1.
Andrey Andreyevich Andreyev
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Andrey Andreyevich Andreyev was a Soviet Communist politician who rose to power during the rule of Joseph Stalin, joining the Politburo as a candidate member in 1926 and as a full member in 1932. Andreyev also headed the powerful Control Commission of the Soviet Communist Party in 1930 and 1931 then again continuously from 1939 until 1952. After the death of Stalin Andreyev was removed from the Politburo, andrey Andreyevich Andreyev was the son of a peasant peasant family. Andreyev left the village to work as a worker, assuming a position in a munitions factory during World War I. Andreyev was married to Dora Khazan, who was a student along with Stalins second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, together the couple had two children, a son named Vladimir and a daughter named Olga. Andreyev joined the Bolshevik Party in 1914 and he was a member of the Politburo from 1932 until 1952. Andreyev was a Chairman of the Soviet of the Union from 1938 until 1946 and directed the partys powerful Control Commission during 1930-1931, in 1949 he was briefly Peoples Commissar for Agriculture. This was also the year of the Leningrad case for which Andreyev built up a case against Nikolai Voznesensky, Andreyev was dismissed from Politburo in 1952, although he remained a vice-premier of the Soviet government. Andreyev fell from grace in 1953 following the Central Committee Plenary Meeting (convened immediately after Lavrentiy Berias dismissal, after 1953 Andreyev was made a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, a largely ceremonial position. Andrey Andreyev died 5 December 1971, Andreyev is remembered for having loved the music of Tchaikovsky, mountaineering, and nature photography. During his life Andreyev was four times awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution and he is the namesake of the AA-20 locomotive, which he is credited for sponsoring as the head of the Soviet railway system from 1931 to 1935
2.
Andrei Zhdanov
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Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician. After World War II, he was thought to be the successor-in-waiting to Joseph Stalin and he was Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet from 20 July 1938–20 June 1947. In June 1940, he was sent to Estonia to supervise the establishment of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Zhdanov took a leading role during the Siege of Leningrad during World War II. After the cease-fire agreement between Finland and the USSR was signed in Moscow on 4 September 1944, Zhdanov directed the Allied Control Commission in Finland until the Paris peace treaty of 1947, Zhdanov was appointed by Joseph Stalin to direct the Soviet Unions cultural policy in 1946. His first action was to censor Russian writers such as Anna Akhmatova and he formulated what became known as the Zhdanov Doctrine. During 1946–1947, Zhdanov was Chairman of the Soviet of the Union, in 1947, he organized the Cominform, designed to coordinate and control the communist parties around the world. In February 1948, he initiated purges among musicians, widely known as a struggle against formalism, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturian and many other composers were reprimanded during this period. In June 1948, Stalin sent Zhdanov to the Cominform meeting in Bucharest, the purpose of the meeting was to condemn Yugoslavia, but Zhdanov took a more restrained line, in contrast to his co-delegate and rival Georgy Malenkov. This infuriated Stalin, who removed Zhdanov from all his posts, Zhdanov was transferred to a sanatorium, where he died. It is possible that his death was the result of an intentional misdiagnosis, Stalin had talked of Zhdanov being his successor but Zhdanovs ill health gave his rivals, Lavrentiy Beria and Georgy Malenkov, an opportunity to undermine him. He was one of those accused during the U. S. House of Representatives Kersten Committee investigation into the annexation of the Baltic States in 1953. Originating in 1946 and lasting until the late 1950s, Zhdanovs ideological code, known as the Zhdanov doctrine, Zhdanovism or zhdanovshchina, Zhdanov intended to create a new philosophy of artistic creation valid for the entire world. His method reduced all of culture to a sort of chart, Zhdanov and his associates further sought to eliminate foreign influence from Soviet art, proclaiming that incorrect art was an ideological diversion. The one sentence that came to define Zhdanovshchina was “The only conflict that is possible in Soviet culture is the conflict between good and best and this policy officially ended in 1952, seen as having a negative impact on culture within the USSR. On 20 February 1948, Zhdanovshchina shifted its focus towards anti-formalism and that April, many of the persecuted composers were pressed into repenting for displaying “formalism” in their music in a special congress of the Union of Soviet Composers. These composers were not rehabilitated by the Soviet Union until 28 May 1958, Zhdanovs son, Yuri, married Stalins daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, in 1949. That marriage ended in divorce in 1950, the name reverted to Mariupol in 1989, and the monument was dismantled in 1990. Zhdanov Doctrine Socialist realism Engineers of the human soul Kees Boterbloem, The Life and Times of Andrei Zhdanov, shiela Fitzpatrick, On Stalins Team, The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics
3.
