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Zhdanov Andrey Aleksandrovich (February 14 (26), 1896 - August 31, 1948) - state and party leader of the USSR in the 1930s-1940s. Colonel General.
Born into the family of a public school inspector. Zhdanov lost his father early and was unable to receive a full education. He studied in grades 3-7 at the Tver Real School, for six months in the 1st year of the Moscow Agricultural Institute and for 4 months at the ensign school in Tiflis, which did not prevent him from writing “incomplete higher education” in the education column.
Kowtow to the West.
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov formally participated in the revolutionary movement since 1912, but his activities were more than modest. In 1916 he was drafted into the army. Zhdanov's real political activity began in February 1917, when he began serving as an ensign in the 139th reserve infantry regiment. A born leader and agitator, he was elected to the regimental committee and then became chairman of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies.
In 1918, in Tver, after six months of teaching political literacy, he was elected to the provincial party committee and almost immediately to the bureau, he became editor of Tverskaya Pravda. Zhdanov created and headed the provincial government planning commission and was nominated for the post of deputy chairman of the provincial executive committee for economic affairs.
In 1922, Zhdanov took the place of chairman of the provincial executive committee. Noticed by I.V. Stalin, Zhdanov was already a candidate in 1925, and in 1927 a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1934, Zhdanov became secretary of the Central Committee and at the same time, after the murder of S.M. Kirov as secretary of the Leningrad regional committee and city party committee. Being among Stalin's inner circle, Zhdanov was an accomplice mass repression in the 1930s - 1940s.
During Patriotic War Zhdanov was a member of the Military Council Leningrad Front, Colonel General. Since 1946, Zhdanov led a campaign to strengthen party control over the country’s intellectual life, which went down in history as “Zhdanovism,” although its main inspirer was Stalin.
Fighting “the emergence of new ideas and foreign influences that undermine the spirit of communism,” this promoter of “socialist realism” wrote devastating articles about A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko, who were expelled from the Writers’ Union; criticized “unprincipled” films, among which were the 2nd episode of “Ivan the Terrible” by S. Eisenstein, the works of V. Pudovkin, G. Kozintsev and others; achieved the condemnation of the “History of Western Philosophy” by party propagandist G. Alexandrov for “excessive tolerance” towards idealistic, decadent philosophy; condemned the work of composers who adhered to “formalistic, anti-national trends” - S.S. Prokofieva, D.D. Shostakovich and others. Zhdanov coined the term “kowtowing to the West,” instilling nationalist sentiments and considering culture as a “drive belt” in the matter of education and propaganda. He was buried near the Kremlin wall.
Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich (1896–1948) - Soviet party artist statesman. in the 20-30s he headed the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) regional committee of the CPSU (b). In 1934, Zhdanov became the first secretary of the Leningrad city and regional committees. He is often considered one of the most odious figures of the Stalinist regime. Meanwhile, Zhdanov was one of the leaders of the “Russian Party” in the Central Committee.
Andrey Aleksandrovich Zhdanov was born on February 26, 1896 in Mariupol. This city subsequently bore his name, until the second attack of anti-Stalin hysteria began during the Gorbachev catastrophe. It was no coincidence that the pack of Democratic Greyhounds, then released from the chain, attacked Zhdanov first of all.
He was especially hated by them as a Russian person, as the leader of the “Russian party” within the CPSU (b). They saw different symbolism in his name. The “intellectual” Yu. Karyakin, bursting with anger, called his article in “Ogonyok” No. 19 for 1988 “Zhdanov liquid”, referring to the composition that was used to suppress cadaverous smell. Well, let’s accept Karyakin’s comparison: yes, exactly such a liquid was needed to muffle the cadaverous smell after the death of the hopes of anti-Russian forces for dominance in Russia.
A.A. Zhdanov came from an intelligent family - his father held the same position as Lenin’s father. He studied at the Agricultural Academy, acted in the Urals during the revolution, and in 1924-1934 he headed the Nizhny Novgorod regional party organization, one of the largest in the RSFSR - Molotov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan worked in it before him. In 1930, Zhdanov became a member of the Central Committee, and in 1934 - secretary of the Central Committee.
