We stand for peace and champion the cause of peace.
/AND. Stalin/
Stalin (real name - Dzhugashvili) Joseph Vissarionovich, one of the leading figures of the Communist Party, the Soviet state, the international communist and labor movement, a prominent theorist and propagandist of Marxism-Leninism. Born into the family of a handicraft shoemaker. In 1894 he graduated from the Gori Theological School and entered the Tbilisi Orthodox seminary. Under the influence of Russian Marxists living in Transcaucasia, he became involved in revolutionary movement; in an illegal circle he studied the works of K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov. Since 1898 member of the CPSU. Being in a social democratic group "Mesame-dasi", carried out propaganda of Marxist ideas among the workers of the Tbilisi railway workshops. In 1899 he was expelled from the seminary for revolutionary activities, went underground, and became a professional revolutionary. He was a member of the Tbilisi, Caucasian Union and Baku Committees of the RSDLP, participated in the publication of newspapers “Brdzola” (“Struggle”), “Proletariatis Brdzola” (“Struggle of the Proletariat”), “Baku Proletarian”, “Buzzer”, “Baku Worker”, was an active participant in the Revolution of 1905-07. in Transcaucasia. Since the creation of the RSDLP, he supported Lenin’s ideas of strengthening the revolutionary Marxist party, defended the Bolshevik strategy and tactics of the class struggle of the proletariat, was a staunch supporter of Bolshevism, and exposed the opportunist line of the Mensheviks and anarchists in the revolution. Delegate to the 1st conference of the RSDLP in Tammerfors (1905), 4th (1906) and 5th (1907) congresses of the RSDLP.
During the period of underground revolutionary activity, he was repeatedly arrested and exiled. In January 1912, at a meeting of the Central Committee, elected by the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP, he was co-opted in absentia into the Central Committee and introduced into Russian Bureau of the Central Committee. In 1912-13, working in St. Petersburg, he actively collaborated in newspapers "Star" And "Is it true". Participant Krakow (1912) meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP with party workers. At this time Stalin wrote a work "Marxism and the National Question", in which he highlighted Lenin’s principles for solving the national question, and criticized the opportunist program of “cultural-national autonomy.” The work received a positive assessment from V.I. Lenin (see Complete collection of works, 5th ed., vol. 24, p. 223). In February 1913, Stalin was again arrested and exiled to the Turukhansk region.
After the overthrow of the autocracy, Stalin returned to Petrograd on March 12 (25), 1917, was included in the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) and in the editorial office of Pravda, and took an active part in developing the work of the party in new conditions. Stalin supported Lenin's course of developing the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist one. On 7th (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP (b) elected member of the Central Committee(from that time on he was elected as a member of the party’s Central Committee at all congresses up to and including the 19th). At the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (b), on behalf of the Central Committee, he delivered a political report to the Central Committee and a report on the political situation.
As a member of the Central Committee, Stalin actively participated in the preparation and conduct of the Great October Socialist Revolution: he was a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, the Military Revolutionary Center - the party body for leading the armed uprising, and in the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. At the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 8), 1917, he was elected to the first Soviet government as People's Commissar for National Affairs(1917-22); at the same time in 1919-22 he headed People's Commissariat state control , reorganized in 1920 into the People's Commissariat Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate(RCT).
During the Civil War and foreign military intervention 1918-20 Stalin carried out a number of important assignments of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Soviet government: he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, one of the organizers defense of Petrograd, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern, Western, Southwestern Fronts, representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense. Stalin proved himself to be a major military-political worker of the party. By resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of November 27, 1919, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
After the end of the Civil War, Stalin actively participated in the party’s struggle to restore the national economy, to implement the New Economic Policy (NEP), and to strengthen the alliance of the working class with the peasantry. During the discussion about trade unions imposed on the party Trotsky, defended Lenin's platform on the role of trade unions in socialist construction. On 10th Congress of the RCP (b)(1921) gave a presentation “The party’s immediate tasks in the national question”. In April 1922, at the Plenum of the Central Committee, Stalin was elected Secretary General Central Committee Party and held this post for over 30 years, but since 1934 he was formally Secretary of the Central Committee.
As one of the leading figures in the field of nation-state building, Stalin took part in the creation of the USSR. However, initially in solving this new and complex problem, he made a mistake by putting forward "autonomization" project(entry of all republics into the RSFSR with autonomy rights). Lenin criticized this project and justified the plan to create a single union state in the form of a voluntary union of equal republics. Taking into account the criticism, Stalin fully supported Lenin’s idea and, on behalf of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), spoke at 1st All-Union Congress of Soviets(December 1922) with a report on the formation of the USSR.
On 12th Party Congress(1923) Stalin made an organizational report on the work of the Central Committee and a report “National moments in party and state building”.
V.I. Lenin, who knew the party cadres excellently, had a huge influence on their education, sought the placement of cadres in the interests of the overall party cause, taking into account their individual qualities. IN "Letter to the Congress" Lenin gave characterizations to a number of members of the Central Committee, including Stalin. Considering Stalin one of prominent figures party, Lenin also wrote on December 25, 1922: “Comrade. Stalin, having become Secretary General, concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be able to use this power carefully enough” (ibid., vol. 45, p. 345). In addition to his letter, Lenin wrote on January 4, 1923:
“Stalin is too rude, and this shortcoming, quite tolerable in the environment and in communications between us communists, becomes intolerable in the position of Secretary General. 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 has only one advantage, namely, more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more attentive to his comrades, less capriciousness, etc.” (ibid., p. 346).
By decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), all delegations were familiarized with Lenin’s letter 13th Congress of the RCP (b), held in May 1924. Considering the difficult situation in the country and the severity of the struggle against Trotskyism, it was considered advisable to leave Stalin as General Secretary of the Central Committee so that he would take into account criticism from Lenin and draw the necessary conclusions from it.
After Lenin's death, Stalin actively participated in the development and implementation of the policies of the CPSU, plans for economic and cultural construction, measures to strengthen the country's defense capability and the foreign policy of the party and the Soviet state. Together with other leading figures of the party, Stalin waged an irreconcilable struggle against the opponents of Leninism, played outstanding role in the ideological and political defeat of Trotskyism and right-wing opportunism, in the defense of Lenin’s teaching on the possibility of the victory of socialism in the USSR, in strengthening the unity of the party. Important in the propaganda of Lenin's ideological heritage were the works of Stalin "On the Foundations of Leninism" (1924), "Trotskyism or Leninism?" (1924), "On questions of Leninism" (1926), “Once again about the social-democratic deviation in our party” (1926), “On the right deviation in the CPSU (b)” (1929), "To questions agricultural policy in USSR"(1929), etc.
Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the Soviet people implemented Lenin’s plan for building socialism and carried out revolutionary transformations of gigantic complexity and world-historical significance. Stalin, together with other leading figures of the party and the Soviet state, made a personal contribution to the solution of these problems. The key task in building socialism was the socialist industrialization, which ensured the economic independence of the country, the technical reconstruction of all sectors of the national economy, and the defense capability of the Soviet state. The most complex and difficult task of the revolutionary changes was the reorganization of agriculture on a socialist basis. When conducting collectivization of agriculture mistakes and excesses were made. Stalin also bears responsibility for these mistakes. However, thanks to decisive measures taken by the party with the participation of Stalin, the mistakes were corrected. Of great importance for the victory of socialism in the USSR was the implementation cultural revolution.
In the conditions of impending military danger and in the years Great Patriotic War 1941-45 Stalin took a leading part in the multilateral activities of the party to strengthen the defense of the USSR and organize the defeat fascist Germany and militaristic Japan. At the same time, on the eve of the war, Stalin made a certain miscalculation in assessing the timing of a possible attack. Hitler's Germany to the USSR. On May 6, 1941 he was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR(from 1946 - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR), June 30, 1941 - Chairman of the State Defense Committee ( GKO), July 19 - People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, August 8 - Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
As head of the Soviet state, he took part in Tehran (1943), Crimean(1945) and Potsdam (1945) conferences leaders of three powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. In the post-war period, Stalin continued to work as General Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. During these years, the party and the Soviet government carried out a tremendous amount of work to mobilize the Soviet people to fight for recovery and further development National economy, carried out foreign policy, aimed at strengthening the international position of the USSR, the world socialist system, at the unity and development of the international workers and communist movement, for support liberation struggle peoples of colonial and dependent countries, to ensure peace and security of peoples throughout the world.
In Stalin's activities, along with positive aspects There were theoretical and political mistakes, and some traits of his character had a negative impact. If in the first years of work without Lenin he took into account critical remarks addressed to him, then later he began to retreat from the Leninist principles of collective leadership and the norms of party life, and to overestimate his own merits in the successes of the party and the people. Gradually formed Stalin's personality cult, which entailed gross violations of socialist legality and caused serious harm to the activities of the party and the cause of communist construction.
20th Congress of the CPSU(1956) condemned the cult of personality as a phenomenon alien to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism and the nature of the socialist social system. In the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee of June 30, 1956 “On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences” the party gave an objective, comprehensive assessment of Stalin’s activities and a detailed criticism of the cult of personality. The cult of personality did not and could not change the socialist essence of the Soviet system, the Marxist-Leninist character of the CPSU and its Leninist course, and did not stop the natural course of development of Soviet society. The party developed and implemented a system of measures that ensured the restoration and further development of Leninist norms of party life and the principles of party leadership.
Stalin was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1919-52, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1952-53, a member of the Executive Committee of the Comintern in 1925-43, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee from 1917, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR from 1922, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st-3rd convocations . He was awarded the title of Hero Socialist Labor(1939), Hero of the Soviet Union (1945), Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), highest military rank - Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). He was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of Victory, 3 Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Suvorov 1st degree, as well as medals. After his death in March 1953, he was buried in the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum. In 1961, by decision of the XXII Congress of the CPSU, he was reburied on Red Square.
Soch.: Soch., vol. 1-13, M., 1949-51; Questions of Leninism, and ed., M., 1952: On the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 5th ed., M., 1950; Marxism and questions of linguistics, [M.], 1950; Economic problems Socialism in the USSR, M., 1952. Lit.: XX Congress of the CPSU. Verbatim report, vol. 1-2, M., 1956; Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee “On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences.” June 30, 1956, in the book: CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses. Conferences and plenums of the Central Committee, 8th ed., vol. 7, M., 1971; History of the CPSU, vol. 1-5, M., 1964-70: History of the CPSU, 4th ed., M., 1975.
Events during Stalin's reign:
- 1925 - adoption of a course towards industrialization at the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
- 1928 - the first five-year plan.
