Absamat Masaliyev, 71; Was Communist Leader of Kyrgyzstan
Absamat Masaliyev, 71, former leader of Kyrgyzstan who headed the Central Asian nation’s Communist Party before and after the Soviet collapse, died Saturday of a heart attack in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
A mine engineer trained at the Moscow Mining Institute, Masaliyev began working in the Communist Party in 1961. In 1985, he became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the party in Kyrgyzstan after changes in the Soviet Communist leadership that saw Mikhail Gorbachev take power in Moscow.
Masaliyev remained in that office until 1990, when he lost to current president Askar A. Akayev in the country’s first-ever presidential elections.
The elections were a part of the Soviet republics’ assertion of their sovereignty in moves that led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union the following year.
After his election loss, Masaliyev took control of the surviving Communist Party, and in 1995 won a seat in the upper chamber of parliament representing his southern home region of Osh.
In 2000 he won a lower parliament seat, which he retained until his death.
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