R. Conquest writes about Zhdanov: “A strong, although not deep, mind was combined in him with the ideological fanaticism that prevailed in him to a greater extent than other figures of his generation. The country owes him one of the few positive phenomena Stalin era compared with the 20s - the restoration of the educational system, which, for all its narrowness and official glorification, at least in the field of non-political sciences, regained the solidity and effectiveness of the old Russian educational system after the deterioration in the interim period of experiments” (The Great Terror, with .35), even Khrushchev, who in his memoirs does not hide his mortal hatred of Zhdanov’s closest comrade-in-arms Shcherbakov, speaks quite differently, respectfully speaking of Zhdanov as a very important figure.
Then, in 1934, Zhdanov was still completely alone at the top. But he established some particularly close relations with Stalin. They usually vacationed together in the south. In August 1934, during such a joint vacation, they made notes on the notes on textbooks on the history of the USSR and new history. Kirov, who had just visited Stalin and Zhdanov in the south, was also credited as a co-author of these remarks, but Kirov himself was only surprised by this circumstance: “What kind of historian am I?” - he honestly admitted (S. Krasnikov. S.M. Kirov. M., 1964, p. 196).
The conversation about history did not arise by chance. On May 16, 1934, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee on the teaching of history was published, which noted that the teaching of this discipline is abstract, schematic in nature, and instead of the history of real peoples, students are taught abstract definitions formations. Later, on January 27, 1936, a new decree explained that these harmful trends and ATTEMPTES to eliminate history as a science are associated, first of all, with the spread of erroneous ideas among historians historical views, characteristic of the so-called “Pokrovsky school”, Even later, in August 1937, the following were condemned: a lack of understanding of the progressive role of Christianity and monasteries; lack of understanding of the progressive significance of the annexation of Ukraine to Russia in the 17th century and Georgia at the end of the 18th century; idealization Streltsy rebellion, directed against the civilizing policies of Peter I; wrong historical assessment Battle on the Ice. Thus, the disgusting anti-Russian orientation of the Soviet Union was gradually eliminated historical science and was replaced by views, the correctness of which today has to be defended again in a difficult struggle, in the conditions of a new Sabbath of anti-Russian forces.
The “liberal” intelligentsia still never tires of denouncing Zhdanov for interfering in literary and musical affairs and for persecuting Zoshchenko and Akhmatova. The veil over the real reasons for the hatred of this public towards Zhdanov was lifted by the already mentioned famous Zionist M. Agursky, for whom Zhdanov and Shcherbakov were the main leaders of the “Black Hundred” trend at the top, and reference book Zhdanov was supposedly “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. As for the background of the well-known resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of August 14, 1946 “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, it was perfectly shown by Vitaly Volkov in the article “Behind the Scenes” (“Aurora”, 1991, g8). He noted that Zhdanov’s accusers “failed to see the direct, albeit subtle, at first glance, connection between the sharp attack against the Leningrad literary community in 1946 and the bloody massacre of Leningrad party and economic cadres in 1949-1950.”
The main role in this matter, according to V. Volkov, was played by Malenkov. He could not bring charges of an ideological nature against Zhdanov, since in this area political activity did not feel in his element and was clearly inferior to Zhdanov in the ability to conduct relevant discussions. To attack the Leningrad group, Malenkov chose the area of party work in which he felt most confident - personnel. Malenkov tried to draw the attention of Stalin, who had been very suspicious of “Leningrad separatism” since the Zinoviev and Kirov times, to the fact that in Leningrad “arbitrariness is going on in matters of selection and placement of personnel,” which turns into “blatant disregard for the guidelines of the Central Committee.” “If,” writes V. Volkov, “Malenkov had managed to convince Stalin of this, then the position of Zhdanov, Kuznetsov and all the Leningrad promoters would have been seriously undermined already in 1946.”
“Circumstances developed in such a way that in the multi-move combination that Malenkov played against Zhdanov, one of central figures was destined to become... M.M. Zoshchenko.”