- 1930 - the beginning of collectivization
- 1936 - adoption of the new constitution of the USSR.
- 1939 –1940 - Soviet-Finnish war
- 1941 –1945 - The Great Patriotic War
- 1949 - creation of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).
- 1949 - successful test the first Soviet atomic bomb, which was created by I.V. Kurchatov under the leadership of L.P. Beria.
- 1952 - renaming the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) into the CPSU
Stalin's entourage
As in all totalitarian states, the ability, competence, and character of those who provided strategic military leadership to the Soviet Union's war effort varied significantly. Since the main precondition for service in Stalin's strategic leadership was unconditional and proven loyalty to the dictator, the Communist Party and the Soviet state, qualities such as professional military competence and personal characteristics clearly played a secondary role. Therefore, those who occupied key positions in the centers of political and military power of the Soviet Union during the war demonstrated extremely different and highly individual combinations of these qualities.
This also applied to Stalin’s immediate retinue, that is, his closest political and military assistants and advisers who held positions in the Politburo, State Defense Committee, Headquarters, NGOs, NKVD, in the senior command of the Red Army and other key government bodies. From the very beginning to the end of the war, Stalin relied on his friends and close acquaintances from the Civil War. This group first and foremost consisted of the so-called “cavalry clan” - people who were with Stalin or served under him at the time when he was a political commissar in the famous 1st Cavalry Army of S. M. Budyonny and assisted him in 1918 and 1919 during the famous defense of Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad).
In addition to Marshals Budyonny, Voroshilov and Timoshenko, the “cavalry clan” also included less high-ranking officers who were among those close to Stalin after the Civil War - such as G.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky, I.Kh. Bagramyan, A. I. Eremenko, R. I. Malinovsky, P. S. Rybalko, K. S. Moskalenko and K. A. Meretskov.
Since Stalin's GKO was essentially political body, only one military man was in it continuously throughout the war. This was one of Stalin’s most loyal henchmen, Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, whom one of the dictator’s biographers described in such terms as “mediocre, faceless” and “not brilliant in intelligence”, as well as “a product of a system that valued obedience, zeal , ruthlessness and obsession" - especially during the purges of the military in the late 1930s (54). Voroshilov demonstrated his complete incompetence while serving as People's Commissar of Defense during the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–1940. Although Stalin tacitly accepted Voroshilov's incompetence by replacing him in May 1940 with S.K. Timoshenko, he once again demonstrated his incompetence in military affairs in 1941 as a member of the GKO, commander of the North-Western direction and Leningrad Front, and several times in 1943 as a representative of the Headquarters, before Stalin eventually transferred him to less significant posts for the rest of the war.
In contrast to the persons appointed by him to the State Defense Committee, there were seven military men at Stalin's Headquarters during various periods of the war - Timoshenko, Voroshilov, Budyonny, Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Antonov from the army and Kuznetsov from the navy. The first four of them were closely associated with the "cavalry clan". Moreover, at the very beginning of the war, on July 10, 1941, Stalin appointed three of his most trusted military men, Voroshilov, Timoshenko and Budyonny, to lead the three newly created main strategic directions (55). During the numerous defeats of the Red Army in 1941 and 1942, all three demonstrated their inability to command large forces, after which Stalin removed them from command posts and eliminated the command of the main directions.
Over the summer of 1942, Stalin generally lost interest in his old comrades and instead relied increasingly on advice on strategic and operational matters from members of the relatively new generation of military men. In addition to incorporating them into the Stavka, he often used them as representatives of the Stavka, sending them to plan, direct and coordinate strategic operations carried out by fronts and groups of fronts. The most notable representatives of this new and generally younger generation of officers were Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Antonov, who were members of the Headquarters. In addition, Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Novikov, Govorov and Voronov were sent to the troops at different times as representatives of Headquarters; Shaposhnikov, Vasilevsky and Antonov were prominent figures of the General Staff. All of them turned out to be much more capable and therefore achieved significantly greater success than their predecessors.
Having served in the Red Army cavalry during the Civil War and in the 1920s and 1930s, Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov came to Stalin's attention through his command of the 57th Special Rifle Corps when it won a landslide victory at Khalkhin Gol in August 1939 over two infantry divisions of the Japanese Kwantung Army. In recognition of this achievement, Stalin appointed this junior member of the “cavalry clan” as commander of the Kyiv Special Military District in June 1940, and in January 1941 as Chief of the General Staff and Deputy People’s Commissar of Defense (56).
At the very beginning of the war, Zhukov became a member of the Headquarters, and in August 1942, Stalin promoted him to the post of First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which Zhukov held until the end of the war. From June 22 to June 26, 1941, Zhukov was the representative of the Headquarters on the Southwestern Front, where he organized a fruitless mechanized counterattack against the advancing Wehrmacht troops. In August and September 1941, he commanded the Reserve Front in front of Smolensk, and in September and October 1941, the Leningrad Front. From October 1941 to August 1942, Zhukov served as commander of the Western Front, and at the same time, from February to May 1942, the Western Direction.
During the first year of the war, Zhukov distinguished himself by successfully defending Leningrad in September 1941 and Moscow in October and November 1941, as well as organizing the Moscow counteroffensive and the subsequent winter offensive of 1941/42. Although he failed to achieve all of GHQ's campaign goals, his direct and often ruthless manner of conducting operations led to a hitherto unprecedented defeat for the Wehrmacht and the collapse of Operation Barbarossa. Summer and autumn next year, when Wehrmacht troops were rapidly advancing in southern Russia, Zhukov's Western Front conducted partially successful offensive operations in the Zhizdra and Bolkhov area in July and August 1942, and in the Rzhev area in August-September. These actions significantly helped the defense of the Red Army at Stalingrad.
When the Red Army resumed at the end of November 1942 offensive actions, Zhukov planned and coordinated the operations of the Kalinin and Western Fronts against the German defenses in the Velikiye Luki and Rzhev areas. Although this offensive failed, it weakened Army Group Center so much that the Germans themselves abandoned their defensive positions near Rzhev two months later (57).
After organizing the breaking of the siege of Leningrad in January 1943, Zhukov was promoted to marshal of the Soviet Union; in February he led the failed Operation Polar Star against Army Group North; in July and August, as a representative of the Headquarters, he participated in the development and implementation of a successful operation for the Red Army. Army of the Kursk operation, and then in organizing the pursuit of the enemy to the Dnieper in September and the struggle to capture bridgeheads on the right bank of the Dnieper in November and December 1943.
In January 1944, Zhukov coordinated the victorious offensive of the Red Army near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, from March to May 1944 he commanded the 1st Ukrainian Front, and from late June to September 1944 he helped coordinate the successful offensive operations of the Red Army in Belarus and Lvov-Sandomierz direction. During this period, his fronts won significant victories in Western Ukraine and Poland.
Apparently wanting to curb the growing power and fame of his leading representative of the Stavka, Stalin appointed Zhukov to command the 1st Belorussian Front in November 1944. Zhukov held this post until the end of June 1945. During this period, Zhukov brought the glory he had won to its brilliance with his impressive but costly assault on Berlin. In addition to his regular activities as commander or representative of Stavka, Zhukov, as Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, also helped plan and carry out many large and small operations, the most notable of which was Stalingrad offensive {58} .
Zhukov was an energetic but stubborn commander who conducted the war effort with dogged determination. His willpower, often seasoned with ruthlessness and complete indifference to losses, strengthened the Red Army during the difficult trials of the initial period of the war, strengthened the defense of Leningrad and Moscow, and breathed strength into it when it embarked on the offensive from the end of 1942 to 1944, and ultimately helped her achieve final victory in 1945. Like the American Civil War general W. S. Grant, Zhukov understood the terrible nature of modern war and was psychologically prepared to fight it. He demanded and achieved absolute obedience to his orders, knew how to recognize and elevate key subordinates, and at times even dared to stand up to Stalin and risked incurring his wrath.
Although his operations were not particularly sophisticated, Zhukov skillfully used the Red Army as a cudgel (which, in fact, it was), achieving full operational efficiency from it. His character perfectly corresponded to the very nature of the war on the Soviet-German front, and Stalin understood this. And that is the only reason why Stalin and the Red Army, despite enormous losses, emerged from the war as winners.
Thus, Zhukov's fame as a great Russian commander stemmed primarily from his reputation as an undeniably tenacious fighter. This reputation, coupled with his affiliation with the “cavalry clique,” protected Zhukov from criticism for his apparent failures and made him one of Stalin’s most trusted generals.
Probably the most skilled member of the Headquarters and the second of Stalin's two most trusted generals was Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky. An infantryman who did not enjoy the benefits of belonging to the “cavalry clan,” Vasilevsky nevertheless rose high only thanks to his inherent merits. He joined the General Staff after graduating from the General Staff Academy in the abbreviated “purge” class of 1937. In just four years, having risen in rank from colonel to colonel general, Vasilevsky enjoyed the special favor of B. M. Shaposhnikov and was considered by him as his direct heir as chief of the General Staff of the Red Army.
Largely thanks to this arrangement of Shaposhnikov, Vasilevsky became deputy chief of the operations department of the General Staff in May 1940. In this post, he made significant contributions to the development of Soviet defensive and mobilization plans in the pre-war months. After the outbreak of war, Stalin in August 1941 appointed Vasilevsky chief of the operational department of the General Staff and deputy chief of the General Staff. Later, in June 1942, Vasilevsky replaced the ill Shaposhnikov as Chief of the General Staff and at the same time in October 1942 became Deputy People's Commissar of Defense (59).
Participating in the planning of most of the most important operations of the Red Army, Vasilevsky simultaneously served as a representative of the Headquarters on the active fronts that carried out many of these operations. For example, in October 1941, he helped restore the defenses of the Red Army west of Moscow after the catastrophic encirclement it experienced at Vyazma and Bryansk, and before his appointment as Chief of the General Staff, he coordinated a failed attempt in April-May 1942 Northwestern Front overcome the Wehrmacht defenses in the Demyansk ledge. Although Vasilevsky failed to convince Stalin not to carry out the ill-fated offensives near Kharkov and in the Crimea in May 1942, it was these wise advice, probably hastened his appointment to the key post of Chief of the General Staff in the armed forces.
Vasilevsky made a significant contribution to the formation of the Stavka strategy to disrupt the Wehrmacht offensive in the summer and autumn of 1942 on Stalingrad. He was one of the leading architects of the Red Army's offensive in the Stalingrad region in November-December 1942, and as a representative of the Headquarters he oversaw the development of the Stalingrad counter-offensive into a full-fledged winter offensive, which collapsed the Wehrmacht defenses in southern Russia and rapidly carried the Red Army troops west - to Dnieper and Donbass.
Promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in January 1943, Vasilevsky achieved such successes in the south in early February 1943 that he pushed Zhukov and Headquarters to the idea of launching a general offensive along the entire Soviet-German front. Vasilevsky himself was supposed to coordinate operations in the south, and Zhukov in the north. This offensive had extremely ambitious goals; it was supposed to bring down German defense from Leningrad to the Black Sea and withdraw the Red Army troops to Pskov, Vitebsk and the Dnieper line. However, faced with decisive and skillful resistance from the Germans, the spring offensive failed in almost all sectors, leaving Zhukov and Vasilevsky no choice but to move to the defense near Kursk in March-April 1943.
Together with Zhukov, Vasilevsky planned and coordinated the defense, counteroffensive and general offensive of the Red Army in the Kursk region in July-August 1943. After this, while Zhukov coordinated the Red Army’s attack on Kyiv in September-October 1943, Vasilevsky oversaw operations to clear the Wehrmacht from the Donbass region. After crossing the Dnieper in November 1943, he led the actions of the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts in eastern Ukraine and during the liberation of Crimea, where he was wounded in May 1944. Having not yet fully recovered from his wound, Vasilevsky played a significant role in planning the Belarusian offensive of the Red Army in June 1944, during which he coordinated the actions of the 1st and 2nd Baltic and 3rd Belorussian fronts.
After planning and coordinating in January - early February 1945 the successful offensive of the Red Army in East Prussia Stalin appointed Vasilevsky a member of the Headquarters at the end of February in recognition of his long and distinguished service as its representative. At the same time, Stalin, for the first time during the war, appointed Vasilevsky to command the field forces - the 3rd Belorussian Front, the previous commander of which, the talented Colonel General I. D. Chernyakhovsky, died on February 18 in the battle of Konigsberg. When Vasilevsky took command of the front, the marshal was replaced as chief of the General Staff by his deputy and protégé A. I. Antonov.
Vasilevsky reached the pinnacle of his career in July 1945, when Stalin once again demonstrated his confidence in him by appointing him head of the Soviet command in the Far East during the last stage of the war with Japan (60). Vasilevsky's leadership of the massive, complex, and spectacularly successful offensive in Manchuria reinforced Stalin's confidence in his abilities and contributed significantly to the Japanese government's decision to surrender unconditionally to the Allies.
Vasilevsky’s even character and sharp mind balanced Zhukov’s naked and ruthless will; as a result, these two sharply different personalities formed an excellent “fire team” of representatives and coordinators of Headquarters. And as a key officer of the Soviet General Staff, no one made a greater contribution to the defeat Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan than Vasilevsky (61).
The “father” of the General Staff of the Red Army was Vasilevsky’s patron, Marshal of the Soviet Union Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov, himself a skilled staff officer, an outstanding military theorist and military historian. Shaposhnikov was an officer in the tsarist army and, as one of his biographers noted, “adhered to the code of honor of the officers of the previous generation, which was not usually found among his colleagues” (62). Famed both for his ability as a theorist and for his feeling self-esteem coupled with his independence of judgment, Shaposhnikov played an outstanding role in the creation and strengthening of the Red Army after the Civil War. Even then, he demonstrated his honesty and integrity by sharply arguing with Tukhachevsky over the interpretation of the latter's failed Vistula campaign in 1920. This courage, combined with his reputation as a “military commander of the highest rank, unparalleled in terms of erudition, professional skill and intellectual development,” as well as Shaposhnikov’s inherent love for cavalry, determined his survival and ascension to such a high position in the spring of 1937. Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army (63).
Shaposhnikov held this important post with short breaks until August 1940, when Stalin appointed him Deputy People's Commissar of Defense. Shaposhnikov’s voluminous work, “The Brain of the Army,” full of factual information and deep analysis, created from 1927 to 1929, made a significant contribution to the creation of the General Staff of the Red Army in 1935. Never inclined to ideological activity (he was accepted into the party only in 1939), Shaposhnikov often expressed disagreement with Stalin regarding the defensive strategy of the Red Army, including during the pre-war planning of Soviet defense. Nevertheless, the repressions did not affect him - probably because Stalin was not afraid of this erudite staff officer, moreover, he defiantly respected his calm demeanor. Shaposhnikov's strange relationship with Stalin was further emphasized by the fact that the marshal was one of the few whom Stalin addressed by name and patronymic.
At the beginning of 1940, Shaposhnikov was removed from the post of Chief of the General Staff - apparently in connection with the defeat of the Red Army during the Soviet-Finnish War. However, in July 1941, Stalin again appointed him chief of the General Staff. After this, Shaposhnikov, until his departure in May 1942 due to ill health, served as the architect of the newly organized General Staff. It was this new organization that ultimately allowed the Soviet command to achieve victory in the war. During the course of the war, Shaposhnikov exerted significant influence on Stalin and, although his name was associated with the Kiev disaster in September 1941, it was this influence that ultimately pushed Stalin to follow more the advice of the General Staff regarding the planning and conduct of military operations. And more importantly, Shaposhnikov played a major role in the rapid rise of Vasilevsky, Antonov and Vatutin to leading positions in the Red Army.
Unlike Vasilevsky, who by the beginning of the war already held an important post in the General Staff, Alexey Innokentievich Antonov, one of the most influential figures in the General Staff during the war, at this point was still in relative obscurity. A veteran of the First World War and the Civil War, Antonov did not stand out as anything special until, while studying at the Frunze Military Academy in the early 1930s, he was recognized as an “excellent operational staff worker” (64). For his excellent work as chief of the operations department of the Kharkov Military District during the Kyiv maneuvers of 1935, Antonov earned the praise of the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov and an appointment to the Academy of the General Staff. Having graduated from it with the class of 1937, he served for some time as chief of staff of the Moscow Military District, when it was commanded by Stalin’s close associate, Marshal Budyonny, and then received a post at the Frunze Academy to replace teachers who had been purged.
Promoted to major general in June 1940 (together with Vasilevsky and many others), Antonov, during the massive purges of command personnel in January 1941, replaced Lieutenant General G.K. Malandin as deputy chief of staff of the Kiev Special Military District, where he met the beginning of the war. He survived the shameful defeats of the Red Army in the summer of 1941 near Kiev and in May 1942 near Kharkov. In December 1942, Vasilevsky transferred Antonov to the General Staff, where he served as both the head of the operational department and the first deputy chief of the General Staff. Having transferred his post to operational management General Staff S. M. Shtemenko, Antonov became the first deputy chief of the General Staff and held this position until February 1945, when he replaced Vasilevsky and became the full-fledged chief of the General Staff (65).
During his service on the General Staff, Antonov took part in the planning and control of all major Red Army operations after December 1942.
As a reward for his excellent service, in February 1945, together with Vasilevsky, he was appointed a member of the Headquarters. He also served as Stalin's adviser at the most important conferences of the Allied powers - including Yalta and Potsdam in February and July-August 1945. Antonov's exemplary professional skill and sound strategic judgment earned Stalin's respect and the reverence of all who worked with him or under his leadership. In addition, foreigners who met him agreed with US President Truman's opinion that Antonov was “a highly effective staff officer and administrator” (66).
The only aviator in this group of senior General Headquarters officers was Alexander Aleksandrovich Novikov, the most prominent leader of the Soviet Air Force during World War II (67). A veteran of the Civil War, Novikov graduated from the Vystrel Infantry School in 1922, and from the Frunze Academy in 1927. While studying at the academy, he studied strategy under the leadership of M. N. Tukhachevsky and operational art under the leadership of V. K. Triandafilov and became imbued with the combined concept of deep battle and deep operation, carried out jointly by tank, air, artillery and airborne forces. After serving in the Belarusian Military District under the command of I.P. Uborevich, Novikov transferred to aviation and underwent flight training.
However, soon after being promoted to colonel in 1936, Novikov was dismissed from service and arrested - allegedly for his connection with Uborevich, who was purged, and other commanders. By some miracle, Novikov survived this event without physical damage. He survived, continuing to serve as chief of staff and then commander of the Air Force of the Leningrad Military District. It was in this post that he met the beginning of the war.
In July 1941, Novikov commanded the Air Force of the Northern Front and North Western direction, as well as aviation of the Leningrad Front during the most dangerous period of the defense of Leningrad in August and September 1941. Despite the obvious unsuitability of Marshal Voroshilov, who then led the defense of Leningrad, Novikov himself acted so well that Zhukov, who replaced Voroshilov as commander of the Leningrad Front, noted these. As a sign of recognition of Novikov's contribution to the successful defense of Leningrad, Zhukov took him to the Western Front in February 1942 as first deputy commander and head of the front's air forces.
After this, Stalin began to recognize Novikov’s ability to command, appointing him in March and April 1942 as a representative of the Headquarters in directing the actions of the Red Army near Leningrad and Demyansk. In April 1942, Novikov was promoted to lieutenant general of aviation and appointed commander of the air force (Air Force) of the Red Army. He remained in this post until the very end of the war. In addition, holding the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Defense for Aviation in 1942–1943, Novikov oversaw the transformation of the Red Army's previously disparate front-line and army aviation into a powerful new instrument capable of effectively supporting modern military operations.
During his tenure as head of the Air Force, Novikov developed modern structure air army and the reserve aviation armies supporting it with resources, and also closely followed the development and launch into production of new generations of modern aircraft. At the same time, he also served as a representative of the Headquarters in many major operations, including in the Battle of Stalingrad, Operation Polar Star, the Battle of Kursk and the Smolensk offensive in 1943, as well as in the attack on Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, during operations in Ukraine and Karelia, the Belarusian offensive in 1944, the Vistula-Oder offensive and in the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The culmination of Novikov's career during the war was the position of commander of aviation in the Far East on the headquarters of Marshal Vasilevsky during the Manchurian offensive in August-September 1945.
A year after the end of the war, Novikov ended up in the “purge of the victors” organized by L.P. Beria. Arrested along with many of the Red Army's most competent senior commanders, Novikov suffered incredible physical and psychological torture at the hands of Beria's henchman, V. S. Abakumov. After spending six years in Stalin's prisons, he was released and rehabilitated in 1953, just a few months after Stalin’s death.
In general, A. A. Novikov performed excellently as a commander Air Force Red Army - but, like many of his illustrious colleagues of the 1930s, he also paid dearly for his competence (68).
The chief artillery specialist at Headquarters, Nikolai Nikolaevich Voronov, was the artillery equivalent of aviator Novikov. His rise to fame as an outstanding expert on artillery and a man whom the Headquarters often entrusted with the duties of its representative during major military operations was ensured both by the skill and experience of Voronov himself, and by the high appreciation of the importance of artillery in modern warfare on the part of Stalin and senior management Red Army (69).
