Nicolae Coval

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Nicolae Coval

| image =

| imagesize =

| office = First Secretary of the Moldavian Communist Party

| primeminister =

| term_start = 5 January 1946

| term_end = July 1950

| predecessor = Nikita Salogor

| successor = Leonid Brezhnev

| president =

| office2 = Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Moldavian SSR

| term_start2 = 17 April 1945

| term_end2 = 4 January 1946

| predecessor2 = Tihon Konstantinov

| successor2 = Gherasim Rudi

| president2 =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|12|19|df=y}}

| birth_place = Camenca, Olgopolsky Uyezd, Podolia Governorate, Russian Empire (now Moldova)

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1970|01|15|1904|12|19|df=y}}

| death_place = Chişinău, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union (now Moldova)

| party = Communist Party of Moldova

| premier = Gherasim Rudi

| native_name = {{nobold|Николай Коваль}}

}}

Nicolae Coval (19 December 1904 – 15 January 1970) was a Soviet and Moldavian politician.

Biography

Nicolae Coval was born on 19 December 1904 in the city of Camenca, Russian Empire (now in Transnistria, Republic of Moldova). Nicolae Coval became a member of the CPSU in 1939; in the period 1940–1945, he served as the People's Commissar for Agriculture of the MSSR. At Congresses I - IV, X - XII of the Communist Party of the MSSR was elected as a member of the Central Committee. He also served as deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (in Legislative 1, 2, 6 and 7) and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (in the 1-3 legislatures).

Coval was the prime minister of Moldavian SSR (17 April 1945 – 5 January 1946). Coval was also the First Secretary of the Moldavian Communist Party (5 January 1946 - July 1950).

During his rule, the hunger of 1946-1947 occurred in the Moldаvian SSR, when more than 170 thousand people died{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}. The hunger had partially objective reasons (relatively low harvest), while partially was organized by Soviet Authorities{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}} (Joseph Stalin and the Communist Party), which urged the completion of Soviet grain stocks. The hunger was stopped in the autumn of 1947, after which a forced collectivisation of agriculture in Bessarabia was ordered by Soviet authorities.