On April 3, 1922, a seemingly ordinary event took place. They elected the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). But this event changed the course of the history of Soviet Russia. On this day, he was appointed to this post. Lenin by that time was already seriously ill, and Joseph Stalin, by hook or by crook, tried to gain a foothold in his post. There was no consensus in the party about what to do next. The revolution won, power was strengthened. And then what? Someone said that it was necessary to stimulate the world revolution in every possible way, others said that socialism could win in one single country and therefore it was not at all necessary to fan the world fire. The new General Secretary took advantage of the disagreement in the party and, having received practically unlimited power in his hands, began to gradually clear his way to dominance over a huge power. He ruthlessly eliminated political opponents, and soon there was no one who could object to him.

The reign of Joseph Stalin is a huge layer of our history. He was at the helm for 30 long years. And what years? What has not been in our history over the years? And the restoration of the economy after the anarchy of the civil war. And construction giants. And the threat of enslavement in the Second World War, and new buildings of the post-war years. And it all fit into these thirty years of Stalin's rule. A whole generation of people grew up under him. These years are all researching and researching. One can relate differently to the personality of Stalin, to his cruelty, to the tragedy of the country. But this is our history. And our great-grandparents in old photographs, for the most part, still do not seem unhappy.

WAS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?

Stalin's election as general secretary took place after the 11th Congress (March-April 1922), in which Lenin, for health reasons, took only fragmentary participation (he attended four of the twelve meetings of the congress). “When at the 11th Congress ... Zinoviev and his closest friends promoted Stalin’s candidacy for general secretary, with the ulterior motive of using his hostile attitude towards me,” Trotsky recalled, “Lenin, in a close circle objecting to the appointment of Stalin as general secretary, uttered his famous phrase: “I don’t advise, this cook will cook only spicy dishes” ... However, the Petrograd delegation led by Zinoviev won at the congress. The victory was all the easier for her because Lenin did not accept the battle. He did not carry the resistance to Stalin's candidacy to the end only because the post of secretary had, under the conditions of that time, a completely subordinate significance. He (Lenin) himself did not want to attach exaggerated significance to his warning: as long as the old Politburo remained in power, the general secretary could only be a subordinate figure.

Having come to the post of general secretary, Stalin immediately began to widely use the methods of selection and appointment of personnel through the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the Accounting and Distribution Department of the Central Committee subordinate to him. Already in the first year of Stalin's activity as General Secretary, the Uchraspred made about 4,750 appointments to responsible posts.

At the same time, Stalin, together with Zinoviev and Kamenev, began to rapidly expand the material privileges of the leadership of the party. At the XII Party Conference, which took place during Lenin's illness (August 1922), for the first time in the history of the party, a document was adopted that legitimized these privileges. We are talking about the resolution of the conference "On the material situation of active party workers", which clearly defined the number of "active party workers" (15,325 people) and introduced a strict hierarchization of their distribution into six categories. Members of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, heads of departments of the Central Committee, members of the regional bureaus of the Central Committee and secretaries of regional and provincial committees were to be paid according to the highest level. At the same time, the possibility of a personal increase in their salaries was stipulated. In addition to high wages, all these workers were to be “provided with housing (through local executive committees), medical care (through the People’s Commissariat of Health), and the upbringing and education of children (through the People’s Commissariat of Education)”, and the corresponding additional benefits in kind should were paid from the party fund.

Trotsky emphasized that already during Lenin's illness, Stalin increasingly acted "as an organizer and educator of the bureaucracy, most importantly: as a distributor of earthly goods." This period coincided with the end of the bivouac situation during the civil war. “The more sedentary and balanced life of the bureaucracy creates a need for comfort. Stalin, who himself continues to live relatively modestly, at least from the outside, masters this movement towards comfort, he distributes the most profitable posts, he selects the top people, rewards them, he helps them increase their privileged position.

These actions of Stalin responded to the desire of the bureaucracy to throw off the harsh control in the field of morality and personal life, the need for which was mentioned by numerous party decisions of the Leninist period. The bureaucracy, which increasingly assimilated the prospect of personal well-being and comfort, “respected Lenin, but felt too much his puritanical hand on itself. She was looking for a leader in her own image and likeness, the first among equals. They talked about Stalin... “We are not afraid of Stalin. If he starts to become arrogant, we will remove him. A turning point in the living conditions of the bureaucracy came with the time of Lenin's last illness and the beginning of the campaign against "Trotskyism". In any political struggle of a large scale, one can finally open the question of a steak.

Stalin's most defiant actions to create illegal and secret privileges for the bureaucracy at that time were still met with resistance from his allies. So, after the adoption in July 1923 of the decision of the Politburo on facilitating the conditions for children of responsible workers to enter universities, Zinoviev and Bukharin, who were on vacation in Kislovodsk, condemned this decision, stating that “such a privilege will block the way for more talented people and introduce elements of caste. Doesn't fit."