A soldier of the Red Army since 1918 and a veteran of the Civil War, Voronov graduated from the Higher Artillery Command School in 1924, and from the Academy in 1930. Frunze. In the 1920s, he commanded an artillery battery and division, gradually rising to command an artillery regiment of the Moscow Proletarian Rifle Division. After Voronov served as chief of divisional artillery in 1933 and 1934, the NKO assigned him to the Leningrad Military District, where he became chief and military commissar of the Leningrad Artillery School.
When the Spanish Civil War broke out, the Soviet government sent Voronov to the Iberian Peninsula. Here he served as a military adviser to the army of the Republican government in 1936 and 1937. Since Voronov gained fresh military experience in this war, without tainting himself with any dangerous political acquaintances associated with his assignment, Stalin appointed him in 1937 as chief of artillery of the Red Army, a post he held until 1940.
As chief of artillery of the Red Army, Voronov oversaw the reorganization and technical re-equipment of the artillery forces of the Red Army during its turbulent period of pre-war expansion. In close cooperation with Zhukov, he also took part in the battles against Japanese troops at Khalkhin Gol, where he gained extensive experience in planning and using artillery on a large scale army group. At the end of 1939 and in 1940, Voronov performed the same duties with the Red Army during the invasion of eastern Poland and Bessarabia, and during the Soviet-Finnish War he led the artillery actions during the breakthrough of the powerful Finnish defenses along the Mannerheim Line. After the end of this war, the NKO appointed Voronov as deputy chief of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army. He held this position when the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa.
Shortly after the start of the war, Stavka appointed Voronov to two of the most important positions in the Red Army artillery - head of the country's Main Directorate of Air Defense (country air defense) at the end of June and head of the Red Army artillery in July. At the same time, Voronov became Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR and a member of the group of advisers to Headquarters. Subsequently, from March 1943 to March 1950, he was the permanent commander of the artillery of the Red Army. During this period, Voronov played an outstanding role in developing the theoretical and practical basis for the use of artillery in large-scale combat operations, and specifically the concepts of conducting an artillery offensive and the principles of anti-tank warfare. At the same time, he oversaw the creation of large artillery formations, such as artillery divisions and corps, and was also responsible for the formation of RVGK artillery as a key component for conducting operations to break through enemy defenses and develop success to operational depth.
In addition to his purely artillery work, Voronov often served as the Headquarters representative on many operations - both as the chief artillery adviser and as a combined arms coordinator. It was in this capacity that he helped plan and coordinate the operations of the Leningrad, Volkhov, South-Western, Don, Voronezh, Bryansk, North-Western, Western, Kalinin, 3rd Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts, including during the offensive under Stalingrad, during the liquidation of the 6th German army in Stalingrad, during the Oryol offensive in July-August 1943. He later supervised the use of artillery during the Belarusian and Berlin offensives in 1944 and 1945.
Considerably less famous than his illustrious colleagues, Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov had a rich track record - he was both a representative of the Headquarters and a front commander, primarily in the northwestern theater of military operations. A participant in the First World War and the Civil War, an artilleryman, like Voronov, Govorov completed artillery courses in the Red Army in 1927, and higher courses in 1930. academic courses, in 1933 - the Frunze Military Academy, and in 1938 - the Academy of the General Staff, becoming part of the first full course released after the start of purges among the military. In the 1920s and 1930s, Govorov commanded an artillery division, and then an artillery regiment of the famous Perekop Rifle Division, the artillery of the fortified area and the artillery of the 14th and 15th rifle corps {70} .
Govorov began his long relationship with the Northwestern Theater of Operations with his service as chief of staff of the 7th Army artillery during the Soviet-Finnish War. Here he earned the praise of the leadership, especially Voronov, for the outstanding role he played in breaking through the Mannerheim line. After the end of this war, he served as deputy inspector general of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army and head of the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy, earning a promotion to the rank of major general of artillery.
In the chaotic initial period of the war with Germany, Govorov commanded the artillery of the Western direction, and then the artillery of the Reserve Front during the victory won by this front in September near Yelnya and during the subsequent tragic encirclement and destruction of the front in October of the same year near Vyazma. After Govorov miraculously survived this ordeal, in recognition of his role in the victory at Yelnya, the Headquarters in mid-October appointed him deputy commander of the Mozhaisk defensive line, and at the end of October 1941 - commander of the 5th Army of the Western Front, which he successfully led throughout the battle for Moscow.
Having assessed successful actions Govorov in the Battle of Moscow, Headquarters sent him to Leningrad in April 1942 - first as commander of various groups of troops of the Leningrad Front, and from June 1942 - of the entire Leningrad Front, which he successfully led until the end of the war.
During his tenure as commander of the Leningrad Front, Govorov planned and carried out the Sinyavinsk offensive operation in January 1943, which partially lifted the German blockade, and in February of the same year he took part in Zhukov’s unsuccessful Operation Polar Star. After this, he planned and coordinated all subsequent operations involving several fronts in the Leningrad area, including the Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation, which drove the Wehrmacht troops back from Leningrad, the Vyborg and Karelian offensive operations in June and July 1944, which drove the Wehrmacht away from Leningrad Finnish troops, as well as operations against the Wehrmacht in the Baltic states and Courland at the end of 1944 and in 1945.
Stalin chose Govorov as his front commander and representative of Stavka for his consistently sound judgment and remarkable ability to plan operations and inspire his troops. One of his colleagues at the General Staff noted that Govorov:
“...He enjoyed well-deserved authority among the troops...Talkative, dry, and even somewhat gloomy in appearance, Govorov made an impression at the first meeting that was not very favorable for himself. But everyone who served under Leonid Alexandrovich knew perfectly well that under this external severity hid a broad and kind Russian soul"(71) .
Govorov was one of 11 Red Army generals awarded the highest military order of the USSR - the Order of Victory (72).
The only member of the Headquarters from the Soviet Navy was Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov. He began his service during the Civil War as a sailor of the North Dvina flotilla in Arkhangelsk region. Having become a naval officer in 1926, he was initially assigned to the Black Sea Fleet cruiser Chervona Ukraine. After studying from 1929 to 1932, he returned to the Black Sea Fleet and commanded the same "Chervona Ukraina" in 1935, when the ship was awarded the title"the best ship in the fleet."
This achievement, coupled with the decline among naval officers during the purges, opened the way for Kuznetsov to a rapid career. In 1937, Kuznetsov briefly served as naval attache to the Republican government of Spain, and in August 1937 he became deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet. Finally, after the former fleet commander Kireev was purged, Stalin appointed Kuznetsov in his place in November 1938. Just a few months later, in February 1939, he made Kuznetsov first deputy commander of the navy. In April 1939, when Kuznetsov was only 36 years old, he became commander of the fleet and people's commissar of the navy, posts he held continuously until 1946. In accordance with these duties assigned to him, Stalin in June 1941 awarded Kuznetsov the rank of admiral (73).
During the war, Kuznetsov led all operations Soviet fleet, served as a representative of Headquarters during the September 1944 occupation of Bulgaria and during the Manchurian Offensive in August 1945. In the same year he took part in the Yalta and Postdam conferences. However, Kuznetsov also often provoked controversy that threatened to end his career. Although he was a very competent commander, his branch of troops played a secondary role in the Soviet armed forces. A very stubborn and strong-willed man, Kuznetsov actively defended the interests of the navy over the interests of the army. This led to a number of direct clashes with leading Red Army generals, the People's Commissariat of Shipbuilding, and even Stalin himself. For example, on the eve of the start of Operation Barbarossa by the Germans, Kuznetsov, in violation of Stalin’s direct order, ordered Baltic and Black Sea Fleet take precautions in case of a surprise attack by the Germans. Although these actions saved the two fleets, Stalin reprimanded Kuznetsov - but still included him among the members of his newly created Headquarters.
During the war, Kuznetsov proved himself to be an extremely effective leader. Unlike the situation in the Red Army, where many generals were stripped of their ranks or shot for incompetence or even charges of treason, Kuznetsov hand-picked most of his subordinates and his creatures served with him until the end of the war (74).
At the end of the war, Kuznetsov's directness and honesty in dealing with both his superiors and his colleagues finally backfired on him. In 1946, he arrested Kuznetsov and several of his assistants on trumped-up charges of transferring Soviet military secrets to the British - apparently, this was a kind of delayed retribution. Many of Kuznetsov's colleagues received long prison sentences, and he himself was dismissed from service and demoted to rear admiral. However, unlike Novikov, Kuznetsov was rehabilitated after Stalin’s death only to be dismissed from service again in 1956 at the age of 51 after a quarrel with Khrushchev.
From the book of False Witness. Falsifications. Compromising evidence author Zenkovich Nikolay AlexandrovichWe are all from Stalin’s overcoat “Not a single “ego” in the history of mankind has been praised so highly and by so many people,” writes Rancourt-Laferrière (for example, at the 17th Party Congress, Stalin’s name was heard 1580 times, and Judas Khrushchev said this name 28 times, and Khrushchev’s Mikoyan as much as 49
From the book Memorable. Book one author Gromyko Andrey AndreevichIn disgrace with Stalin, Sergo Mikoyan: - Once he and Molotov went on vacation to the south, where Stalin was at that time. Let's go visit him. They sit and have lunch. Suddenly Stalin’s assistant Poskrebyshev says: “Comrade Stalin, while you were resting here, Molotov and Mikoyan were against you.”
