Suren Tovmasyan

Suren Hakobi Tovmasyan was a Soviet Armenian politician and diplomat who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from 1953 to 1960, and later as Soviet ambassador to North Vietnam and to Libya.

Biography

Tovmasyan was born in the village of Shinuhayr in the Zangezur region of Russian Armenia. He rose through the party ranks to become the First Secretary of Armenia at the recommendation of Pyotr Pospelov on 30 November 1953, following the downfall of Grigory Arutinov.
As First Secretary, Tovmasyan oversaw the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw in Armenia and worked with Anastas Mikoyan to rehabilitate several former political prisoners in the republic. Following Mikoyan's example, he praised the poet Yeghishe Charents in a speech before the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Tovmasyan was later dismissed from his post in 1960, for his "relaxed attitude toward 'ideological flaws,'" including tolerance for writers like Paruyr Sevak, who allegedly displayed "nationalist tendencies." He was transferred to diplomatic work, serving as Soviet ambassador to North Vietnam from 1961 to 1964 and then as Soviet ambassador to Libya from 1965 to 1970.