According to the same V. Volkov, “Zoshchenko had long felt, if not the patronage, then the completely favorable attention of Zhdanov, and this was, of course, known to Moscow. It is clear that under these circumstances, any blow to the popular writer was indirectly directed against Zhdanov.” Malenkov’s people made the first attempt at such a strike back in 1943 in connection with the publication in the October magazine of the first part of Zoshchenko’s story “Before Sunrise,” approved for publication by the deputy head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee, Egolin, Zhdanov’s man. The head of this department, G. Aleksandrov, was Malenkov’s protege and filed a report, accusing Zoshchenko of “slander against our people.” Zhdanov managed to neutralize this attack with minimal losses, but Malenkov was presented with a new chance in 1946, when Zoshchenko was recommended to the editorial board of the Zvezda magazine on May 22, and was approved in this capacity on July 26, and V. Volkov does not exclude the possibility of provocations from the department of Beria, an ally of Malenkov, and not just an oversight of the Leningrad city committee, which “almost became a prologue to another pogrom of Leningrad personnel.” Malenkov immediately slandered Stalin, and Zhdanov was forced to “sacrifice Zoshchenko for the sake of saving himself and his entourage.” “Zhdanov’s main strategic task was to remove the Leningrad Party organization from under attack. And he dealt with it quite successfully.” “Zhdanov sought to close as quickly as possible the inopportunely arose matter with Leningrad writers in order to finally protect himself from any further attacks by Malenkov in this direction.” And Zhdanov managed to localize the attack and limit the discussion of the oversight in personnel policy to the writing community. Of course, Zhdanov had to scold Zoshchenko last words, literally reproducing Stalin’s instructions to the writer. Living with wolves, Zhdanov skillfully used the guise of a wolf, without being one in essence.
K. Simonov recalls a similar incident when one of his stories was carried in print, and then Zhdanov summoned him and “spoke about the same thing smarter, more subtly and more intelligently than it was written” (“Through the Eyes of a Man of My Generation,” p. 147). And in 1948, Zhdanov tried to soften the blow. Everyone was sure that Zoshchenko and Akhmatova would be arrested, but nothing like that happened. Moreover, food and manufactured goods cards were taken away from the writers expelled from the union, but Zoshchenko and Akhmatova were summoned to Smolny and the cards were given to them again.
Returning to Moscow, Zhdanov took all measures to ensure that none of those who openly opposed his group went unpunished. He got Malenkov sent on a “long business trip” to Central Asia, but in essence - removing him from work in the Central Committee apparatus. In the summer of 1947, according to Zhdanov’s scenario, a discussion took place on G. Alexandrov’s book “The History of Western European Philosophy,” after which Alexandrov flew from his post.
However, V. Volkov concludes his article, “neither Malenkov, nor especially Beria were knocked out. They just lay low and waited for an opportunity for revenge. They were given this opportunity after Zhdanov’s death in 1948. And it was used with interest a year later, when the bloody “Leningrad Affair” began.
Not only literature, not only philosophy, everything became an arena political struggle. even biology.
As you know, from July 31 to August 7, 1948, the infamous session of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences took place, which ended with the victory of Lysenko’s supporters over the despised geneticists. As R. Conquest notes, “we must give Zhdanov his due: he never supported Lysenko, and final defeat Soviet biology occurred in 1948 and was part of his own political defeat and death” (“The Great Terror”, p. 436). A.A. Zhdanov’s son Yu.A. Zhdanov, who then headed the science department of the Central Committee and was married to Stalin’s daughter Svetlana, repeatedly spoke out against Lysenko, however, when Stalin took Lysenko’s side, Yu. Zhdanov was forced to write a penitential letter on July 7, 1948 a letter to Stalin, published the day after the end of the above-mentioned session of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Zh. Medvedev. The Rise and Fall of T.L. Lysenko, New York, 1971, p. 11O, 226), And on August 31, 1948, A. “suddenly” died. A. Zhdanov. “We will not be surprised if someday it becomes known that Beria had a hand in this act,” writes A. Antonov-Ovseenko in his previously cited work about Beria in the magazine “Yunost” (1988, M12). There is even a version that Zhdanov was simply shot while hunting “like a wild boar.” I heard this version from M. Bernshtam, and he heard it from his father, who in Beria’s time held an important post in the MGB. One thing is certain: there is a direct connection between Zhdanov’s death and the departure from his political line and the defeat of his group.
