Was president in 1961. Who ruled after Stalin? Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1985-1991), President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (March 1990 - December 1991).
General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (March 11, 1985 - August 23, 1991), first and last President USSR (March 15, 1990 - December 25, 1991).

Head of the Gorbachev Foundation. Since 1993, co-founder of New Daily Newspaper CJSC (from the Moscow register).

Biography of Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 in the village. Privolnoye, Krasnogvardeisky district, Stavropol Territory. Father: Sergei Andreevich Gorbachev. Mother: Maria Panteleevna Gopkalo.

In 1945, M. Gorbachev began working as an assistant combine operator together with by his father. In 1947, 16-year-old combine operator Mikhail Gorbachev received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for high-threshing grain.

In 1950, M. Gorbachev graduated from school with a silver medal. I immediately went to Moscow and entered the Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov to the Faculty of Law.
In 1952, M. Gorbachev joined the CPSU.

In 1953 Gorbachev married Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy at Moscow State University.

In 1955, he graduated from the university and was given a referral to the regional prosecutor's office of Stavropol.

In Stavropol, Mikhail Gorbachev first became deputy head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the Komsomol, then the 1st Secretary of the Stavropol City Komsomol Committee and finally the 2nd and 1st Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Komsomol.

Mikhail Gorbachev - party work

In 1962, Mikhail Sergeevich finally switched to party work. Received the position of party organizer of the Stavropol Territorial Production Agricultural Administration. Due to the fact that N. Khrushchev’s reforms are underway in the USSR, great attention is being paid to agriculture. M. Gorbachev entered the correspondence department of the Stavropol Agricultural Institute.

In the same year, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was approved as head of the department of organizational and party work of the Stavropol rural regional committee of the CPSU.
In 1966, he was elected 1st Secretary of the Stavropol City Party Committee.

In 1967 he received a diploma from the Stavropol Agricultural Institute.

The years 1968-1970 were marked by the consistent election of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, first as the 2nd and then as the 1st secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU.

In 1971, Gorbachev was admitted to the CPSU Central Committee.

In 1978, he received the post of Secretary of the CPSU for issues of the agro-industrial complex.

In 1980, Mikhail Sergeevich became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU.

In 1985, Gorbachev took the post of General Secretary of the CPSU, that is, he became the head of state.

In the same year, annual meetings between the leader of the USSR and the President of the United States and leaders of foreign countries resumed.

Gorbachev's Perestroika

The period of the reign of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev is usually associated with the end of the era of the so-called Brezhnev “stagnation” and with the beginning of “perestroika” - a concept familiar to the whole world.

The Secretary General's first event was a large-scale anti-alcohol campaign (officially launched on May 17, 1985). Alcohol prices in the country rose sharply, and its sales were limited. Vineyards were cut down. All this led to the fact that people began to poison themselves with moonshine and all kinds of alcohol substitutes, and the economy suffered more losses. In response, Gorbachev puts forward the slogan “accelerate socio-economic development.”

The main events of Gorbachev's reign were as follows:
On April 8, 1986, at a speech in Togliatti at the Volzhsky Automobile Plant, Gorbachev first uttered the word “perestroika”; it became the slogan of the beginning new era in USSR.
On May 15, 1986, a campaign began to intensify the fight against unearned income (the fight against tutors, flower sellers, drivers).
The anti-alcohol campaign, which began on May 17, 1985, led to a sharp increase in prices for alcoholic drinks, cutting down vineyards, disappearing sugar in stores and introducing sugar cards, increasing life expectancy among the population.
The main slogan was acceleration, associated with promises to dramatically increase industry and the well-being of the people in a short time.
Power reform, introduction of elections to the Supreme Council and local councils on an alternative basis.
Glasnost, the actual lifting of party censorship on the media.
Suppression of local national conflicts, in which the authorities took tough measures (dispersal of demonstrations in Georgia, forceful dispersal of a youth rally in Almaty, deployment of troops into Azerbaijan, unfolding of a long-term conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, suppression of separatist aspirations of the Baltic republics).
During the Gorbachev period of rule there was a sharp decrease in the reproduction of the population of the USSR.
The disappearance of food from stores, hidden inflation, the introduction of a card system for many types of food in 1989. As a result of pumping the Soviet economy with non-cash rubles, hyperinflation occurred.
Under M.S. Gorbachev, the USSR's external debt reached a record high. Debts were taken out by Gorbachev at high interest rates from different countries. Russia was able to pay off its debts only 15 years after his removal from power. The USSR's gold reserves decreased tenfold: from more than 2,000 tons to 200.

Gorbachev's politics

Reform of the CPSU, abolition of the one-party system and removal from the CPSU constitutional status of “leading and organizing force”.
Rehabilitation of victims of Stalinist repressions who were not rehabilitated under.
Weakening control over the socialist camp (Sinatra doctrine). It led to a change of power in most socialist countries and the unification of Germany in 1990. The end of the Cold War in the United States is regarded as a victory for the American bloc.
The end of the war in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of Soviet troops, 1988-1989.
The introduction of Soviet troops against the Popular Front of Azerbaijan in Baku, January 1990, the result - more than 130 dead, including women and children.
Concealment from the public of the facts of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986.

