Kunayev, Dinmukhamed Akhmedovich

▪ 1994

      Soviet politician (b. Jan. 12, 1912 [Dec. 31, 1911, Old Style], Verny [now Almaty], Kazakhstan—d. Aug. 22, 1993, near Almaty), as first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (1960-62; 1964-86), was the effective ruler of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic for more than two decades and the highest-ranking Soviet leader of Muslim heritage. Kunayev studied metallurgy in Moscow and worked as a machinist, engineer, and administrator in the mining industry. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1939, and in 1942 he was named deputy chairman of the Kazakhstan Council of Ministers. After a three-year break, during which he served as president of the Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan (1952-55), he was promoted to chairman of the republic's Council of Ministers. Kunayev, a close associate of Leonid Brezhnev, who also hailed from Kazakhstan, took control in the republic after Brezhnev ousted Nikita Khrushchev as Soviet leader in 1964. He became a candidate member of the CPSU Politburo in 1966 and was elevated to full membership in 1971. Although Kunayev's term was marked by autocratic ruthlessness and corruption, there were widespread protests when he was replaced in 1986.

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