Zhdanov’s detractors even invented the contemptuous term “Zhdanovshchina,” the content of which the Chechen defector A. Avtorkhanov, on page 67 of his book “The Mystery of Stalin’s Death,” reveals as “a consistent return to pre-war Stalinism in both foreign and domestic policy" It is curious that just a few pages further, Avtorkhanov claims that Zhdanov “began to pursue a policy of de-Stalinization of Eastern European countries,” that he was accused of conspiring with Dimitrov and Tito to create a Balkan federation (op. cit., pp. 82,84). It is not clear how such a policy can be associated in Avtorkhanov’s head with Stalinism.
Another emigrant expert on Russian affairs, N. Rutych, in his book “The CPSU in Power,” as we remember, already flashed his awareness, attributed the publication of Tarle’s book about the war of 1812 to Tukhachevsky, who had already been executed by that time. Similarly, Rutych denounces “Zhdanov’s agitprop” for condemning a non-class approach to the Russian past and the idealization of state and military leaders Tsarist Russia, referring to an article dated September 1948, that is, published after Zhdanov’s death.
N. S. Khrushchev about A. A. Zhdanov:
After the death of Kirov, Stalin put the Leningrad party organization on Zhdanov. Zhdanov was elected Secretary of the Central Committee at the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and before that he worked in Gorky. I was with him better acquainted than with Kirov. I remember our first meeting. We competed before Nizhny Novgorod region. And now our delegation at the congress invited the Gorky delegation to visit. I don't remember where we gathered. Zhdanov was cheerful person. Then he drank with us and drank even before that. In a word, he went out onto the stage and stretched out a two-row accordion. He played the accordion and piano quite well. I liked it. Kaganovich spoke contemptuously about him: “Harmonic player.” But I didn’t see anything reprehensible in this. I myself once tried to learn this kind of playing when I was young, and I had an accordion. However, I never played well, and he played well. Later, when Zhdanov began to move among the Politburo, it was clear that Stalin treated him very carefully. Here Kaganovich’s grumbling towards Zhdanov intensified; he often said sarcastically: “Here it is not necessary great skill work, you need to have a good tongue, be able to tell jokes well, sing ditties, and you can live in the world."
Zhdanov was smart person. He had some malice and cunning. He could subtly notice your mistake and introduce irony. On the other hand, purely outwardly, at all plenums he sat with a pencil and took notes. People might have thought: how attentively Zhdanov listens to everything at the plenum, writes everything down so as not to miss anything. And he wrote down someone’s unsuccessful turns of speech, then came to Stalin and repeated them. For example, Yusupov’s performance caused a lot of laughter among everyone. In addition, Zhdanov really was a musical person. It turns out that he once studied music with Alexandrov, the father of the current leader of the military ensemble. He taught music at their secondary school. Zhdanov studied in Mariupol and graduated from secondary school there educational institution.
The name of Zhdanov evokes a lot of speculation in connection with the post-war resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks regarding the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” and Muradeli’s opera “The Great Friendship”. Regarding them, I think that Zhdanov was simply an appointed speaker: what he was ordered to say, he said. How he himself thought is difficult to find out. Maybe it was the way he performed, but I doubt it. Most likely no. At that time, Zhdanov was in absolute disgrace. Attitudes towards him changed during the war. Why did he still fall out of favor with Stalin?