From the book by I.V. Stalin laughs. Humor of the leader of the peoples author Khokhlov Nikolay FilippovichFour of us at Stalin's I remember one meeting during the Potsdam Conference in Babelsberg. You could say it’s etched in my memory. During it, members of the Soviet delegation had a conversation among themselves, without the participation of any foreign representatives. It took place in
From the book The Path author Adamova-Sliozberg Olga LvovnaFROM THE BIOGRAPHY OF J.V. STALIN Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili) was born on December 9 (21), 1879 in the city of Gori, Tiflis province (now the Republic of Georgia). His father is Vissarion Ivanovich Dzhugashvili, a Georgian by nationality, a shoemaker by profession. Mother - Ekaterina
From the book My Life Among the Jews [Notes of a Former Underground Worker] author Satanovsky Evgeniy YanovichDeath of Stalin There was a meeting in the director's office. Apart from me, there was not a single exile. During the meeting, a worker ran into the office without knocking and began: - Anisya Vasilievna... - Why did you enter without permission? Leave. - But, Anisya Vasilyevna... - I told you: we
From the book of 10 leaders. From Lenin to Putin author Mlechin Leonid MikhailovichFrom the Tsar to Stalin, from Stalin to Brezhnev, from Brezhnev to Gorbachev. Soon the fairy tale is told, but not soon the deed is done. The Jews lived, prospered, and made good. Which was periodically redistributed by the surrounding masses of workers within the framework characteristic of the domestic
From the book of Molotov. Second after Stalin author Khrushchev Nikita Sergeevich“Papers” of Stalin A person with historical imagination is able to restore long-gone worlds in his mind. You can imagine the scene historical existence, in which the shadows of long-vanished characters continue to play the roles of long-gone characters
From the book Stalin. The life of one leader author Khlevnyuk Oleg VitalievichDeath of Stalin In February 1953, Stalin suddenly fell ill. One Saturday he called us to come to the Kremlin. He personally invited me, Malenkov, Beria and Bulganin there. We've arrived. He says: "Let's watch a movie." We looked. Then he says again: “Let’s go,
From the book of the Russian Head of State. Outstanding rulers that the whole country should know about author Lubchenkov Yuri NikolaevichDeath of Stalin.. Stalin died unexpectedly. Although some of us visited him at home less often in the last period of his life, at meetings and official meetings we saw with satisfaction that, despite the fatigue from the war, Stalin looked good. He was
From the book There was no boredom. Second book of memories author Sarnov Benedikt MikhailovichThe myth of Stalin The phrase that, according to the memoirs of Air Marshal A.E. Golovanov, Stalin allegedly said in December 1943 has firmly entered the clichés of modern Russian journalism: “I know that when I’m gone, more than one bucket of dirt will be poured on wash my head. But I
From the book Stalin. How I knew him author Mikoyan Anastas IvanovichStalin's funeral On March 9, the day of the funeral, we came to the Hall of Columns at nine o'clock. First they stood in the guard of honor, then they went into the hall... The last guards of honor were changing - now music was playing, now a women's choir was singing... Party leaders came out of the back door and
From the author's bookFrom Stalin to Stalin the frost was like heat, and the light was like darkness. All the outlines were obscured by shadow. The object was indistinguishable from the shadows, and became a huge pygmy in the semi-darkness. And every day your mind had to rediscover what light and shadow mean, what night and day, and swamp and
From the author's bookMy assessment of Stalin Comrades often ask - what assessment do you give to Stalin? This puts me in a difficult position, because it is impossible to characterize Stalin in monosyllables. This figure is complex by nature, and difficult path was in his party and state. In different
From the author's bookThe last days of Stalin The day before XIX Congress Stalin's brochure “Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR” was published. After reading it, I was surprised: it stated that the stage of trade turnover in the economy had exhausted itself, that it was necessary to move on to product exchange between the city and
Biography of Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin(real name Dzhugashvili) was born into a Georgian family (a number of sources express versions about Ossetian origin ancestors Stalin) in the city of Gori, Tiflis province.
During life Stalin And for a long time subsequently on I.V.’s birthday. Stalin The date was set - December 21, 1879. A number of researchers, with reference to the first part of the metric book of the Gori Assumption Cathedral Church, intended for registering births, have established a different date of birth Stalin- December 18, 1878.
Joseph Stalin was the third son in the family, the first two died in infancy. His native language was Georgian. Russian language Stalin learned it later, but always spoke with a noticeable Georgian accent. According to Svetlana's daughter, Stalin, however, sang in Russian with virtually no accent.
At the age of five in 1884 Joseph Stalin falls ill with smallpox, which left marks on his face for life. Since 1885, due to a severe bruise - a phaeton flew into him - he Joseph Stalin I have had a defect in my left hand throughout my life.
Education of Stalin. Stalin's entry into revolutionary activity
In 1886 mother Stalin, Ekaterina Georgievna wanted to determine Joseph to study at the Gori Orthodox Theological School. However, since the child did not know the Russian language at all, he was unable to enter the school. In 1886-1888, at the request of his mother, to teach Joseph The children of priest Christopher Charkviani took up the Russian language. The result of the training was that in 1888 Stalin does not enter the first preparatory class at the school, but immediately enters the second preparatory class. Many years later, on September 15, 1927, mother Stalin, will write a letter of gratitude to the school’s Russian language teacher, Zakhary Alekseevich Davitashvili:
“I remember well that you especially singled out my son Soso, and he said more than once that it was you who helped him fall in love with learning and it was thanks to you that he knows the Russian language well... You taught children to treat ordinary people with love and think about those who is in trouble."
In 1889 Joseph Stalin Having successfully completed the second preparatory class, he was accepted into the school. In July 1894, after graduating from college Joseph was awarded as the best student. His certificate contains the highest score - 5 (excellent) in most subjects. So in the Certificate issued to a graduate of Gori religious school AND. Dzhugashvili in 1894, noted:
“Pupil of Gori Theological School Dzhugashvili Joseph with excellent behavior (5) showed success: according to Sacred history Old Testament(5); — Sacred history of the New Testament (5); — Orthodox Catechism (5); — Explanation of worship with the church charter (5); — Languages: Russian with Church Slavonic (5), Greek (4) very good, Georgian (5) excellent; — Arithmetic (4) very good; — Geography (5); — Penmanship (5); — Church singing: Russian (5), and Georgian (5).”
In September 1894 Stalin Having brilliantly passed the entrance exams, he was enrolled in the Orthodox Tiflis Theological Seminary, which was located in the center of Tiflis. There he first became acquainted with the ideas of Marxism. By the beginning of 1895, the seminarian Joseph Dzhugashvili meets underground groups of revolutionary Marxists expelled by the government to Transcaucasia. Subsequently Stalin recalled:
“I joined the revolutionary movement at the age of 15, when I contacted underground groups of Russian Marxists who then lived in Transcaucasia. These groups had a great influence on me and gave me a taste for underground Marxist literature."
From June to December 1895 in the newspaper “Iberia”, edited by I. G. Chavchavadze signed “I. J-shvili" five poems by the young Stalin, another poem was also published in July 1896 in the Social Democratic newspaper “Keali” (“Furrow”) under the signature “Soselo”. Of these, the poem “To Prince R. Eristavi” was included in the collection “Georgian Reader” in 1907, among selected masterpieces of Georgian poetry.
In 1896-1898 at the seminary Joseph Stalin leads an illegal Marxist circle that met in the apartment of revolutionary Vano Sturua at number 194 on Elizavetinskaya Street. In 1898 Joseph joins the Georgian social democratic organization Mesame Dasi. Together with V.Z. Ketskhoveli and A.G. Tsulukidze I.V. Dzhugashvili forms the core of the revolutionary minority of this organization. Subsequently - in 1931 - Stalin in an interview with German writer Emil Ludwig to the question “What prompted you to be an oppositionist?” Possibly mistreatment from parents? replied: “No. My parents treated me quite well. Another thing is the theological seminary where I studied then. Out of protest against the mocking regime and the Jesuit methods that existed in the seminary, I was ready to become and actually became a revolutionary, a supporter of Marxism...”
In 1898-1899 Joseph leads a circle at the railway depot, and also conducts classes in workers' circles at the Adelkhanov shoe factory, at the Karapetov plant, at the Bozardzhants tobacco factory, and in the Main Tiflis railway workshops. Stalin recalled about this time: “I remember 1898, when I first received a circle from the workers of the railway workshops... Here, in the circle of these comrades, I then received my first baptism of fire... My first teachers were the Tiflis workers.” On December 14-19, 1898, a six-day strike of railway workers took place in Tiflis, one of the initiators of which was a seminarian Joseph Stalin.
Without passing full course, in the fifth year of study, before the examinations on May 29, 1899, Stalin was expelled from the seminary with the motivation “for failure to appear for exams for an unknown reason” (probably the actual reason for the expulsion, which was also adhered to by official Soviet historiography, was the activity Joseph Dzhugashvili on the propaganda of Marxism among seminarians and railway workshop workers). In the certificate issued Joseph Stalin by exception, it was stated that he could serve as a teacher in primary public schools.
After being expelled from the seminary Stalin I was engaged in tutoring for some time. Among his students, in particular, was S. A. Ter-Petrosyan (future revolutionary Kamo). From the end of December 1899 I.V. Dzhugashvili was accepted as a computer-observer at the Tiflis Physical Observatory.
July 16, 1904 in the Tiflis Church of St. David Joseph Dzhugashvili married Ekaterina Svanidze. She became the first wife Stalin. Her brother studied with Joseph Dzhugashvili at the Tiflis Theological Seminary. But three years later, the wife died of tuberculosis (according to other sources, the cause of death was typhoid fever). From this marriage the first son will appear in 1907 Stalin- Yakov.
Before 1917 Joseph Dzhugashvili enjoyed big amount pseudonyms, in particular: Beshoshvili, Nizheradze, Chizhikov, Ivanovich. Of these, in addition to the pseudonym " Stalin", the most famous was the pseudonym "Koba". In 1912 Joseph Dzhugashvili finally adopts the pseudonym " Stalin».
Revolutionary activities of Stalin
April 23, 1900 Joseph Stalin, Vano Sturua and Zakro Chodrishvili organized a work day, which brought together 400-500 workers. At the rally, which was opened by Chodrishvili, among others, spoke Joseph Dzhugashvili. This performance was the first appearance Stalin in front of a large gathering of people. In August of the same year Dzhugashvili participated in the preparation and conduct of a major action by the workers of Tiflis - a strike in the Main Railway Workshops. Revolutionary workers took part in organizing workers’ protests: M. I. Kalinin, S. Ya. Alliluyev, as well as M. Z. Bochoridze, A. G. Okuashvili, V. F. Sturua. From August 1 to August 15, up to four thousand people took part in the strike. As a result, more than five hundred strikers were arrested. Arrests of Georgian Social Democrats continued in March - April 1901. Stalin, as one of the leaders of the strike, avoided arrest: he quit his job at the observatory and went underground, becoming an underground revolutionary.
In September 1901, the illegal newspaper Brdzola (Struggle) was published at the Nina printing house, organized by Lado Ketskhoveli in Baku. The editorial of the first issue, entitled “From the Editor,” belonged to a twenty-two-year-old Stalin. This article is the first known political work Stalin.
In 1901-1902 Joseph- Member of the Tiflis and Batumi committees of the RSDLP. Since 1901 Stalin, being in an illegal situation, organized strikes, demonstrations, staged armed robberies against banks, transferring stolen money (also called expropriated in a number of other sources) for the needs of the revolution. On April 5, 1902, he was arrested for the first time in Batumi. On April 19 he was transferred to Kutaisi prison. After a year and a half of imprisonment and transfer to Butum, he was exiled to Eastern Siberia. November 27 Stalin arrived at the place of exile - in the village of Novaya Uda, Balagansky district, Irkutsk province. After more than a month Joseph Dzhugashvili made his first escape and returned to Tiflis, from where he later moved again to Batum.
