The subject of the research is the professional biography of Ivan Dmitrievich Karyagin, Deputy People’s Commissar (Minister) of the oil industry of the USSR. Biography reflects not only the stages of work activity (as opposed to a professional career), but also various events, circumstances, motivations, associated with professional activity. The authors reveal how a person from an ordinary peasant family and rural hinterland participated in the industrialization events of the USSR, became one of the oil industry leaders, and contributed importantly to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. This article examines the circumstances of I. D. Karyagin’s arrival in the Tyumen province after many years of work in the capital and identifies his contribution to the creation of the USSR’s new fuel base. Using documents from the central archives of the Russian Federation, the authors employ a biographical research method. Key conclusions: the oil economist Ivan Karyagin, whose contributions have been partially neglected, was a crucial figure in the industry’s evolution throughout his career in Moscow and Tyumen.