Amenability to privileges, readiness to take them for granted meant the first round in the everyday and moral degeneration of the partocracy, which was inevitably followed by a political rebirth: the willingness to sacrifice ideas and principles for the sake of preserving one's posts and privileges. “The ties of revolutionary solidarity that embraced the party as a whole were replaced to a large extent by ties of bureaucratic and material dependence. Previously, it was possible to win supporters only with ideas. Now many have begun to learn how to win supporters with positions and material privileges.

These processes contributed to the rapid growth of bureaucracy and intrigues in the party and state apparatus, which Lenin, who returned to work in October 1922, was literally shocked. In addition, as Trotsky recalled, “Lenin sensed that, in connection with his illness, behind him and behind my back, still almost imperceptible threads of a conspiracy were weaving. The epigones have not yet burned bridges or blown them up. But in some places they were already sawing the beams, in some places they were imperceptibly laying pyroxylin checkers ... Coming into work and with increasing anxiety noting the changes that had taken place over the ten months, Lenin for the time being did not name them out loud, so as not to aggravate relations. But he was preparing to give the Troika a rebuff and began to rebuff it on individual issues.

One of these questions was the question of the monopoly of foreign trade. In November 1922, in the absence of Lenin and Trotsky, the Central Committee unanimously adopted a decision aimed at weakening this monopoly. Learning that Trotsky was not present at the plenum and that he did not agree with the decision, Lenin entered into correspondence with him (five letters from Lenin to Trotsky on this issue were first published in the USSR only in 1965). As a result of the concerted actions of Lenin and Trotsky, a few weeks later the Central Committee reversed its decision with the same unanimity as it had previously adopted. On this occasion, Lenin, who had already suffered a new blow, after which he was forbidden to correspond, nevertheless dictated a letter to Trotsky from Krupskaya, which said: “It was as if we had managed to take a position without firing a single shot with a simple maneuvering movement. I suggest not to stop and continue the offensive ... "

At the end of November 1922, a conversation took place between Lenin and Trotsky, in which the latter raised the question of the growth of apparatus bureaucracy. “Yes, our bureaucracy is monstrous,” Lenin picked up, “I was horrified after returning to work ...” Trotsky added that he had in mind not only state, but also party bureaucracy, and that the essence of all the difficulties, in his opinion, was in the combination of state and party bureaucracy and in the mutual harboring of influential groups that gather around a hierarchy of party secretaries.

After listening to this, Lenin put the question point-blank: “So you are proposing to open a struggle not only against state bureaucracy, but also against the Orgburo of the Central Committee?” The Orgburo represented the very center of the Stalinist apparatus. Trotsky replied: "Perhaps it turns out like this." “Well, then,” continued Lenin, obviously pleased that we named the essence of the issue by name, “I propose to you a bloc: against bureaucracy in general, against the Orgburo in particular.” “It is flattering to conclude a good bloc with a good person,” Trotsky replied. In conclusion, it was agreed to meet after some time to discuss the organizational side of this issue. Previously, Lenin proposed the creation of a commission under the Central Committee to combat bureaucracy. “In essence, this commission,” Trotsky recalled, “was supposed to become a lever for the destruction of the Stalinist faction, as the backbone of the bureaucracy ...”

Immediately after this conversation, Trotsky conveyed its content to his like-minded people - Rakovsky, I. N. Smirnov, Sosnovsky, Preobrazhensky and others. In early 1924, Trotsky told about this conversation to Averbakh (a young oppositionist who soon went over to the side of the ruling faction), who in turn conveyed the contents of this conversation to Yaroslavsky, and the latter, apparently, reported it to Stalin and other triumvirs.

IN AND. LENIN. LETTER TO THE CONGRESS

December 24, 22 By the stability of the Central Committee, which I spoke about above, I mean measures against a split, insofar as such measures can be taken at all. For, of course, the White Guard in Russkaya Mysl (I think it was S.S. Oldenburg) was right when, firstly, he bet on the split of our party in relation to their game against Soviet Russia, and when, secondly, , staked for this split on the most serious differences in the party.

Our Party rests on two classes, and therefore its instability is possible and its fall is inevitable if an agreement could not be reached between these two classes. In this case, it is useless to take certain measures, in general, to talk about the stability of our Central Committee. No measures in this case will be able to prevent a split. But I hope that this is too distant a future and too incredible an event to talk about.

I have in mind stability as a guarantee against a split in the near future, and I intend to analyze here a number of considerations of a purely personal nature.

I think that the main ones in the issue of sustainability from this point of view are such members of the Central Committee as Stalin and Trotsky. The relations between them, in my opinion, constitute more than half of the danger of that split, which could be avoided and which, in my opinion, should be avoided, among other things, by increasing the number of members of the Central Committee to 50, to 100 people.