After the Second Congress of the RSDLP (1903), held in Brussels and London, he became a Bolshevik. On the recommendation of one of the leaders of the Caucasian Union of the RSDLP, M. G. Tskhakaya Koba was sent to the Kutaisi region to the Imeretian-Mingrelian Committee as a representative of the Caucasian Union Committee. In 1904-1905 Stalin organizes a printing house in Chiatura, participates in the December strike of 1904 in Baku.
During the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 Joseph Dzhugashvili busy with party affairs: writes leaflets, participates in the publication of Bolshevik newspapers, organizes a fighting squad in Tiflis (autumn 1905), visits Batum, Novorossiysk, Kutais, Gori, Chiatura. In February 1905, he participated in arming the workers of Baku in order to prevent Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes in the Caucasus. In September 1905, he participated in the attempt to seize the Kutaisi workshop. In December 1905 Stalin participates as a delegate at the 1st conference of the RSDLP in Tammerfors, where he first met V.I. Lenin. In May 1906, he was a delegate to the IV Congress of the RSDLP, held in Stockholm.
In 1907 Stalin delegate to the Vth Congress of the RSDLP in London. In 1907-1908 one of the leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. Stalin involved in the so-called "Tiflis expropriation" in the summer of 1907.
At the plenum of the Central Committee after the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP (1912), he was co-opted in absentia into the Central Committee and the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. Trotsky at work Stalin"claimed that this was facilitated by a personal letter Stalin V.I. Lenin, where he said that he agreed to any responsible work.
March 25, 1908 Stalin in Baku he was again arrested and imprisoned in Bailov prison. From 1908 to 1910 he was in exile in the city of Solvychegodsk, from where he corresponded with Lenin. In 1910 Stalin escaped from exile. After that Joseph Dzhugashvili was detained by the authorities three times, and each time he escaped from exile to the Vologda province. From December 1911 to February 1912 in exile in the city of Vologda. On the night of February 29, 1912, he fled from Vologda.
In 1912-1913, while working in St. Petersburg, he was one of the main employees in the first mass Bolshevik newspaper Pravda. At the suggestion of Lenin at the Prague Party Conference in 1912 Stalin was elected a member of the party's Central Committee and placed at the head of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee. May 5, 1912, the day the first issue of the Pravda newspaper was published Stalin was arrested and exiled to the Narym region. A few months later he escaped (5th escape) and returned to St. Petersburg, where he settled with the worker Savinov. From here he led the Bolshevik election campaign in State Duma IV convocation. During this period, the wanted Stalin lives in St. Petersburg, constantly changing apartments, under the pseudonym Vasiliev.
In November and late December 1912 Stalin twice goes to Krakow to see Lenin for meetings of the Central Committee with party workers. At the end of 1912-1913 in Krakow Stalin at Lenin’s insistence, he wrote a long article, “Marxism and the National Question,” in which he expressed Bolshevik views on ways to resolve the national question and criticized the program of “cultural-national autonomy” of the Austro-Hungarian socialists. The work became famous among Russian Marxists, and from now on Stalin was considered an expert on national problems.
January 1913 Stalin spent in Vienna. Soon, in the same year, he returned to Russia, but in March he was arrested, imprisoned and exiled to the village of Kureika, Turukhansk Territory, where he spent 4 years - until the February Revolution of 1917. In exile he corresponded with Lenin.
Stalin's participation in the October Revolution of 1917
After the February revolution Stalin returned to Petrograd. Before Lenin's arrival from exile, he was one of the leaders of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and the St. Petersburg Committee of the Bolshevik Party. In 1917, he was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Pravda, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, and the Military Revolutionary Center. At the beginning Stalin supported the Provisional Government. In relation to the Provisional Government and its policies, I proceeded from the fact that democratic revolution has not yet been completed, and the overthrow of the government is not practical task. However, then he joined Lenin, who advocated transforming the “bourgeois-democratic” February revolution into a proletarian socialist revolution.
From April 14 to April 22 he was a delegate to the First Petrograd City Conference of Bolsheviks. April 24 - 29 VII All-Russian conference of the RSDLP spoke in the debate on the report on the current situation, supported the views of Lenin, made a report on the national question; elected member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP.
In May - June Stalin was a participant in anti-war propaganda; was one of the organizers of the re-election of the Soviets and in the municipal campaign in Petrograd. June 3 - 24 participated as a delegate to the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies; was elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Bureau from the Bolshevik faction. Also participated in the preparation of demonstrations on June 10 and 18; published a number of articles in the newspapers Pravda and Soldatskaya Pravda.
Due to Lenin's forced departure into hiding Stalin spoke at the VI Congress of the RSDLP (July - August 1917) with a report to the Central Committee. At a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP on August 5, he was elected a member of the narrow composition of the Central Committee. In August-September he mainly carried out organizational and journalistic work. On October 10, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, he voted for a resolution on armed uprising, was elected a member of the Political Bureau, created “for political leadership in the near future.”
On the night of October 16, at an extended meeting of the Central Committee Stalin opposed the position of L.B. Kamenev and G.E. Zinoviev, who voted against the decision to revolt; was elected a member of the Military Revolutionary Center, as part of which he joined the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee.
October 24, after the cadets destroyed the printing house of the newspaper “Rabochiy Put”, Stalin ensured the publication of a newspaper in which he published an editorial “What do we need?” calling for the overthrow of the Provisional Government and its replacement by a Soviet government elected by representatives of workers, soldiers and peasants. On the same day Stalin and Trotsky held a meeting of the Bolsheviks - delegates of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets of the RSD, at which Stalin made a report on the course of political events. On the night of October 25, he participated in a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, which determined the structure and name of the new Soviet government. On the afternoon of October 25, he carried out Lenin’s instructions and was not present at the meeting of the Central Committee.
In the elections to the All-Russian constituent Assembly was elected as a deputy from the Petrograd metropolitan district from the RSDLP.
Stalin's participation in the Russian Civil War 1917-1922
After the victory of the October Revolution Stalin joined the Council people's commissars as People's Commissar for Nationalities Affairs. At this time, the Civil War was flaring up in Russia. At the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies Stalin was elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. On the night of October 28, at the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District, he took part in the development of a plan for the defeat of the troops of A.F. Kerensky and P.N. Krasnov, who were advancing on Petrograd. October 28 Lenin and Stalin signed a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars banning the publication of “all newspapers closed by the Military Revolutionary Committee.”
29th of November Stalin joined the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, which also included Lenin, Trotsky and Sverdlov. This body was given “the right to resolve all emergency matters, but with the mandatory involvement of all members of the Central Committee who were in Smolny at that moment in the decision.” At the same time Stalin was re-elected to the editorial board of Pravda. In November - December 1917 Stalin Worked mainly at the People's Commissariat for Nationalities. November 2, 1917 Stalin Together with Lenin, he signed the “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia.”
In April 1918 Stalin together with Kh. G. Rakovsky and D. Z. Manuilsky in Kursk, he negotiated with representatives of the Ukrainian Central Rada on the conclusion of a peace treaty.
During the Civil War from October 8, 1918 to July 8, 1919 and from May 18, 1920 to April 1, 1922 Stalin is also a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR. Stalin He was also a member of the Revolutionary Military Councils of the Western, Southern, and Southwestern Fronts.
As noted by Doctor of Historical and Military Sciences M. M. Gareev, during the Civil War Stalin gained extensive experience in the military-political leadership of large masses of troops on many fronts (defense of Tsaritsyn, Petrograd, on the fronts against Denikin, Wrangel, the White Poles, etc.).
French writer Henri Barbusse quotes the words of an assistant Stalin according to the People's Commissar S. S. Pestkovsky regarding the period of the Brest negotiations at the beginning of 1918:
Lenin could not do without Stalin not a single day. Probably for this purpose, our office in Smolny was “next door” to Lenin. During the day he called Stalin by phone infinite number times or came into our office and took him away with him. Most of the day Stalin stayed with Lenin.<…>At night, when the bustle in Smolny decreased a little, Stalin I went to the direct line and disappeared there for hours. He conducted long negotiations either with our commanders (Antonov, Pavlunovsky, Muravyov and others), or with our enemies (with the Minister of War of the Ukrainian Rada Porsh)…
About the Brest negotiations in the work " Stalin"L. D. Trotsky wrote:
Lenin during this period was in extreme need of Stalin... Thus, under Lenin, he played the role of chief of staff or official on responsible assignments. Lenin could entrust conversations over direct wires only to a proven person who was aware of all the tasks and concerns of Smolny.
In May 1918, after the outbreak of the civil war due to the worsening food situation in the country, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR appointed Stalin responsible for food supplies in the south of Russia and seconded as an extraordinary representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the procurement and export of grain from the North Caucasus to industrial centers. Arriving on June 6, 1918 in Tsaritsyn, Stalin took power in the city into his own hands. He took part not only in the political, but also in the operational and tactical leadership of the district.
At this time, in July 1918, the Don Army of Ataman P.N. Krasnov launched its first attack on Tsaritsyn. On July 22, the Military Council of the North Caucasus Military District was created, the chairman of which was Stalin. The council also included K. E. Voroshilov and S. K. Minin. Stalin Having taken charge of the city’s defense, he showed a penchant for tough measures.
The first military measures taken by the Military Council of the North Caucasian Military District, headed by Stalin, turned into defeats for the Red Army. At the end of July, the White Guards captured Torgovaya and Velikoknyazheskaya, and in connection with this, Tsaritsyn’s connection with Northern Caucasus. After the failure of the Red Army offensive on August 10-15, Krasnov’s army surrounded Tsaritsyn on three sides. The group of General A.P. Fitzkhelaurov broke through the front north of Tsaritsyn, occupying Erzovka and Pichuzhinskaya. This allowed them to reach the Volga and disrupt the connection between the Soviet leadership in Tsaritsyn and Moscow.
The defeats of the Red Army were also caused by the betrayal of the chief of staff of the North Caucasus Military District, former tsarist colonel A. L. Nosovich. Historian D. A. Volkogonov writes:
Despite the help to Denikin from the traitor, the former tsarist colonel military expert Nosovich, the assault on Tsaritsyn did not bring success to the White Guards... The betrayal of Nosovich and a number of other former officers of the tsarist army strengthened the already suspicious attitude Stalin to military specialists. The People's Commissar, vested with extraordinary powers on food issues, did not hide his distrust of specialists. On the initiative Stalin a large group of military experts was arrested. A floating prison was created on the barge. Many were shot.