Lazar Kaganovich
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Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin. At his death in 1991, he was the last surviving Old Bolshevik, the Soviet Union itself outlived him by a mere five months. Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, early in his political career, in 1915, Kaganovich became a Communist organizer at a shoe-factory where he worked. Circa 1911 he entered the Bolshevik party, in 1915 Kaganovich was arrested and sent back to Kabany. During March–April 1917 he served as the Chairman of the Tanners Union, in May 1917 he became the leader of the military organization of Bolsheviks in Saratov, and in August 1917, he became the leader of the Polessky Committee of the Bolshevik party in Belarus. During the October Revolution of 1917 he led the revolt in Gomel, in 1918 Kaganovich acted as Commissar of the propaganda department of the Red Army. From May 1918 to August 1919 he was the Chairman of the Ispolkom of the Nizhny Novgorod gubernia, in 1919–1920, he served as governor of the Voronezh gubernia. In May 1922, Stalin became the General Secretary of the Communist Party and this department was responsible for all assignments within the apparatus of the Communist Party. Working there, Kaganovich helped to place Stalins supporters in important jobs within the Communist Party bureaucracy, in this position he became noted for his great work capacity and for his personal loyalty to Stalin. He stated publicly that he would execute any order from Stalin. In 1924 Kaganovich became a member of the Central Committee, from 1925 to 1928, Kaganovich was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR. He was given the task of ukrainizatsiya - meaning at that time the building up of Ukrainian communist popular cadres and he also had the duty of implementing collectivization and the policy of economic suppression of the kulaks. He opposed the more moderate policy of Nikolai Bukharin, who argued in favor of the integration of kulaks into socialism. As Secretary, he endorsed Stalins struggle against the so-called Left and Right Oppositions within the Communist Party, in 1934, at the XVII Congress of the Communist Party, Kaganovich chaired the Counting Committee. He falsified voting for positions in the Central Committee, deleting 290 votes opposing the Stalin candidacy and his actions resulted in Stalins being re-elected as the General Secretary instead of Sergey Kirov. By the rules, the candidate receiving fewer opposing votes should become the General Secretary, before Kaganovichs falsification, Stalin received 292 opposing votes and Kirov only three. However, the result saw Stalin with just two opposing votes. In 1930 Kaganovich became a member of the Soviet Politburo and the First Secretary of the Moscow Obkom of the Communist Party and he later headed the Moscow Gorkom of the Communist Party
4.
Georgy Malenkov
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Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was a Soviet politician and Communist Party leader. His family connections with Vladimir Lenin sped his promotion in the party and this brought him into close association with Joseph Stalin, and he was heavily involved in the purges of the 1930s. During World War II, he was given responsibility for the Soviet missile program. His two-year term ended in failure and he was expelled from the Politburo in 1957. In 1961 he was expelled from the party and exiled to Kazakhstan, Malenkov was born at Orenburg in the Russian Empire. His paternal ancestors were from the area of Ohrid, then in the Ottoman Vilayet of Manastir, some of them served as officers in the Russian Imperial Army. His father was a farmer in Orenburg province. Young Malenkov occasionally helped his father to do business selling the harvest and his mother was the daughter of a blacksmith and the granddaughter of an Orthodox priest. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1920, Golubtsova and Malenkov never officially registered their union and remained unregistered partners for the rest of their lives. Valeria Golubtsova joined the Soviet Communist Party in 1920 and her personal views were described as anti-semitic by her co-workers. This connection helped both Golubtsova and Malenkov in their communist career, later Golubtsova was the director of the Moscow Energy Institute, a center for nuclear power research in USSR. After the Russian civil war, Malenkov quickly built himself a reputation of a tough communist Bolshevik and he was promoted in the Communist party ranks and was appointed Communist secretary at the military-based Moscow Higher Technical School in the 1920s. Around this time, Malenkov forged a friendship with Vyacheslav Malyshev. In 1924, Stalin noticed Malenkov and assigned him to Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, in 1925, Malenkov worked in the staff of the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Malenkov was in charge of keeping records on the members of the Soviet communist party – two million files were made under his supervision during the ten years. In this work Malenkov became closely associated with Stalin and was heavily involved in the treason trials during the purging of the party. In 1938 he was one of the key figures in bringing about the downfall of Yezhov, in 1939 Malenkov became the head of the Communist partys Cadres Directorate, which gave him control over personnel matters of party bureaucracy. During the same year he became a member and a Secretary of the Central Committee
5.
