Kunaev, Dimmukhamed Akhmedovich (1912-1993)

Kazakh politician. He worked his way up the Kazakh party ladder in the 1940s and 1950s, coming into close contact with Leonid Brezhnev and being made first secretary in 1960. He was demoted by Nikita Khrushchev in 1962, but was reappointed in 1964 by Brezhnev, who also brought him into full membership of the Politburo. His dismissal by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 led to riots in Alma Ata, but these were countered by charges of extensive corruption.