Tov. Stalin, having become General Secretary, has concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be able to use this power with sufficient caution. On the other hand, com. Trotsky, as his struggle against the Central Committee on the question of the NKPS has already proved, is distinguished not only by his outstanding abilities. Personally, he is perhaps the most capable person in the present Central Committee, but also overly self-confident and overly enthusiastic about the purely administrative side of things. These two qualities of the two outstanding leaders of the modern Central Committee are capable of inadvertently leading to a split, and if our Party does not take steps to prevent this, then the split may come unexpectedly. I will not further characterize the other members of the Central Committee by their personal qualities. Let me only remind you that the October episode of Zinoviev and Kamenev, of course, was not an accident, but that it can just as little be blamed on them personally as non-Bolshevism can be blamed on Trotsky. Among the young members of the Central Committee, I would like to say a few words about Bukharin and Pyatakov. These, in my opinion, are the most outstanding forces (of the youngest forces), and with regard to them one should bear in mind the following: Bukharin is not only the most valuable and prominent theoretician of the party, he is also legitimately considered the favorite of the whole party, but his theoretical views are very much doubt can be attributed to the completely Marxist, because there is something scholastic in him (he never studied and, I think, never fully understood dialectics).

25.XII. Then Pyatakov is a man of undoubtedly outstanding will and outstanding abilities, but he is too fond of administration and the administrative side of things to be relied upon in a serious political question. Of course, both remarks are made by me only for the present time on the assumption that both of them outstanding and devoted workers will not find an opportunity to replenish their knowledge and change their one-sidedness.

Lenin 25. XII. 22. Recorded by M.V.

Addendum to the letter of December 24, 1922 Stalin is too rude, and this shortcoming, quite tolerable in the environment and in communications between us communists, becomes intolerable in the position of general secretary. Therefore, I suggest that the comrades consider a way to move Stalin from this place and appoint another person to this place, who in all other respects differs from Comrade. Stalin with only one advantage, namely, more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more attentive to comrades, less capriciousness, etc. This circumstance may seem like an insignificant trifle. But I think that from the point of view of preventing a split and from the point of view of what I wrote above about the relationship between Stalin and Trotsky, this is not a trifle, or it is such a trifle that can become decisive.

The history of the Soviet Union is the most complex topic in history. It covers only 70 years of history, but the material in it needs to be studied many times more than in all the previous time! In this article, we will analyze what the general secretaries of the USSR were in chronological order, characterize each and give links to the relevant site materials on them!

Position of General Secretary

The position of general secretary is the highest position in the party apparatus of the CPSU (b), and then in the CPSU. The person who occupied it was not only the leader of the party, but de facto the whole country. How is this possible, now let's figure it out! The title of the post was constantly changing: from 1922 to 1925 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b); from 1925 to 1953 she was called the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks; from 1953 to 1966 - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU; from 1966 to 1989 - General Secretary of the CPSU.

The position itself arose in April 1922. Prior to this, the position was called the chairman of the party and it was headed by V.I. Lenin.

Why was the head of the party the de facto head of the country? In 1922, this position was headed by Stalin. The influence of the position was such that he could form the congress at will, thereby securing full support in the party. By the way, such support was extremely important. Therefore, the struggle for power in the 20s of the last century took the form of discussions, in which victory meant life, and loss meant death, if not now, then in the future for sure.

I.V. Stalin understood this very well. Therefore, he insisted on creating such a position, which, in fact, he headed. But the main thing was something else: in the 1920s and 1930s, the historical process of merging the party apparatus with the state apparatus took place. This meant, for example, that the district committee of the party (the head of the district committee of the party) is in fact the head of the district, the city committee of the party is the head of the city, and the regional committee of the party is the head of the region. And the councils played a subordinate role.

It is important to remember here that the power in the country was Soviet - that is, the real state authorities should have been councils. And they were, but only de jure (legally), formally, on paper, if you like. It was the party that determined all aspects of the development of the state.

So let's take a look at the main general secretaries.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili)

He was the first General Secretary of the party, permanent until 1953 - until his death. The fact of the fusion of the party and state apparatus was expressed in the fact that from 1941 to 1953 he was also chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, and then the Council of Ministers of the USSR. If you are not aware, then the Council of People's Commissars and then the Council of Ministers is the Government of the USSR. If at all you are not in the subject, then.

Stalin stood at the origins of both the great victories of the Soviet Union and the great troubles in the history of our country. He was the author of the articles "The Year of the Great Break". He stood at the origins of super-industrialization and collectivization. It is with him that such concepts as the “cult of personality” are associated (for more on it, see and), the famine of the 30s, and the repressions of the 30s. In principle, under Khrushchev, Stalin was “blamed” with failures in the first months of the Great Patriotic War.

However, the unsurpassed growth of industrial construction in the 1930s is also associated with the name of Stalin. The USSR received its own heavy industry, which is how we still use it.

Stalin himself said this about the future of his name: “I know that after my death they will put a bunch of garbage on my grave, but the wind of history will ruthlessly dispel it!” So let's see how it goes!

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev

N.S. Khrushchev served as General (or First) Secretary of the Party from 1953 to 1964. Many events from both world history and the history of Russia are associated with his name: Events in Poland, the Suez crisis, the Caribbean crisis, the slogan “Catch up and surpass America in the production of meat and milk per capita!”, execution in Novocherkassk, and much more other.