“At the top” the impression was formed (to what extent it was justified, it is difficult for me to judge now) that he was kind of a slacker, not eager to get to work. To some extent, everyone noted this. He could arrive at any meeting of the Party Central Committee two or three hours later, or he could not come at all. In a word, he was not like, for example, Kaganovich. He will always find something to do, he always has no time. But this one is calm: if he is entrusted with a question, he will do it, but if he is not entrusted with it, it is not necessary. Stalin and others who knew Zhdanov had this impression. Personally, it is difficult for me to speak on this issue. I've never worked particularly closely with him, so it's hard for me to talk. Otherwise, he was a very charming person.
- 1966 Graduated from the Physics and Mathematics School at the Novosibirsk Academgorodok with a gold medal.
- 1966-1967 Worked as a fireman in a drying kiln at a brick factory in Mary Turkmen SSR. For some reason I didn’t serve in the army, apparently there was a serious reason, because in those years not serving in the army was a disgrace, it was almost impossible.
- 1967-1972 Studied at Faculty of Physics Novosibirsk State University.
- 1972-1984 Worked research fellow Institute of Automation and Electrometry Siberian branch Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
- 1980 Received the degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, specializing in Optics. Thesis topic: “Photoinduced anisotropy in films of chalcogenide, glassy semiconductors” (I mentioned the title just in case, I’m not a physicist).
- 1984-1988 Work as a senior lecturer of the department general physics Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute.
- In 1983, after studying the report of F. G. Uglov “On medical and social consequences alcohol consumption in the USSR”, decided to familiarize people with this report as much as possible. In the same year he became one of the leaders of the informal temperance movement of the USSR. He was one of the founders of the public organization " International Academy sobriety." This turned out to be very much in line with the then state anti-alcohol campaign, so Zhdanov achieved fame by riding a fortunate wave.
- 1988: initiator and one of the organizers of the public organization Union of Struggle for People's Sobriety (SBNT).
- 1988-2008 Deputy Chairman of the SBNT (Chairman - Academician F. G. Uglov). Subsequently, V. G. Zhdanov became chairman of the SBNT.
- In 1994, having applied, V.G. Zhdanov, according to him, restored his own, getting rid of. From the same year, he began to study, improve and disseminate this method, supplemented by the methodology of G. A. Shichko (as I. N. Afonin states in his book - at his suggestion). Began giving lectures on vision restoration in different cities former countries THE USSR. He organized courses for vision restoration, supplementing the “Bates-Shichko method” with the use of dietary supplements from one of the first network companies to appear in Russia. Zhdanov clearly has a good instinct; for the second time he integrated into the new wave in time. In general, I have a positive attitude towards, but if Zhdanov himself, according to his assurance, restored his vision before encountering dietary supplements, then I perceive his promotion of dietary supplements exclusively as an additional business.
- 1997 Graduated Faculty of Psychology Novosibirsk State pedagogical university majoring in “Practical Psychology”.
- In 2000, V. G. Zhdanov’s first speech on the topic of vision restoration took place in Moscow. It was held at the Ashgabat cinema. More than a thousand people came to the lecture.
- Since 2000, he held the position of professor and head of the department of practical psychology and psychoanalysis in a non-state educational institution"Siberian Humanitarian-Ecological Institute" (Novosibirsk). The exact date V. G. Zhdanov does not indicate the cessation of work in this institution, but writes that “in 2005, the rector of SibGEI died, the new rector could not save the institute and it was closed.” Zhdanov also points out that since 2007 he began to live in Moscow, and not in Novosibirsk. According to a Wikipedia check, in 2007 there was no institute at the given address. The status of the institution “Siberian Humanitarian-Ecological Institute” remains not entirely clear. The classic question arises: “Was there a boy?” Establishment kind of existed, and had its own printed edition- newspaper “Hello, man!” At the same time, according to the National Accreditation Agency in the field of education, the specified institution has a license to carry out educational activities higher education institutions vocational education did not receive it, and the “institute” itself, according to some information, rented a room in the Novosibirsk business center.
- Since 2007 lives in Moscow, heads the department Practical psychology at the International Slavic Academy. However, I will immediately note that the International Slavic Academy, like SibSEI, is not the highest educational institution, but is public organization. So the title “professor” is nominally honorary, and has no relation to the academic title of professor or position of teacher at a higher educational institution.
