Overview
Pyotr Masherov was born as Pyatro Mashera in a village in Vitsebsk region of Belarus and before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in 1941 worked as a high school physics and math teacher. Between 1942 and 1944 Masherov led an underground group of Soviet partisans in Belarus and was awarded title Hero of the Soviet Union in August 1944.
In 1965 after holding some key positions in Belarusian regions and in Minsk Pyotr Masherov became the first secretary of the Communist party in Belarus.
He was de facto the president of Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Many had considered him the likely successor of the aging General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev.
In 1978 Pyotr Masherov was awarded Hero of Socialist Labor title for his contributions to the development of Belorussian republic.
Read more about this topic: Pyotr Masherov