Khrushchev, in general, was a politician not very smart, but very intuitive. He perfectly understood how he would rise, because after the death of Stalin, the struggle for power again intensified. Many saw the future of the USSR not in Khrushchev, but in Malenkov, who then held the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers. But Khrushchev took a strategically correct position.

Details about the USSR under him.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev

L.I. Brezhnev held the top position in the party from 1964 to 1982. His time is otherwise called the period of "stagnation". The USSR began to turn into a "banana republic", the shadow economy grew, the shortage of consumer goods grew, and the Soviet nomenclature expanded. All these processes then led to a systemic crisis during the years of Perestroika, and in the end.

Leonid Ilyich himself was very fond of cars. The authorities blocked one of the rings around the Kremlin so that the Secretary General could try out a new model presented to him. Also, such a curious historical anecdote is associated with the name of his daughter. They say one day my daughter went to museums to look for some kind of necklace. Yes, yes, in museums, not in shops. As a result, in one of the museums, she pointed to the necklace and asked for it. The director of the museum called Leonid Ilyich and explained the situation. To which he received a clear answer: "Do not give!". Something like this.

And more about the USSR, Brezhnev.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

M.S. Gorbachev held the party position in question from March 11, 1984 to August 24, 1991. His name is associated with such things as: Perestroika, the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, an attempt to create a JIT, the Putsch in August 1991. He was the first and last President of the USSR.

More about all this.

We have not named two more general secretaries. See them in this table with a photo:

Post Scriptum: many rely on texts - textbooks, manuals, even monographs. But you can beat all your competitors in the exam if you use video tutorials. All of them are. Studying video tutorials is at least five times more effective than just reading a textbook!

People speak of Stalin as the Leader and General Secretary among the people, less often as the Prime Minister, Chairman of the Government of the USSR. All this is true, but if you ask whether Stalin was the General Secretary until his death, then most of the respondents will be mistaken in saying that Iosif Vissarionovich died in the post of General Secretary. Many historians are also mistaken when they say that Stalin wanted to leave the post of general secretary in the fifties.
The fact is that Stalin eliminated the post of General Secretaries of the CPSU (b) in the thirties and until the sixties, already under Brezhnev, there were no general secretaries (already the Central Committee of the CPSU!) in the USSR. Khrushchev was First Secretary and Head of Government after Stalin's death. What post did Stalin himself hold from the thirties until his death, what post did he want to leave? Let's look into this.

Was Stalin the General Secretary? This question will surprise almost everyone. The answer will follow - of course it was! But if you ask an elderly person who remembers the late 1930s - early 50s about this, whether Stalin was called that then, he will answer: "I don’t remember something. You know, for sure - no."
On the other hand, we have heard many times that in April 1922, at the plenum of the Central Committee after the 21st Party Congress, "at Lenin's suggestion" Stalin was elected General Secretary. And after that there was a lot of talk about his secretaryship.

Should be sorted out. Let's start from afar.
The secretary, according to the original meaning of the word, is a clerical position. Not a single state or political institution can do without office work. The Bolsheviks, from the very beginning aimed at seizing power, paid much attention to their archives. It was inaccessible to most of the party members, but Lenin often looked into it for his polemics, in other words, scolding. He had no difficulties - Krupskaya kept the archive.

After the February Revolution, Elena Stasova became secretary of the Central Committee (still with a small letter). If Krupskaya kept the party archive in her desk, then Stasova was given a room in Kseshinskaya's mansion, she got a staff - 3 assistants. In August 1917, after the 6th Congress of the Central Committee, a secretariat was established, headed by Sverdlov.

Further more. Bureaucratization gradually embraced the Bolshevik Party. In 1919, the Politburo and the Orgburo arose. Stalin entered both. In 1920, Krestinsky, a supporter of Trotsky, became the head of the secretariat. A year after the next discussion, it's easier otherwise - squabbles, Krestinsky and other "Trotskyites" were taken out of all the highest bodies of the party. Stalin, as usual, skillfully maneuvered and remained senior in the Orgburo, which included the secretariat.

While Lenin and other "best minds" of the party were engaged in big politics, Stalin, in the words of Trotsky, "outstanding mediocrity", was preparing his army - the party apparatus. Separately, it should be said about Molotov, a typical party official, completely devoted to Stalin. He is in 1921-22. led the secretariat, i.e. was his predecessor.

By April 1922, when Stalin became General Secretary, his position was quite strong. Almost no one noticed this appointment itself. In the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, in the article "VKP(b)" (1928), Stalin is never mentioned separately and there is not a word about any general secretariat. And it was formalized in "working order", among others, "listened-decided", at the suggestion, by the way, of Kamenev.