- Awarded a gold medal Russian Academy natural sciences(RAEN), named after I. I. Mechnikov “For contribution to strengthening the health of nations.” By the way, and a secret: membership in the Academy can be purchased by anyone who has written at least one scientific work in the field of biology, physics, chemistry.
- V.G. Zhdanov is married. There are two daughters and two granddaughters
Materials used in the article
Few people have suffered so much from whistleblowers Soviet era, How Andrey Aleksandrovich Zhdanov. Besides the Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and heads of Soviet law enforcement agencies, not a single statesman of the Soviet era was subjected to such obstruction.
In January 1989, the Decree of the CPSU Central Committee “On the abolition of legal acts related to the perpetuation of the memory of A. A. Zhdanov” was issued, which noted that in connection with “numerous appeals from workers with proposals to abolish legal acts perpetuating the memory of A. A. Zhdanov “It has been established that A. A. Zhdanov was one of the organizers of mass repressions of the 30-40s against innocent Soviet citizens. He bears responsibility for the criminal actions committed during that period, violations of socialist legality.”
Thus, Zhdanov was among those who were posthumously punished by herself Communist Party Soviet Union- however, in that later formation, where he was considered an ideologist Alexander Yakovlev, who later stated that his main business was destruction Soviet ideology from the inside.
They don’t lag behind Zhdanov even now - as soon as the topic of the blockade of Leningrad comes up, the topic of indecent behavior of the head of the city’s party organization, who allegedly drank drunk, gorged himself on cakes and fruits delivered by plane, while ordinary Leningraders were dying of hunger.
Andrey Zhdanov, 1937. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ivan Shagin
"Unreliable" excellent student
Who exactly was Andrei Zhdanov and why did he suffer such an unenviable posthumous fate?
Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov was born on February 26, 1896 in Mariupol in the family of a public school inspector Alexander Alekseevich Zhdanov.
Alexander Zhdanov, a graduate of the Moscow Theological Academy, became one of the first researchers of the Apocalypse in Russia and the creator of a series of lectures on history, popular in seminaries. Old Testament. At the same time, he was also interested in socialist ideas, for which, in fact, he was forced to leave his position as an assistant professor at the seminary, replacing him with a more secular position.
Zhdanov Sr. was an excellent speaker who knew how to infect others with his views. He passed away early, at the age of 49, but managed to influence his son’s worldview.
Oratorical abilities and talent for working on the ideological front passed from Zhdanov Sr. to Zhdanov Jr. Except that Andrei’s interests initially extended not to spiritual disciplines, but to Marxist teaching.
After the death of his father, the family - mother, Andrei and his three sisters - moved to the Tver province. In 1910, he entered the Tver Real School, from which he graduated in 1915 with excellent marks, with only a B in drawing.
By this time diligent student was well known to the police as an active participant revolutionary movement. However, at that time Andrei Zhdanov was simply considered “unreliable.”
How ensign Zhdanov suppressed the “drunken revolution”
Of all the revolutionary forces, the Bolsheviks turned out to be closest to the views of the young Zhdanov, and in 1915 Andrei became a member of this party.
In July 1916, Andrei Zhdanov, a first-year student, was called up to military service to the Tsaritsyn student battalion, where at that time they collected unreliable youths like him, from whom they hoped to beat the crap out of them with strict drills, and then send them to fight for the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. From the battalion, Zhdanov entered the infantry warrant officer school, after which he was sent to serve in the 139th reserve regiment, stationed in the Western Siberian city of Shadrinsk.
The Bolshevik Zhdanov did not change his views and joyfully greeted the news about February Revolution in Petrograd. True, in the new conditions he found himself in the minority - the main political force After the change of power in the city, the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks became.
With the local leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries Nikolai Zdobunov Zhdanov became close by spending a lot of time in political discussions. Already in the 1930s, when the Socialist-Revolutionary Zdobunov had long retired from political activity and became a well-known bibliographer in the Soviet Union, Zhdanov would avert the hand of the punitive authorities from him several times. He would never be able to save Zdobunov - in 1941, after the start of the war, the scientist would receive 10 years in prison under Article 58 and die in a camp in May 1942. But Zhdanov will not give up on his old acquaintance - in 1944 he will achieve release last book Zdobunov “History of Russian bibliography”, despite the fact that the author at that time officially continued to be considered an “enemy of the people”.