Thus, blaming “military experts” for the defeats, Stalin made large-scale arrests and executions.
In his speech at the VIII Congress on March 21, 1919, Lenin condemned Stalin for the executions in Tsaritsyn.
At the same time, from August 8, the group of General K.K. Mamontov was advancing in the central sector. On August 18-20, military clashes took place on the near approaches to Tsaritsyn, as a result of which Mamontov’s group was stopped, and on August 20, the Red Army troops with a sudden blow drove the enemy north of Tsaritsyn and by August 22 liberated Erzovka and Pichuzhinskaya. On August 26, a counteroffensive was launched along the entire front. By September 7, the White troops were thrown back across the Don, and they lost about 12 thousand killed and captured.
In September, the White Cossack command decided to launch a new attack on Tsaritsyn and carried out additional mobilization. The Soviet command took measures to strengthen defenses and improve command and control. By order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of September 11, 1918, the Southern Front was created, the commander of which was P. P. Sytin. Stalin became a member of the RVS of the Southern Front (until October 19, K. E. Voroshilov until October 3, K. A. Mekhonoshin from October 3, A. I. Okulov from October 14).
On September 19, 1918, in a telegram sent from Moscow to Tsaritsyn to front commander Voroshilov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin and Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council of the Southern Front Stalin, in particular, noted: “Soviet Russia notes with admiration the heroic exploits of the communist and revolutionary regiments of Kharchenko, Kolpakov, Bulatkin’s cavalry, Alyabyev’s armored trains, and the Volga Military Flotilla.”
Meanwhile, on September 17, General Denisov's troops launched a new attack on the city. The most fierce fighting took place from September 27 to 30. October 3 I.V. Stalin and K.E. Voroshilov send a telegram to V.I. Lenin demanding that the Central Committee discuss the issue of Trotsky’s actions, which threaten the collapse of the Southern Front. October 6 Stalin leaves for Moscow. October 8, by Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars I.V. Stalin appointed as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. October 11 I.V. Stalin returns from Moscow to Tsaritsyn. On October 17, 1918, having suffered heavy losses from the fire of Red Army batteries and armored trains, the Whites retreated. October 18 I.V. Stalin telegraphs to V.I. Lenin about the defeat of Krasnov’s troops near Tsaritsyn. October 19 I.V. Stalin leaves Tsaritsyn for Moscow.
In January 1919 Stalin and Dzerzhinsky travel to Vyatka to investigate the reasons for the defeat of the Red Army near Perm and the surrender of the city to the forces of Admiral Kolchak. Commission Stalin—Dzerzhinsky contributed to the reorganization and restoration of the combat effectiveness of the defeated 3rd Army; however, in general, the situation on the Perm front was corrected by the fact that Ufa was taken by the Red Army, and Kolchak already on January 6 gave the order to concentrate forces in the Ufa direction and move to defense near Perm.
Summer 1919 Stalin organizes resistance to the Polish offensive on the Western Front, in Smolensk.
By resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of November 27, 1919 Stalin was awarded the first Order of the Red Banner “in commemoration of his merits in the defense of Petrograd and selfless work on the Southern Front.”
Created on the initiative Stalin I Cavalry Army led by S. M. Budyonny, K. E. Voroshilov, E. A. Shchadenko, supported by the armies of the Southern Front, defeated Denikin’s troops. After the defeat of Denikin's troops, Stalin leads the restoration of the destroyed economy in Ukraine. In February - March 1920, he headed the Council of the Ukrainian Labor Army and led the mobilization of the population for coal mining.
During the period May 26 - September 1, 1920 Stalin was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council Southwestern Front as a representative of the RVSR. There he led the breakthrough of the Polish front, the liberation of Kyiv and the advance of the Red Army to Lvov. August 13 Stalin refused to carry out the directive of the commander-in-chief based on the decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP on August 5 to transfer the 1st Cavalry and 12th armies to help the Western Front. During the decisive Battle of Warsaw on August 13-25, 1920, the troops of the Western Front suffered a heavy defeat, which changed the course of the Soviet-Polish war. September 23, at the IX All-Russian Conference of the RCP, Stalin tried to blame the failure near Warsaw on Commander-in-Chief Kamenev and front commander Tukhachevsky, but Lenin reproached Stalin in a biased manner towards them.
Also in 1920 Stalin participated in the defense of southern Ukraine from the offensive of Wrangel’s troops. Stalin's The instructions formed the basis of Frunze’s operational plan, according to which Wrangel’s troops were defeated.
As researcher Shikman A.P. notes, “the rigidity of decisions, enormous efficiency and skillful combination of military and political activities allowed Stalin gain many supporters."
Stalin's participation in the creation of the USSR
In 1922 Stalin participated in the creation of the USSR. Stalin considered it necessary to create not a union of republics, but rather a unitary state with autonomous national associations. This plan was rejected by Lenin and his associates.
On December 30, 1922, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, a decision was made to unite the Soviet republics into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - the USSR. Speaking at the congress, Stalin said:
“In the history of Soviet power, today is a turning point. He puts milestones between the old, already passed period, when the Soviet republics, although they acted together, but walked apart, occupied primarily with the question of their existence, and a new, already opened period, when the separate existence of the Soviet republics comes to an end, when the republics unite into a single union state for a successful fight against economic devastation, when the Soviet government is no longer thinking only about existence, but also about developing into a serious international force that can influence the international situation"
Beginning at the end of 1921, Lenin increasingly interrupted his work leading the party. He instructed the main work in this direction to be carried out Stalin. In this period Stalin was a permanent member of the Central Committee of the RCP, and at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP on April 3, 1922, he was elected to the Politburo and Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP, as well as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP. Initially, this position meant only the leadership of the party apparatus, while the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, Lenin, formally remained the leader of the party and government.
In the 1920s, the highest power in the party, and in fact in the country, belonged to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party, in which, until Lenin’s death, in addition to Lenin and Stalin, included five more people: L. D. Trotsky, G. E. Zinoviev, L. B. Kamenev, A. I. Rykov and M. P. Tomsky. All issues were resolved by majority vote. Since 1922, due to illness, Lenin actually retired from political activity. Inside the Politburo Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev organized a “troika” based on opposition to Trotsky. In conditions when the trade union leader Tomsky had a negative attitude towards Trotsky since the time of the so-called. “discussions about trade unions”, Rykov could become Trotsky’s only supporter. During these same years Stalin successfully increased his personal power, which soon became state power. Particularly important were his actions in recruiting his guard Yagoda, who he nominated to the leadership of the GPU (NKVD).
Immediately after Lenin's death on January 21, 1924, several groups formed within the party leadership, each of which laid claim to power. The Troika teamed up with Rykov, Tomsky, N.I. Bukharin and candidate member of the Politburo V.V. Kuibyshev, forming the so-called. "seven".
Trotsky considered himself the main contender for leadership in the country after Lenin and underestimated Stalin as a competitor. Soon other oppositionists, not only Trotskyists, sent the so-called to the Politburo. "Statement of the 46." The Troika then showed its power, mainly using the resources of the apparatus led by Stalin.
At the XIII Congress of the RCP (May 1924), all oppositionists were condemned. Influence Stalin has increased greatly. Main allies Stalin Bukharin and Rykov became the “seven”.
A new split emerged in the Politburo in October 1925, when Zinoviev, Kamenev, People's Commissar of Finance of the USSR G. Ya. Sokolnikov and N. K. Krupskaya presented a document that criticized the party line from a “left” point of view. The Seven broke up. At that moment Stalin began to unite with the so-called. “right”, which included Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky, who expressed the interests primarily of the peasantry. In the ongoing internal party struggle between the “right” and the “left” Stalin provided them with the forces of the party apparatus, and they (namely Bukharin) acted as theorists. The left opposition in the CPSU of Zinoviev and Kamenev was condemned at the XIV Congress (December 1925).
January 1, 1926 Stalin The Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party was again confirmed as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party.
By that time, the “theory of the victory of socialism in one country” had emerged. This view was developed Stalin, in the brochure “On Questions of Leninism”, (1926) and Bukharin. They divided the question of the victory of socialism into two parts - the question of the complete victory of socialism, that is, the possibility of building socialism and the complete impossibility of restoring capitalism by internal forces, and the question of final victory, that is, the impossibility of restoration due to the intervention of Western powers, which would be excluded only by establishing a revolution in the West.
Trotsky, who did not believe in socialism in one country, joined Zinoviev and Kamenev. The so-called Left opposition in the CPSU (“United Opposition”). Stalin in 1929 he accused Bukharin and his allies of a “right deviation” and began to actually implement the program of the “left” to curtail the NEP and accelerated industrialization through the exploitation of the countryside.
February 13, 1930 Stalin was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner for “services on the front of socialist construction.” His wife committed suicide in 1932 Stalin— Nadezhda Alliluyeva.
Mother dies in May 1937 Stalin, however, he could not come to the funeral, but sent a wreath with the inscription in Russian and Georgian: “To my dear and beloved mother from her son Joseph Dzhugashvili(from Stalin)».
May 15, 1934 Stalin signs the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On teaching national history in schools of the USSR", according to which the teaching of history in secondary and higher schools was resumed.
In the second half of the 1930s Stalin is working on preparing for publication the textbook “A Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party,” of which he was the main author. On November 14, 1938, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party adopted a resolution “On the organization of party propaganda in connection with the release of the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party.” The resolution officially made the textbook the basis for the propaganda of Marxism-Leninism and established it compulsory study in universities.
Stalin and the Great Patriotic War
More than a month and a half before the start of the war (from May 6, 1941) Stalin holds the position of head of the government of the USSR - chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. On the day of Germany's attack on the USSR Stalin still also one of the six secretaries of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party.
A number of historians place the blame personally Stalin the unpreparedness of the Soviet Union for war and huge losses, especially in the initial period of the war, despite the fact that Stalin many sources cited June 22, 1941 as the date of the attack. Other historians hold opposite point vision, including because Stalin There were conflicting data with wide differences in dates. According to Colonel V.N. Karpov, an employee of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, “intelligence did not give an exact date, they did not say unequivocally that the war would begin on June 22. No one doubted that war was inevitable, but no one had a clear idea of exactly when and how it would begin.” Stalin had no doubt about the inevitability of war, but the deadlines called by reconnaissance passed, and it did not begin. A version arose that England was spreading these rumors in order to push Hitler against the USSR. That’s why they appeared on intelligence reports Stalinist resolutions like “Isn’t this a British provocation?” Researcher A.V. Isaev states: “intelligence officers and analysts, with a lack of information, made conclusions that did not reflect reality. U Stalin There was simply no information that could be 100% trusted.” Former employee The NKVD of the USSR Sudoplatov P.A. recalled that in May 1941, in the office of the German Ambassador W. Schulenburg, Soviet intelligence services installed listening devices, as a result of which, a few days before the war, information was received about Germany’s intention to attack the USSR. According to the historian O. A. Rzheshevsky, on June 17, 1941, the head of the 1st Directorate of the NKGB of the USSR P. M. Fitin I. V. Stalin a special message was presented from Berlin: “All German military measures to prepare an armed uprising against the USSR have been completely completed, a strike can be expected at any time.” According to the version common in historical works, on June 15, 1941, Richard Sorge radioed to Moscow about exact date the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - June 22, 1941. According to the representative of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service V.N. Karpov, Sorge’s telegram about the date of the attack on the USSR on June 22 is a fake, created under, and Sorge named several dates for the attack on the USSR, which were never confirmed.