Most often, the General Secretary was remembered in connection with the so-called "Lenin's Testament" (in fact, the document was called "Letter to the Congress"). One should not think that Lenin only spoke badly about Stalin: "too rude," and offered to replace him with someone else. The most humane person did not say a kind word about any of his "Parteigenosse".

There is an important feature of Lenin's statement about Stalin. Lenin dictated the proposal to remove him on January 4, 1923, after he learned of Stalin's rudeness towards Krupskaya. The main text of the "Testament" was dictated on December 23-25, 1922, and it says rather reservedly about Stalin: "concentrated immense power in his hands," and so on. In any case, not much worse than about others (Trotsky is self-confident, Bukharin is a scholastic, does not understand dialectics, and in general, almost a non-Marxist). So much for the "principled" Vladimir Ilyich. Until Stalin got nasty to his wife, he did not even think about removing Stalin.

I will not dwell on the further history of the Testament. It is important to emphasize that Stalin, by skillful demagogy, flexible tactics, and blockade with various "Tsekists", ensured that the post of General Secretary remained with him. Let us go straight to 1934, when the 17th Party Congress took place.

It has already been written many times that some of the congress delegates decided to replace Stalin with Kirov. Naturally, there are no documents about this, and "memoir evidence" is extremely contradictory. The charter of the party, based on the notorious "democratic centralism", completely excludes any personnel transfers by decision of congresses. The congresses elected only the central bodies, but no one personally. Such issues were resolved in a narrow circle of the party elite.

Nevertheless, the "Testament" was not forgotten, and Stalin could not yet consider himself guaranteed against all sorts of accidents. At the end of the 1920s, the "Testament" was mentioned openly or veiled at various party gatherings. They talked about him, for example, Kamenev, Bukharin and even Kirov. Stalin had to defend himself. He interpreted Lenin's words about his rudeness as praise that he was rude to those who "rudely and treacherously destroy and split the party."

By 1934, Stalin decided to put an end to all talk of the Testament. In the era of the "great terror", the possession of this Leninist document began to be equated with counter-revolutionary activity. With related findings. Neither at the 17th Congress nor at the subsequent plenum of the Central Committee was the question of the General Secretary raised. Since then, Stalin signed all the documents modestly - the Secretary of the Central Committee, even after the Presovnarkom Molotov. This was until May 1940, when he combined both positions.

In October 1952, at the plenum after the 19th Congress, the post of General Secretary was abolished - officially, however, there was no information about this. No one should have remembered this story at all.

They revived the General Secretariat many years later, in the Brezhnev era.
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the topic of this note is rather secondary, and in no case should Stalin's unwillingness to be called General Secretary after 1934 be regarded as a sign of his "modesty". This is just his petty maneuver, aimed at quickly forgetting about Lenin's letter and all the vicissitudes associated with it.

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Nikita Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894 in the village of Kalinovka, Kursk region. The boy's father worked as a miner, his mother, Ksenia Ivanovna. The family did not live well and in many ways experienced constant need. In winter, the guy attended school and learned to read and write, in the summer he worked as a shepherd. In 1908, when Nikita was fourteen years old, the family moved to the Uspensky mine. Khrushchev became an apprentice locksmith at the Machine-Building and Iron Foundry Eduard Arturovich Bosse. Since 1912 he worked as a mechanic at the mine. In 1914, during the mobilization to the front of the First World War as a miner, he received an indulgence from military service.

In 1918 Khrushchev joined the Bolshevik Party. Participated in the Civil War. In the same year, he headed the Red Guard detachment in Rutchenkovo, then became the political commissar of the second battalion of the 74th regiment of the 9th rifle division of the Red Army on the Tsaritsyn front. Later he worked as an instructor in the political department of the Kuban army. After the end of the war, he was engaged in economic and party work. In 1920 he became a political leader, deputy manager of the Rutchenkovskoye mine in the Donbass.

Two years later, Khrushchev returned to Yuzovka and studied at the working faculty of the Don Technical School, where he became the party secretary of the technical school. In July 1925 he was appointed party leader of the Petrov-Maryinsky district of the Stalin district. Then, in 1929, he entered the Industrial Academy in Moscow, where he was elected secretary of the party committee.

From January 1931, Khrushchev was appointed first secretary of the Baumansky, and from July 1931 of the Krasnopresnensky district committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Since January 1932, he was the second secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Two years later, for four years, he worked as the first secretary of the MGK of the CPSU (b). On January 21, 1934, he became the second secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. From March 7, 1935 to February 1938, he took the post of First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In the same year, Nikita Khrushchev was appointed First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Ukraine and a candidate member of the Political Bureau, and in 1939 became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In these positions, he proved himself as a merciless fighter against the "enemies of the people." In the late 1930s alone, more than one hundred and fifty thousand people were arrested in Ukraine under him.

During the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was a member of the military councils of the South-Western Direction, the South-Western, Stalingrad, Southern, Voronezh and the First Ukrainian Fronts. He acted as one of the culprits of the catastrophic encirclement of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army near Kiev and Kharkov, fully supporting the Stalinist point of view. In May 1942, Khrushchev, together with Filipp Ivanovich Golikov, made an important decision of the Headquarters on the offensive of the Southwestern Front.