But all this will happen much later. And in the fall of 1917, Zdobunov and Zhdanov together had to save Shadrinsk from destruction. Large reserves of alcohol were stored in the city, which attracted the attention of a huge number of deserters from the front, who staged a real “drunken revolution.” The rioters were armed, and trying to stop them was dangerous.
But Ensign Zhdanov turned out to be a timid man. Having headed the “Committee of Public Safety”, he carried out an operation to liquidate stocks of alcohol. Despite the opposition of the looters, the alcohol was dumped into the river. After this, the crowd's fervor subsided and the situation was brought under control. After this, Zhdanov became one of the leaders of Shadrinsk.
Andrei Zhdanov and writer Maxim Gorky at the presidium of the first congress of USSR writers, 1934. Photo: RIA Novosti / Ivan Shagin
Ideology specialist
After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Zhdanov becomes the main person in the city. He organizes the publication of a Bolshevik newspaper and tries to rebuild life in a new way.
The Civil War began in the country, and in June 1918 Zhdanov entered service in the Red Army, where he was engaged in ideological work. In 1919, Andrei Zhdanov was an employee of the political department of the 5th Army Eastern Front Red Army. In this capacity, he first met with Stalin, who was inspecting the Eastern Front.
After the end of the Civil War, Zhdanov took the post of chairman of the Tver provincial executive committee. In the same year he was transferred to work in Nizhny Novgorod, where he becomes 1st secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod regional party committee.
Stalin, who was forming his own team, drew attention to the young and talented fighter of the ideological front. In 1927, Zhdanov became a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
In the early 1930s, Zhdanov was actively involved in ideological work of national importance. He develops the principles of teaching history in the USSR, developing Stalin’s ideas, and participates in the creation of “ Short course History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”, organizes the First Congress of Soviet Writers.
After the murder Sergei Kirov It is Zhdanov that Stalin nominates for the post of 1st Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which shows the leader’s high confidence in his protégé.
Zhdanov justified Stalin’s trust during the period of the “Great Terror”, when he signed “ execution lists"and with an iron hand he carried out the Stalinist line among party members in Leningrad.
Unlike party ideologists of later times, Zhdanov was not a talker, but really believed in the postulates that he promoted. Therefore, the man who defended the bibliographer Zdobunov, the leader, with an atypical for that time respectful attitude towards the church, without any doubt dealt with the bearers of an ideology that was hostile, in his opinion.
In 1939, Zhdanov joined the Politburo, that is, he became a member of a select circle of Soviet leaders.
Joseph Stalin with his children Vasily (left), Svetlana and Yakov (right), second from right - Andrei Zhdanov. 1938 Photo: RIA Novosti
The struggle for the survival of Leningrad and “confectionery orgies”
One of the most difficult trials in Zhdanov’s life was the siege of Leningrad. He is very often accused of the fact that it became real in the first place, and of hunger, and other sins.
It would probably be absurd to deny that the city leadership made no mistakes. However, Zhdanov was not a commander, and the rapid approach of Hitler’s hordes to the city was not his mistake. As for the evacuation, which was allegedly disrupted due to his fault, nothing of the kind happened - before the ring closed, about 700,000 people were taken out of the city civilians, half of whom are children. More than a million were on the evacuation list, but it was simply not possible to remove them before the blockade began. The evacuation continued further, albeit under extremely difficult conditions.
Could more have been done? Probably, but for this to happen, the evacuation of Leningrad had to begin immediately with the start of the war, but no one expected such a catastrophic development of the situation at the front.
The same applies to the lack of sufficient food supplies in Leningrad. Contrary to the story about the destroyed Badayev warehouses, they did not have a large food reserve. Cities with a population of over a million, like Leningrad, always live off regular supplies, and not through the accumulation of reserves sufficient for a long siege.
