| Generalissimus Sergei Kirov Серге́й Ки́ров | |
|---|---|
| |
| 1st Chairman of the State Defense Committee of the Soviet Union | |
| In office June 30, 1941 – January 10, 1956 | |
| Deputy | Mikhail Yefremov (1941–50) Anastas Mikoyan (1950–54) Panteleimon Ponomarenko (1954–56) |
| Preceded by | office established |
| Succeeded by | Panteleimon Ponomarenko |
| 5th Premier of the Soviet Union | |
| In office June 27, 1941 – January 10, 1956 | |
| Preceded by | Maxim Litvinov |
| Succeeded by | Panteleimon Ponomarenko |
| Full member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union | |
| In office March 15, 1934 – January 10, 1956 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov March 27, 1886 Urzhum, Vyatka Governorate, the  Russian Empire
|
| Died | January 10, 1956 (aged 69) Moscow, the Russian SFSR, the  Soviet Union
|
| Political party | All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Lvovna Markus (m. 1911; d. 1950) |
| Children | Yevgenia Kostrikova |
| Occupation | Revolutionary, politician |
| Religion | Irreligion (Atheism) |
Sergei Mironovich Kirov (Russian: Серге́й Миро́нович Ки́ров; March 15 [March 27 N.S.], 1886 – January 10, 1956), born Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov, was a Soviet communist revolutionary and politician. He was the informal leader of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Communist Party from 1934 until his death in 1956.
Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire; he became an Old Bolshevik as he joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Relatively a minor leader the time of Russian Revolution, Kirov rose rapidly through the Communist Party ranks in the 1920s when he served as leader of Azerbaijani Communist Party. He slowly managed to consolidate power following the 15th Party Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in 1927 after being elected as the head of the Party Central Control Commission and the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate. He ascended into the top Soviet leadership after got elected to head the Leningrad party organization, replacing Grigory Zinoviev who had expelled from the Politburo on the 17th Party Congress in 1934.
With his influential power base on Leningrad, the position as the head of Party Control Commission-Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate that controlled the Soviet secret police, and his charismatic personality that highly popular with the party cadres, Kirov rapidly gained prominence among other Politburo members by the 1930s. By the end of the 1930s, Kirov solidified his position as de facto leader of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after being re-elected to the Politburo with only five negative votes at the 18th Party Congress in 1939.
Kirov was one of early members of Montagnard faction (Монтаньяры, Montan’yary) within the AUCP, named so because its initial figures, including Kirov, such as Sergo Ordzhonikidze and Anastas Mikoyan, were based or rose in power in the Caucasus regional party organizations. Kirov and other Montagnards adopted a pragmatic, populist and centrist position between ultra-left Leon Trotsky and gradualist Nikolai Bukharin. Kirov favored rapid industrialization like Trotsky, but restrained from implementing strict social controls on the Soviet population, favoring more relaxed approach. Unlike Bukharin, Kirov favored more aggressive foreign policy which, however, aiming at the territorial security of the union rather than motivated ideologically by communism like Trotsky.
Kirov was mostly remembered for his leadership on World War II where he led the country, together with the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan as allies against the Axis powers. Despite heavy human and territorial losses, Soviet forces managed to halt the German offensive after the decisive Battles of Moscow and Stalingrad. 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 the world superpowers along with the United States and Japan.
Early life[]
Born on March 27, 1886 in Urzhum, Vyatka Governorate, the Russian Empire, Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov was one of seven children born to Miron Ivanovich Kostrikov and Yekaterina Kuzminichna Kostrikova (née Kazantseva). Anna (born 1883), Sergei (1886), and Yelizaveta (1889) were the last of their four children to live. Around 1890, Miron, an alcoholic, left the family, and Yekaterina died of tuberculosis in 1893. Melania Avdeyevna Kostrikova, Sergei's paternal grandmother, raised him and his sisters for a short time, but she could not afford to care for them all on her small monthly pension of 3 rubles. Melania used her connections to get Sergei placed in an orphanage when he was seven years old, but he still visited his sisters and grandmother on a regular basis.
In 1901, a group of prominent philanthropists provided Sergei with a scholarship to attend an industrial school at Kazan. Sergei went to Tomsk, Siberia, after completing his engineering degree, and became a Marxist, joining the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1904. He lived in Tomsk and worked as a printer for revolutionary literature. He also participated in organizing of a successful railway workers' strike. Sergei was imprisoned during the Russian Revolution of 1905 and later joined the Bolsheviks after being released. In 1906, he moved to Moscow, but was caught again; this time he was imprisoned for more than three years on charges of printing illegal publications.
Revolutionary[]
After a year in custody, Kirov moved to the Caucasus, where he stayed until the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II after the February Revolution in March 1917. During these years, he met his wife, Maria Lvovna Markus, in 1911, although they never formally registered their marriage. By this time, Kirov had shortened his last name from Kostrikov to Kirov, a practice common among Russian revolutionaries of the time. Kirov began using the pen name "Kir," first publishing under the pseudonym "Kirov" on April 26, 1912.
Kirov became commander of the Bolshevik military administration in Astrakhan, and fought for the Red Army in the Russian Civil War until 1920.
Bolshevik career[]
Rise to power[]
As the party leader, Kirov was noticeably a flamboyant and charismatic personality. He was an eloquent orator, giving lengthy speeches in many party-related occasions across the country. In contrast with Trotsky and Bukharin who were characterized by their sharp intellectual rhetoric, Kirov's oratory was more performative; his speeches were more boastful and populist in nature, suited to his working-class audiences. Under his leadership, the Leningrad party organization tightened control over the government and repressed dissident voices against him within or outside the party structure by any means, sometimes with coercion, but could also be through persuasion and flattery.
Kirov became renowned for his corrupt political practices. Gifts and bribes were delivered to his office regularly by people who needed Kirov's favor, mostly seeking for the political appointments in the city government. Oppositely, Kirov showered his fellow party leaders with gifts, especially the ones who acted in opposition against him in the Leningrad Soviet. He built a circle of elite cadres loyal to him in the Leningrad party, such as Filipp Medved and Ivan Kodatsky, and distributed government jobs to them. A famous womanizer, Kirov engaged in affairs with many beautiful women, including ballerinas, and "supplied" them to party and military leaders in Moscow, most notoriously Mikhail Kalinin, Avel Yenukidze, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky, to gain supports.
World War II[]
Post-war years[]
Death[]