In October 1942, an order signed by Stalin was issued abolishing the dual command system and transferring commissars from command staff to advisers. Khrushchev was in the front command echelon behind Mamaev Kurgan.

Nikita Sergeevich ended the war with the rank of lieutenant general. In the period from 1944 to 1947 he worked as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, then he was again elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Ukraine. From December 1949 he was again elected first secretary of the Moscow regional and city committees and secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

On the last day of Stalin's life on March 5, 1953, at a joint meeting of the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers and the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council, it was recognized as necessary for Khrushchev to concentrate on work in the Central Committee of the party.

It was Nikita Sergeevich who acted as the leading initiator and organizer of the removal from all posts and the arrest of Lavrenty Beria in June 1953.

In early September 1953, at the plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decided to transfer the Crimean region and the city of union subordination of Sevastopol to the Ukrainian SSR.

In June 1957, during a four-day meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a decision was made to release Nikita Khrushchev from the duties of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. However, a group of Khrushchev's supporters from among the members of the Central Committee of the CPSU, headed by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, managed to interfere in the work of the Presidium and achieve the transfer of this issue to the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU convened for this purpose. At the June plenum of the Central Committee in 1957, Khrushchev's supporters defeated opponents from among the members of the Presidium.

Four months later, in October 1957, on the initiative of Khrushchev, Marshal Zhukov, who supported him, was removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee and relieved of his duties as Minister of Defense of the USSR.

Since 1958, Khrushchev has simultaneously occupied the chair of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The apogee of the government of the politician is called the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the new party program adopted at it.

The October Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1964, organized in the absence of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, who was on vacation, relieved him of party and government posts "for health reasons." While in retirement, Nikita Khrushchev recorded multi-volume memoirs on a tape recorder. He denounced their publication abroad.

The Soviet statesman Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev died on September 11, 1971 from a heart attack. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital.

The period of Khrushchev's rule is often called the "thaw": many political prisoners were released, compared to the period of Stalin's rule, the activity of repressions has significantly decreased. Decreased influence of ideological censorship. The Soviet Union has made great strides in space exploration. Active housing construction has been launched. During his reign, the highest tension of the Cold War with the United States falls.

Awards and Recognition of Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet

Hero of the Soviet Union (1964)
three times Hero of Socialist Labor (1954, 1957, 1961) - the third time awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for leading the creation of the rocket industry and preparing the first manned flight into space (Yu. A. Gagarin, April 12, 1961) (the decree was not published)

Orders

Seven Orders of Lenin (1935, 1944, 1948, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1964)
Order of Suvorov, 1st class (1945)
Order of Kutuzov, 1st class (1943)
Order of Suvorov II degree (1943)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (1945)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1939)
Order of Merit (Ingushetia) (April 29, 2006, posthumously) - for outstanding services in restoring historical justice in relation to the repressed peoples, the rights and freedoms of the Ingush people

Medals

Medal "In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1970)
Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" I degree,
Medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad"
Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1945)
Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" (1945)
Medal "For the restoration of ferrous metallurgy enterprises of the south"
Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (1965)
Medal "For the development of virgin lands"
Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (1958)
Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (1968)
Medal "In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow" (1947)
Medal "In memory of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad" (1957)

Prizes

International Lenin Prize "For strengthening peace between peoples" (1959)
State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR named after T. G. Shevchenko - for a great contribution to the development of the Ukrainian Soviet socialist culture

Foreign

Golden Star of the Hero of the NRB (NRB, 1964)
Order "Georgy Dimitrov" (NRB, 1964)
Order of the White Lion 1st class (Czechoslovakia) (1964)
Order of the Star of Romania (SRR), 1st class
Order of Karl Marx (GDR, 1964)
Order of Sukhbaatar (MPR, 1964)
Order of the Nile Necklace (OAR, 1964)
Medal "20 Years of the Slovak National Uprising" (Czechoslovakia, 1964)
commemorative medal of the World Peace Council (1960)
Gold medal "Laying the first stone of the Aswan Dam" (OAR, 1960)
Medal "Sadd al-Aali. Blocking of the Nile River. 1964 "I class (OAR, 1964)

The image of Nikita Khrushchev in cinematography

"Playhouse 90" "Playhouse 90" (USA, 1958) episode "The Plot to Kill Stalin" - Oskar Homolka

Zotz Zotz! (USA, 1962) - Albert Glasser

"Rockets of October" The Missiles of October (USA, 1974) - Howard DaSilva

"FrancisGaryPowers" Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (USA, 1976) - David Thayer

"Suez, 1956" Suez 1956 (England, 1979) - Aubrey Morris

"Red Monarch" Red Monarch (England, 1983) - Brian Glover

"Far from Home" Miles from Home (USA, 1988) - Larry Pauling

"Stalingrad" (1989) - Vadim Lobanov

"Law" (1989), Ten years without the right to correspond (1990), "General" (1992) - Vladimir Romanovsky