The day after the start of the war - June 23, 1941 - the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party by a joint resolution formed the Headquarters of the Main Command, which included Stalin and the chairman of which was appointed People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko. June 24 Stalin signs a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on the creation of an Evacuation Council, designed to organize the evacuation of “the population, institutions, military and other cargo, enterprise equipment and other valuables” of the western part of the USSR.
A week after the start of the war - June 30 - Stalin was appointed Chairman of the newly formed State Defense Committee. 3 July Stalin made a radio address to the Soviet people, starting it with the words: “Comrades, citizens, brothers and sisters, soldiers of our army and navy! I am addressing you, my friends!” On July 10, 1941, the Headquarters of the Main Command was transformed into the Headquarters of the Supreme Command, and Timoshenko was appointed chairman instead of Marshal of the Soviet Union Stalin.
July 18 Stalin signs the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party “On the organization of struggle in the rear German troops", which aims to create unbearable conditions for Nazi invaders, disorganize their communications, transport and the military units themselves, disrupt all their activities, destroy the invaders and their accomplices, help in every possible way to create mounted and foot partisan detachments, sabotage and extermination groups, to deploy a network of Bolshevik underground organizations in the occupied territory to lead all actions against the fascist occupiers.
July 19, 1941 Stalin replaces Tymoshenko as People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. Since August 8, 1941 Stalin By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he is appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
July 30, 1941 Stalin receives the personal representative and closest adviser of US President Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins. December 16 - 20 in Moscow Stalin conducts negotiations with British Foreign Minister A. Eden on the issue of concluding an agreement between the USSR and Great Britain on an alliance in the war against Germany and on post-war cooperation.
During the war period Stalin- as Supreme Commander-in-Chief - signed a number of orders that cause ambiguous assessments modern historians. Thus, in the order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 270 dated August 16, 1941, signed Stalin, it read: “Commanders and political workers who, during battle, tear off their insignia and desert to the rear or surrender to the enemy, are considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest as the families of deserters who violated the oath and betrayed their homeland.”.
Also controversial is the so-called. “Order No. 227”, which tightened discipline in the Red Army, prohibited the withdrawal of troops without orders from the leadership, introduced penal battalions as part of the fronts and penal companies as part of the armies, as well as barrage detachments within the armies.
During the Battle of Moscow in 1941, after Moscow was declared under siege, Stalin remained in the capital. November 6, 1941 Stalin spoke at a ceremonial meeting held at the Mayakovskaya metro station, which was dedicated to the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution. In his speech Stalin explained the unsuccessful start of the war for the Red Army, in particular, to “a shortage of tanks and partly aviation.” The next day, November 7, 1941, on instructions Stalin A traditional military parade was held on Red Square.
During the Great Patriotic War Stalin went to the front several times front-line stripes. In 1941-1942, the commander-in-chief visited the Mozhaisk, Zvenigorod, Solnechnogorsk defensive lines, and was also in the hospital in the Volokolamsk direction - in the 16th army of K. Rokossovsky, where he examined the work of the BM-13 (Katyusha) rocket launchers, was in 316 1st division of I.V. Panfilov. October 16 (according to other sources - in mid-November) Stalin goes to the front line to a field hospital on Volokolamskoye Highway in the area of the village of Lenino (Istrinsky district of the Moscow region) to the division of General A.P. Beloborodov, talks with the wounded, awards soldiers with orders and medals of the USSR. Three days after the parade on November 7, 1941 Stalin went to the Volokolamsk highway to inspect the combat readiness of one of the divisions that arrived from Siberia. In July 1941 Stalin went to get acquainted with the state of affairs of the Western Front, which at that time (in the conditions of the advance of the German invaders to the Western Dvina and Dniester) included the 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd armies. Later Stalin together with member of the Military Council of the Western Front N.A. Bulganin, he went to get acquainted with the Volokolamsk-Maloyaroslavets defense line. In 1942 Stalin went across the Lama River to the airfield to test the aircraft. On August 2 and 3, 1943, he arrived on the Western Front to General V.D. Sokolovsky and Bulganin. On August 4 and 5 he was on the Kalinin Front with General A. I. Eremenko. 5th of August Stalin located on the front line in the village of Khoroshevo (Rzhevsky district, Tver region). As A.T. Rybin, an employee of the commander-in-chief’s personal security, writes: “According to the observation of the personal security Stalin, during the war years Stalin behaved recklessly. Members of the Politburo and N. Vlasik literally drove him into shelter from flying fragments and shells exploding in the air.”
May 30, 1942 Stalin signs the GKO resolution on the creation of the Central Headquarters partisan movement at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. On September 5, 1942, he issues an order “On the tasks of the partisan movement,” which became program document in the further organization of the struggle behind the invaders' lines.
August 21, 1943 Stalin signs the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party "On urgent measures to restore the economy in areas liberated from German occupation." November 25 Stalin Accompanied by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V. M. Molotov and a member of the State Defense Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR K. E. Voroshilov, he travels to Stalingrad and Baku, from where he flies by plane to Tehran (Iran). From November 28 to December 1, 1943 Stalin participates in the Tehran Conference - the first conference of the Big Three during the Second World War - the leaders of three countries: the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. 4 - 11 February 1945 Stalin participates in the Yalta Conference of the Allied Powers, dedicated to the establishment of the post-war world order.
Death of Stalin
March 1, 1953 Stalin lying on the floor in the small dining room of the Near Dacha (one of the residences Stalin), discovered by security officer P.V. Lozgachev. On the morning of March 2, doctors arrived at Nizhnyaya Dacha and diagnosed paralysis. right side bodies. March 5 at 21:50 Stalin died. About death Stalin was announced on March 5, 1953. According to the medical report, death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage.
There are numerous conspiracy theories suggesting the unnaturalness of death and the involvement of the environment in it Stalin. According to A. Avtorkhanov (“The Mystery of Death Stalin. Beria's Conspiracy") Stalin killed L.P. Beria. Publicist Yu. Mukhin (“Murder Stalin and Beria") and the historian I. Chigirin ("White and Dirty Spots of History") consider N. S. Khrushchev to be the murderer-conspirator. Almost all researchers agree that the leader’s comrades contributed (not necessarily intentionally) to his death by not rushing to call for medical help.
Embalmed Body Stalin was placed on public display in the Lenin Mausoleum, which in 1953-1961 was called the “Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin" On October 30, 1961, the XXII Congress of the CPSU decided that “serious violations Stalin Lenin’s covenants make it impossible to leave the coffin with his body in the Mausoleum.” On the night of October 31 to November 1, 1961, the body Stalin was taken out of the Mausoleum and buried in a grave near the Kremlin wall. In 1970, a monument was unveiled at the grave (bust by N.V. Tomsky).
W. CHURCHILL TO I. V. STALIN
1. I immediately respond in the spirit of your message. Although we would stop at no effort, there is at present no possibility of carrying out such a British action in the West (except in the air) as would enable the German forces to be diverted from the Eastern Front before the winter. There is also no possibility of creating a second front in the Balkans without the help of Turkey. I want, if Your Excellency so desires, to explain to you all the reasons that led the chiefs of staff to such a conclusion. These grounds have already been discussed today with your Ambassador at a special meeting in which I and the chiefs of staff took part. An action that leads only to costly failure - no matter how laudable its motives - can only be useful to Hitler.
2. The information at my disposal gives me the impression that the German invasion has already passed highest point of your tension, for winter will bring respite to your heroic armies (this, however, is my personal opinion).
3. On the issue of supply. We are well aware of the heavy losses suffered by Russian industry, and we will make every effort to help you. I am telegraphing President Roosevelt to expedite the arrival of the Harriman mission here in London, and we will try to inform you before the Moscow Conference about the number of aircraft and tanks that we jointly promise to send you monthly along with supplies of rubber, aluminum, cloth and other things. For our part, we are ready to send you half of the monthly number of aircraft and tanks that you request from British products. We hope that the US will meet the other half of your needs. We will make every effort to begin shipping supplies to you immediately.
4. We have already given orders for the supply of rolling stock to the Persian Railway in order to raise its present capacity from two trains each way per day to its full capacity, namely 12 trains each way per day. This will be achieved by the spring of 1942, until which time the throughput will gradually increase. Locomotives and carriages from England will be sent around the Cape Good Hope after converting them to petroleum fuel. A water supply system will be developed along the railway. The first 48 locomotives and 400 carriages are about to be sent.
5. We are ready to develop joint plans with you. Will there be British armies strong enough to invade the European continent in 1942 depends on events that are difficult to foresee. In all likelihood, it will be possible to provide you with assistance in the Far North when the polar night sets in there. We hope to bring our armies in the Middle East to three-quarters of a million men by the end of this year and then to a million by the summer of 1942. Once the German-Italian forces are destroyed in Libya, these troops will be able to join the front on your southern flank and, one hopes, influence Turkey to at least maintain honest neutrality. In the meantime we will continue to bombard Germany from the air with increasing force, we will also keep the seas open and fight for our lives.
6. In the first paragraph of your message you used the word “sell”. We do not look at the matter from this point of view and have never thought about payment. It would be better if any assistance we provided to you rested on the same basis of partnership on which the American loan-lease law 9 is built, that is, without formal monetary settlements. We are willing to put all possible pressure on Finland to the fullest extent of our powers, including immediate official notification to her that we will declare war on her if she goes beyond her old borders. We also ask the United States to take all possible steps to influence Finland.
9 This refers to the so-called Lend-Lease Act, adopted by the US Congress on March 11, 1941. This law gave the US government the right to loan or lease to other states various goods and materials that are necessary for the defense of these states, if the defense of these states is determined by the President to be vital to the defense of the United States.
Published according to the publication: Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with the Presidents of the USA and Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. M., 1958, document No. 11.