Oleg Baklanov

Oleg Dmitriyevich Baklanov (, ; 17 March 1932 – 28 July 2021) was a Soviet politician, and high functionary in government and industry. He was a scientist and businessman. As Minister of General Machine Building, he was responsible for the Soviet space industry during the 1980s.

Biography

Baklanov worked in an instrument engineering factory in Kharkov, Soviet Ukraine, and later became chief of the factory. He was appointed Engineering Industry Minister of the Soviet Union in 1983 and was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet from 1981 to 1991.

Baklanov was a secretary of the CPSU Central Committee from February 1988 to April 1991 and was responsible for defense issues in this role. He was a member of the State Committee on the State of Emergency during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt.

From March until his arrest on August 23, 1991, he was the First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council under the President of the Soviet Union (he was formally dismissed from office a month after his arrest).

Baklanov was brutally beaten and arrested by the security police for his role in the 1991 coup d'état attempt. He was released on recognizance not to leave in January 1993 and amnestied by the State Duma in 1994. After his release, he became the chairman of the board of governors at the Rosobshemash company.

Death

Baklanov died on 28 July 2021, and is buried in the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery on 30 July. Prior to his death he was the last surviving member of the State Committee on the State of Emergency.

Family

Wife - Liliya Fyodorovna Baklanova (1937–2010).

Son - Dmitry Olegovich Baklanov (born 1959), served in law enforcement agencies.

The book “The Red Dozen. The Collapse of the USSR: They Were Against It” (2012) states that Baklanov’s wife, Liliya Fyodorovna, “on the day of his arrest suffered a heart attack and was taken to the hospital, where she remained for four months,” and that his son, Dmitry Olegovich, who was engaged in “combating drug addiction and drug trafficking,” was soon dismissed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).

Honours and awards

• Hero of Socialist Labour (1976)
• Order of Lenin (1976)
• Order of the October Revolution
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour, twice
• Order of the Badge of Honour (1960)
• Lenin Prize (1982)
• Chairman of the Society of Friendship and cooperation between the peoples of Ukraine and Russia
• Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics Tsiolkovsky
• International Academy of Information Technology
• Academician of the Academy of Security, Defence and Law Enforcement.

References

External links