"Stalin" (1992) - Murray Evan

"Cooperative "Politburo", or It will be a long farewell" (1992) - Igor Kashintsev

"Gray Wolves" (1993) - Rolan Bykov

"Children of the Revolution" (1996) - Dennis Watkins

"Enemy at the Gates" (2000) - Bob Hoskins

"Passion" "Passions" (USA, 2002) - Alex Rodney

"Time Watch" "Timewatch" (England, 2005) - Miroslav Neinert

"Battle for Space" (2005) - Constantine Gregory

"Star of the era" (2005), "Furtseva. The Legend of Catherine "(2011) - Viktor Sukhorukov

"Georg" (Estonia, 2006) - Andrius Vaari

"The Company" "The Company" (USA, 2007) - Zoltan Bersenyi

"Stalin. Live" (2006); "House of Exemplary Content" (2009); "Wolf Messing: who saw through time" (2009); "Hockey Games" (2012) - Vladimir Chuprikov

Brezhnev (2005), And Shepilov who joined them (2009), Once Upon a Time in Rostov, Mosgaz (2012), Son of the Father of Nations (2013) - Sergey Losev

"Bomb for Khrushchev" (2009)

"Miracle" (2009), "Zhukov" (2012) - Alexander Potapov

"Comrade Stalin" (2011) - Viktor Balabanov

"Stalin and Enemies" (2013) - Alexander Tolmachev

"K" blows the roof "(2013) - Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti

Documentaries

"Coup" (1989). Production by Tsentrnauchfilm studio

Historical chronicles (a series of documentaries about the history of Russia, aired on the Rossiya TV channel since October 9, 2003):

57th series. 1955 - "Nikita Khrushchev, the beginning ..."

61st series. 1959 - Metropolitan Nicholas

63rd series. 1961 - Khrushchev. Beginning of the End

"Khrushchev. The first after Stalin "(2014)

Family of Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeevich was married three times. He had 5 children: two sons and three daughters.

First wife - Efrosinya Ivanovna Pisareva (1914-1920), died of typhus.
Daughter - Yulia Nikitichna (1916-1981) - was married to Viktor Petrovich Gontar, director of the Kiev Opera.
Son - Leonid Nikitovich (1917-1943) - a military pilot, died in an air battle. His first wife is Rosa Treivas, the marriage was short-lived and annulled by the personal order of N. S. Khrushchev. In the civil marriage of Leonid with Esfir Naumovna Etinger, the son Yuri (1935-2003), a test pilot, died from the consequences of a traffic accident.
The second wife is Lyubov Illarionovna Sizykh (1912-2014).
Daughter - Julia (born 1940). In 1943, after the death of Leonid, L. I. Sizykh was arrested on charges of "espionage", sent to camps for five years, since 1948 - in exile in Kazakhstan, released in 1956.
Granddaughter - Yulia Leonidovna Khrushcheva (1940-2017) - the granddaughter of N. S. Khrushchev from his son Leonid, adopted by N. S. Khrushchev at the age of two after the death of his father and the arrest of his mother. She worked as a journalist at the Novosti Press Agency, then as the head of the literary department at the Yermolova Moscow Drama Theater. In 2008, she spoke in court against the falsification of the history of the Khrushchev family, filed a libel suit against Channel One. She died in June 2017, according to the investigation, as a result of an accident on the railway.

With his second wife, Marusya (her last name is unknown), N. S. Khrushchev has been married since 1922. Marusya was a single mother. They divorced, and Khrushchev continued to help her.

The third wife - Nina Petrovna Kukharchuk, was born on April 14, 1900 in the village of Vasilev, Kholm province (now the territory of Poland). The wedding took place in 1924, but the marriage was officially registered in the registry office only in 1965. The first of the wives of Soviet leaders, who officially accompanied her husband at receptions, including abroad. She died on August 13, 1984, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Daughter - died in infancy.
Daughter - Rada Nikitichna (by her husband - Adzhubei; 1929-2016) - worked in the journal "Science and Life" for 50 years. Her husband was Alexei Ivanovich Adzhubey (1924-1993), editor-in-chief of the Izvestia newspaper.
Son - Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev was born in 1935 in Moscow, graduated from school No. 110 with a gold medal, rocket systems engineer, professor, worked at OKB-52. Since 1991 he lived and taught in the USA, became a citizen of this country.
Sergei Nikitich had two sons: the elder Nikita - (1959-2007), the younger Sergei - lives in Moscow.
Daughter Elena (1937-1972), researcher.

General secretaries of the USSR in chronological order

General secretaries of the USSR in chronological order. Today they are already just a part of history, and once their faces were familiar to every single inhabitant of a vast country. The political system in the Soviet Union was such that citizens did not choose their leaders. The decision to appoint the next general secretary was made by the ruling elite. But, nevertheless, the people respected the state leaders and, for the most part, perceived this state of affairs as a given.

