Liashko, Oleksander

Liashko, Oleksander [Ляшко, Олександер; Ljaško], b 30 December 1915 in Rodakove, Slovianoserbsk county, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 9 October 2002 in Kyiv. A Communist Party functionary and Soviet official. A graduate of the Donetsk Industrial Institute (1947) (now Donetsk National Technical University), he rose in the Party apparatus to the positions of first secretary of the Donetsk oblast Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (1960–3) and second secretary of the Central Committee (1966–9). In 1969–72 he served as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR and chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR (1972–87). He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (1960–84), the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1961–87), and the Presidium (1963–6) and the Politburo of the Communist Party of Ukraine (1966–87). Until his retirement in July 1987, Liashko was an obedient executor of Moscow’s centralist policies.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]