Valentin Sergeyevich Pavlov ( Russian: Валентин Серге́евич Павлов; 27 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, and became de facto Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. ( more...)