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Stalin)

Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as Stalin, was born on December 18, 1879 in the Georgian city of Gori. He became the first general secretary of the CPSU. He received this position in 1922, when Lenin was still alive, and until the death of the latter he played a secondary role in government.

When Vladimir Ilyich died, a serious struggle began for the highest post. Many of Stalin's competitors had a much better chance of taking him, but thanks to tough, uncompromising actions, Iosif Vissarionovich managed to emerge victorious from the game. Most of the other applicants were physically destroyed, some left the country.

In just a few years of rule, Stalin took the whole country under his "hedgehogs". By the beginning of the 1930s, he finally established himself as the sole leader of the people. The policy of the dictator went down in history:

mass repressions;

· total dispossession;

collectivization.

For this, Stalin was branded by his own followers during the “thaw”. But there is something for which Joseph Vissarionovich, according to historians, is worthy of praise. This is, first of all, the rapid transformation of a ruined country into an industrial and military giant, as well as a victory over fascism. It is quite possible that if the "cult of personality" was not so condemned by all, these achievements would have been unrealistic. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin died on March 5, 1953.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894 in the Kursk province (the village of Kalinovka) into a simple working-class family. Participated in the Civil War, where he took the side of the Bolsheviks. In the CPSU since 1918. In the late 1930s he was appointed secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Khrushchev took over the Soviet state shortly after Stalin's death. At first, he had to compete with Georgy Malenkov, who also claimed the highest post and at that time was actually the leader of the country, chairing the Council of Ministers. But in the end, the coveted chair still remained with Nikita Sergeevich.

When Khrushchev was General Secretary, the Soviet country:

launched the first man into space and developed this sphere in every possible way;

· Actively built up five-story buildings, today called "Khrushchev";

planted the lion's share of the fields with corn, for which Nikita Sergeevich was even nicknamed the "maize man".

This ruler went down in history primarily with his legendary speech at the 20th Party Congress in 1956, where he branded Stalin and his bloody policies. From that moment, the so-called “thaw” began in the Soviet Union, when the grip of the state was loosened, cultural figures received some freedom, etc. All this lasted until the removal of Khrushchev from his post on October 14, 1964.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born in the Dnepropetrovsk region (village Kamenskoye) on December 19, 1906. His father was a metallurgist. In the CPSU since 1931. He occupied the main post of the country as a result of a conspiracy. It was Leonid Ilyich who led the group of members of the Central Committee that ousted Khrushchev.

The Brezhnev era in the history of the Soviet state is characterized as stagnation. The latter appeared as follows:

· the development of the country has stopped in almost all areas, except for the military-industrial;

The USSR began to seriously lag behind Western countries;

Citizens again felt the grip of the state, repressions and persecution of dissidents began.

Leonid Ilyich tried to improve relations with the United States, which had aggravated back in the time of Khrushchev, but he did not succeed very well. The arms race continued, and after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, it was impossible to even think about any kind of reconciliation. Brezhnev held a high post until his death, which occurred on November 10, 1982.

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was born in the station town of Nagutskoye (Stavropol Territory) on June 15, 1914. His father was a railroad worker. In the CPSU since 1939. He was active, which contributed to his rapid rise up the career ladder.

At the time of Brezhnev's death, Andropov headed the State Security Committee. He was elected by his associates to the highest post. The board of this general secretary covers a period of less than two years. During this time, Yuri Vladimirovich managed to fight a little with corruption in power. But he did nothing drastic. On February 9, 1984, Andropov died. The reason for this was a serious illness.

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was born in 1911 on September 24 in the Yenisei province (the village of Bolshaya Tes). His parents were peasants. In the CPSU since 1931. Since 1966 - Deputy of the Supreme Council. Appointed General Secretary of the CPSU on February 13, 1984.

Chernenko became the successor of Andropov's policy of identifying corrupt officials. He was in power for less than a year. The cause of his death on March 10, 1985 was also a serious illness.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 in the North Caucasus (the village of Privolnoe). His parents were peasants. In the CPSU since 1952. He proved to be an active public figure. Moved quickly along the party line.

He was appointed Secretary General on March 11, 1985. He went down in history with the policy of "perestroika", which provided for the introduction of glasnost, the development of democracy, the provision of certain economic freedoms and other liberties to the population. Gorbachev's reforms led to mass unemployment, the liquidation of state-owned enterprises, and a total shortage of goods. This causes an ambiguous attitude towards the ruler on the part of the citizens of the former USSR, which collapsed just during the reign of Mikhail Sergeyevich.

But in the West, Gorbachev is one of the most respected Russian politicians. He was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Gorbachev was Secretary General until August 23, 1991, and the USSR headed until December 25 of the same year.

All deceased general secretaries of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are buried near the Kremlin wall. Their list was closed by Chernenko. Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev is still alive. In 2017, he turned 86 years old.

Photos of the General Secretaries of the USSR in chronological order

Stalin

Khrushchev

Brezhnev

Andropov

Chernenko