The fact that Leningrad continued to live and work in the most difficult conditions, despite hunger, artillery shelling, and the fierce winter of 1941-1942, is largely the merit of its leader.
As for the “rum women” and other culinary delights that Comrade Zhdanov was allegedly treated to during the siege: most of those who actually saw how they ate in Smolny claim that the diet of the city’s leaders approximately corresponded to the diet of the soldiers and officers who defended Leningrad. They really ate better than the inhabitants, but there was no talk of any delicacies.
It is also known that Comrade Stalin knew how to be harsh even with his closest associates. It is impossible to imagine that the head of Leningrad, hanging by a thread, fell into drunkenness and gluttony, risking the wrath of the leader.
In addition, Zhdanov, despite still being quite young, had a whole bunch of health problems, in particular diabetes. The head of Leningrad could throw “confectionery orgies” only in one case - if he was looking for an original way to commit suicide.
Zhdanov presents awards to the defenders of Leningrad, 1942. Photo: RIA Novosti / Boris Kudoyarov
The war against the “enraged lady”
The blockade and the war in general completely undermined the health of Andrei Zhdanov. He will spend the rest of his life alternating work with long-term treatment.
In 1946, Andrei Zhdanov did something that several generations of Russian intellectuals have not been able to forgive him for. Zhdanov's report concerned the writer's creativity Mikhail Zoshchenko and poetesses Anna Akhmatova. It called Zoshchenko "the scum of literature" for his satire, and declared Akhmatova "totally far from the people." At the same time, a whole circle of other authors was identified, who were called representatives of “reactionary obscurantism and renegadeism in politics and art.” Zhdanov’s report formed the basis of the party resolution “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, which brought great trouble to those cultural figures who did not fit into the mainstream of the official party policy.
And here again it must be said that Zhdanov was absolutely sincere in his views. He believed that to the Soviet people we need “socialist realism”, which is capable of raising the masses to restore the country, build new cities and enterprises, and so on.
Zhdanov could not stand elitist art. Once, one relative in his presence said: “We are aristocrats of the spirit,” to which Zhdanov reacted immediately and harshly: “And I’m a plebeian!”
Andrei Zhdanov was not a plebeian - he simply considered art that was far from the aspirations of the people to be useless and even harmful.
“The poetry of an enraged lady rushing between the boudoir and the prayer room” - such a description of Akhmatova’s poems can make a discerning connoisseur swoon, but if you take Zhdanov’s position, then there is definitely something in such a juicy interpretation of the poetess’s work.
Another question is that after the party resolution, Zhdanov’s opinion no longer became an opinion, but a sentence not subject to appeal, and the fate of the “condemned” was unenviable.
Andrey Zhdanov, 1948. Photo: RIA Novosti
Zhdanov’s death formed the basis of the “Doctors’ Plot”
In February 1948, Andrei Zhdanov turned 52 years old. Due to his age and position in the party, he could even count on the role of Stalin’s successor, but his health by that time was worse than that of Stalin, who was two decades older than him.
In the summer of 1948, Zhdanov Once again ended up in the sanatorium of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in Valdai, where doctors tried to cope with his heart disease. But on August 31, 1948, Andrei Zhdanov died.
Shortly before Zhdanov's death, the doctor Lydia Timashuk, looking at the cardiogram of the party ideologist, stated that he had a heart attack, but the professors who supervised the treatment rejected the diagnosis. Timashuk wrote a note to the Central Committee, and four years later it was unexpectedly put into action - this is how the famous “Doctors’ Plot” began.
Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov was buried with honors near the Kremlin wall.
His political career was interrupted on the rise, but, unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not fall victim to disgrace and subsequent repression. A strong ideologist with his own vision of the future of the country, he was not afraid to take the most stringent measures to achieve his goals. IN last years Zhdanov actively advocated for the development of Russian culture and securing for the Russian people their state-forming status in the Soviet Union.
What our country would be like today if Zhdanov’s ideas had been implemented, one can only guess.