Lev Mekhlis
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Lev Zakharovich Mekhlis was a Soviet politician. Born in Odessa, Mekhlis finished six classes of Jewish commercial school and he worked as a schoolteacher in 1904-1911. In 1907–1910 he was a member of the Zionist workers movement Poale Zion, in 1911, he joined the Russian Army, where he served in the second grenadier artillery brigade. In 1912, he obtained the rank of bombardier and he served in the artillery in the First World War. In 1918 he joined the Communist Party and until 1920 he did work in the Red Army. In 1921–1922, he was the manager of administrative inspection in the Peoples commissariat of worker-peasant inspection, in 1922–1926, he was the assistant to the secretary and the manager of the bureau of the secretariat of the Central Committee, in effect Stalins personal secretary. In 1926–1930 he took courses at the Communist Academy and in the Institute of Red Professors, from 1930 he was the head of the press corps Central Committee, and simultaneously a member of the editorial board, and then the editor in chief of the newspaper Pravda. In 1937–1940, he was the deputy of the Peoples Commissar of Defense, from 1939 he was the member of Central Committee the CPSU, in 1938–1952 he was a member of the Orgburo of the Central Committee, in 1940–1941 Peoples Commissar of State Control. In June 1941 he was assigned by the chief of main political administration. Mekhlis was named army commissar of the 1st rank, which corresponded to the title of General of the Army, in 1942 he was the representative of the Stavka of supreme commander-in-chief at the Crimean Front, where he constantly disputed with General Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov. The leaders of the staff of the Front did not know whose orders to carry out – the commanders or Mekhlis’s. The commander of the North-Caucasian Front, Marshal Semyon Budyonny, also could not control Mekhlis, Mekhlis, during a stay at the post of the representative of Stavka, was occupied by the fact that he wrote sufficiently critical reports to senior officers. So he attempted through the Stavka to replace the front commander, Kozlov, at the same time in reports to Stalin he attempted to distance himself from the failures which the Crimean Front suffered, and to lay the entire responsibility on the front commander. In regard to this, Stalin sent a telegram to Mekhlis, in which he subjected to his criticism for similar behavior, Crimean front. Mekhlis, Your code message #254 received and your position of a detached observer who is not accountable for the events at the Crimean Front is puzzling. Your position may sound convenient, but it positively stinks and you, along with the commanding officers, will answer for failing to reinforce the left flank of the Front. It seems that you still have not figured out that we sent you to the Crimean Front not as a government auditor and you demand that Kozlov be replaced, that even Hindenburg would be an improvement. Yet you know well that Soviet reserves do not have anyone named Hindenburg
6.
Joseph Stalin
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Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state. Stalin was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 in order to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Sokolnikov, and Bubnov. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and he managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin by suppressing Lenins criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. He remained General Secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, the economic changes coincided with the imprisonment of millions of people in Gulag labour camps. The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–33, major figures in the Communist Party and government, and many Red Army high commanders, were arrested and shot after being convicted of treason in show trials. Stalins invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the pact, as it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence agreed with the Axis, Germany ended the pact when Hitler launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite heavy human and territorial losses, Soviet forces managed to halt the Nazi incursion after the decisive Battles of Moscow, after defeating the Axis powers on the Eastern Front, the Red Army captured Berlin in May 1945, effectively ending the war in Europe for the Allies. The Soviet Union subsequently emerged as one of two recognized world superpowers, the other being the United States, Communist governments loyal to the Soviet Union were established in most countries freed from German occupation by the Red Army, which later constituted the Eastern Bloc. Stalin also had relations with Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il-sung in North Korea. On February 9,1946, Stalin delivered a public speech in which he explained the fundamental incompatibility of communism and capitalism. He stressed that the system needed war for raw materials. The Second World War was but the latest in a chain of conflicts which could be broken only when the economy made the transformation into communism. Stalin led the Soviet Union through its post-war reconstruction phase, which saw a significant rise in tension with the Western world that would later be known as the Cold War, Stalin remains a controversial figure today, with many regarding him as a tyrant. However, popular opinion within the Russian Federation is mixed, the exact number of deaths caused by Stalins regime is still a subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of millions. Joseph Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, the Russian-language version of his birth name is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Ioseb was born on 18 December 1878 in the town of Gori, Georgia and his father was Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, while his mother was Ekaterine Keke Geladze, a housemaid. As a child, Ioseb was plagued with health issues
7.
Nikolay Shvernik
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Nikolay Mikhailovich Shvernik was a Soviet politician and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from March 19,1946 until March 15,1953. Though the titular Soviet head of state, Shvernik had, in fact, Shvernik was born in St. Petersburg and joined the Bolsheviks in 1905. In 1924 he became a Peoples Commissar in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in 1927 he was demoted and sent to the Urals to head the local party organization. Stalin found him a loyal supporter of his policy of rapid industrialisation and he resumed his rise in the party becoming a member of the Orgburo and the party Secretariat. He also served as first secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions from July 1930 to March 1944, as such, Shvernik presided over the 1931 Menshevik Trial, in which fourteen Russian economists came up for trial on charges of treason. During the Second World War Shvernik was responsible for evacuating Soviet industry away from the advancing Wehrmacht and he was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR from 1943 to 1946. In 1946 he became Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and he only became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee in 1952 but was demoted in 1953 when the body was reduced in size. Following the death of Stalin, Shvernik was removed as president of the USSR. Shvernik returned to his work as the chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, in 1957, Shvernik again became a full member of the Presidium and remained on the body until he retired in 1966
