Valentin Pavlov

Valentin Pavlov
Валентин Павлов
Pavlov in 1991
Prime Minister of the Soviet Union
In office 14 January 1991 – 28 August 1991[1]
President	Mikhail Gorbachev
Deputy	First Deputy Premiers Vladimir Velichko Vitaly Doguzhiev
Preceded by	Nikolai Ryzhkov
Succeeded by	Ivan Silayev
Minister of Finance
In office 17 July 1989 – 26 December 1990
Preceded by	Boris Gostev
Succeeded by	Vladimir Yefimovich Orlov
Chairman of the State Committee on Prices
In office 15 August 1986 – 7 June 1989
Preceded by	Nikolai Glushkov
Succeeded by	Vyacheslav Senchagov
Personal details
Born	(1937-09-26)26 September 1937 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	30 March 2003(2003-03-30) (aged 65) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Pyatnitskoye Cemetery
Nationality	Soviet and Russian
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1962–1991)
Alma mater	Moscow Finance Institute

Valentin Sergeyevich Pavlov (Russian: 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 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.

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.