Born to a peasant family in what is today the Vitebsk Region during the early stages of the Russian Civil War, Masherov was a teacher in mathematics and physics in his youth.

[2] Following his father's arrest and death during the Great Purge,[3] Masherov joined the Red Army following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, and rose to the rank of major general.

[4] Masherov was known for his down-to-earth demeanour and for his humility,[4] separating him from much of the rest of the upper echelons of Soviet government during the Era of Stagnation, a time period in which corruption and resistance to reform ran rampant.

[1] Pyotr Mironovich Mashero was born on 26 February 1919 in the village of Shirki, Sennensky Uyezd, in the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia.

[8] During weekends, Masherov, as well as his father Miron and his brother Pavel, worked part-time jobs loading logs into railway cars.

[9] According to the memoirs of Masherov's sister Olga, during the early 1930s the family lived hand-to-mouth, both due to harsh weather conditions and incompetency on the recently formed kolkhoz.

The Mashero family was assisted by Pyotr's sister Matryona, who lived in Vitebsk and transferred bread and sugar to Shirki.

[11] Tragedy struck the family in 1937, when Miron was arrested on charges of "anti-Soviet agitation" and sentenced to ten years of corrective labour during the Great Purge.

[2] Following his escape, Masherov began forming the Komsomol underground in Rasony, an early part of what would later grow into the Belarusian resistance during World War II.

The move was allegedly the suggestion of then-First Secretary of the CPB Nikolai Patolichev, who was impressed by Masherov's activities as head of the Komsomol in Belarus.

Uniquely among the SSRs, there were frequently public discussions on the economic situation in Belarus, including openly stating issues with the economy.

However, Masherov wrote to Brezhnev (or Kosygin, according to some accounts),[27] and eventually received support for the construction of a metro in Minsk, in the process working his former rival Kiselyov.

[33][23] Masherov raised eyebrows in 1974 when he appointed biologist Viktor Shevelukha [ru] as secretary of agriculture in the Central Committee of the CPB.

[38] However, on the other hand he also strongly criticised the widespread practise of many Belarusians (up to 100,000 annually) leaving the BSSR to work on Komsomol construction projects; many of these workers would not return, resulting in what Masherov termed a "demographic crisis".

He successfully pushed for Brest Fortress and Minsk to be awarded the title of Hero City despite reservations from Soviet leadership.

[41] More radically, it has been suggested by Moskovskij Komsomolets that Masherov was intended to be a possible successor to Brezhnev as General Secretary of the CPSU, backed up by a reformist "Komsomol Group" which also included Mikhail Zimyanin.

[42] Such a claim was also supported by a 1977 CIA report which cast Masherov as a leading member of a "Belorussian Faction" which Brezhnev viewed as a serious threat to his rule.

While many of his compatriots chose to closely adhere to the positions of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Masherov instead pursued his own course, developing Belarus and frequently acting without seeking guidance from Moscow.

Suslov allegedly sabotaged Masherov's attempts to move upwards by inviting him to the 24th Congress of the CPSU in 1971 and requesting that he give a speech criticising Eurocommunism.

[46][47][48] However, according to a 1977 CIA report, Masherov, as well as his political allies Mazurov and Zimyanin, had backing from Suslov, as well as Premier Alexei Kosygin, in opposition to the establishment of Brezhnev's cult of personality.

Due to flaws which had been found in the ZIL which Masherov typically rode in, he instead elected to ride in the GAZ-13 which had been the vehicle driven previously.

[49] The Procurator General of the Soviet Union and the KGB conducted an investigation into the incident and found it to be an accident; the driver of the potato truck, Nikolai Pustovit, was declared guilty of a traffic safety violation resulting in the deaths of two or more people and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour.

[51] Masherov's legacy has been profoundly felt in Belarus, owing to the economic reforms begun under his leadership,[1] as well as recognition of the Second World War's impact on Belarusian society.

[56] Among the most significant controversies regarding Masherov's rule and legacy is what role he played in the Russification of Belarus, with particular attention being paid to the decline of Belarusian-language education and respective increase of Russian-language teaching.

Belarusian journalist and pro-democratic politician Siarhei Navumchyk has credited this growth to Masherov's status as a "sincere communist" who believed in cultural integration, and notes that while he does not lack responsibility for advancing Russification, the process began under Kirill Mazurov.

[57] Historian Natalya Chernyshova, while presenting Masherov's decision to limit Belarusian-language education in a critical light, has argued that his background as a part of the peasantry influenced him to switch from Belarusian to Russian, reflecting his status as "the ultimate model of upward social mobility" in Belarus.

According to his personal physician, Nikolai Manak, Masherov did not drink, but smoked often, and suffered from high blood pressure due to stress.

[66] Masherov's eldest daughter Natalia Masherova [be] later entered politics in an independent Belarus, serving as a member of the House of Representatives.

[67] She also ran in the 2001 Belarusian presidential election and placed well in polls, but withdrew following a tirade against her by incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko, saying that she did not intend for her campaign to become "confrontational".