inflation.

Although ridiculed by the Soviet press at the time, three years later the truth of Pavlov's statement was verified.

The directive also included 50-ruble and 100-ruble banknotes issued in 1991.

On 23 January 1991, the government began restricting monthly bank deposit withdrawals to 500 rubles with the official explanation that this was to freeze the income of corrupt officials, capitalists and criminals.

In 1993 he proudly admitted that during his tenure as Minister of Finance, and later Prime Minister, he had deceived several Western banks and creditors by lying about the Soviet Union's gold reserves.