In 1987, open criticism of Mikhail Gorbachev's actions began from the outside.

In 1988, at the 19th Party Conference of the CPSU, the resolution “On Glasnost” was officially adopted.

In March 1989, for the first time in the history of the USSR, free elections of people's deputies were held, as a result of which not party henchmen, but representatives of various trends in society, were allowed to power.

In May 1989, Gorbachev was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In the same year, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. In October, through the efforts of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, the Berlin Wall was destroyed and Germany was reunited.

In December in Malta, as a result of a meeting between Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush, the heads of state declared that their countries were no longer adversaries.

Behind the successes and breakthroughs in foreign policy lies a serious crisis within the USSR itself. By 1990, food shortages had increased. Local performances began in the republics (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia).

Gorbachev President of the USSR

In 1990, M. Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR at the Third Congress of People's Deputies. In the same year, in Paris, the USSR, as well as European countries, the USA and Canada signed the “Charter for a New Europe”, which effectively marked the end of the Cold War, which lasted fifty years.

In the same year, most of the republics of the USSR declared their state sovereignty.

In July 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev ceded his post as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to Boris Yeltsin.

On November 7, 1990, there was an unsuccessful attempt on M. Gorbachev’s life.
The same year brought him the Nobel Peace Prize.

In August 1991, a coup attempt was made in the country (the so-called State Emergency Committee). The state began to rapidly disintegrate.

On December 8, 1991, a meeting of the presidents of the USSR, Belarus and Ukraine took place in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus). They signed a document on the liquidation of the USSR and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

In 1992 M.S. Gorbachev became the head of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Science Research (“Gorbachev Foundation”).

1993 brought a new post - president of the international environmental organization Green Cross.

In 1996, Gorbachev decided to take part in the presidential elections, and the socio-political movement “Civil Forum” was created. In the 1st round of voting, he is eliminated from the elections with less than 1% of the votes.

In 1999 she died of cancer.

In 2000, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev became the leader of the Russian United Social Democratic Party and chairman of the NTV Public Supervisory Board.

In 2001, Gorbachev began filming a documentary about 20th-century politicians whom he personally interviewed.

In the same year, his Russian United Social Democratic Party merged with the Russian Party of Social Democracy (RPSD) of K. Titov, forming the Social Democratic Party of Russia.

In March 2003, M. Gorbachev’s book “The Facets of Globalization” was published, written by several authors under his leadership.
Gorbachev was married once. Spouse: Raisa Maksimovna, nee Titarenko. Children: Irina Gorbacheva (Virganskaya). Granddaughters - Ksenia and Anastasia. Great-granddaughter - Alexandra.

The years of Gorbachev's reign - results

The activities of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev as head of the CPSU and the USSR are associated with a large-scale attempt at reform in the USSR - perestroika, which ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as the end of the Cold War. The period of M. Gorbachev's reign is assessed ambiguously by researchers and contemporaries.
Conservative politicians criticize him for the economic devastation, the collapse of the Union and other consequences of the perestroika he invented.

Radical politicians blamed him for the inconsistency of reforms and the attempt to preserve the previous administrative-command system and socialism.
Many Soviet, post-Soviet and foreign politicians and journalists assessed positively Gorbachev’s reforms, democracy and glasnost, the end of the Cold War, and the unification of Germany. The assessment of M. Gorbachev’s activities abroad of the former Soviet Union is more positive and less controversial than in the post-Soviet space.

List of works written by M. Gorbachev:
"A Time for Peace" (1985)
"The Coming Century of Peace" (1986)
"Peace has no alternative" (1986)
"Moratorium" (1986)
"Selected Speeches and Articles" (vols. 1-7, 1986-1990)
“Perestroika: new thinking for our country and for the whole world” (1987)
“August putsch. Causes and Effects" (1991)
“December-91. My position" (1992)
"Years of Hard Decisions" (1993)
“Life and Reforms” (2 vols., 1995)
“Reformers are never happy” (dialogue with Zdenek Mlynar, in Czech, 1995)
“I want to warn you...” (1996)
“Moral Lessons of the 20th Century” in 2 volumes (dialogue with D. Ikeda, in Japanese, German, French, 1996)
"Reflections on the October Revolution" (1997)
“New thinking. Politics in the era of globalization" (co-authored with V. Zagladin and A. Chernyaev, in German, 1997)
"Reflections on the Past and Future" (1998)
“Understand perestroika... Why is it important now” (2006)

During his reign, Gorbachev received the nicknames “Bear”, “Humpbacked”, “Marked Bear”, “Mineral Secretary”, “Lemonade Joe”, “Gorby”.
Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev played himself in the feature film by Wim Wenders “So Far, So Close!” (1993) and participated in a number of other documentaries.

In 2004, he received a Grammy Award for scoring Sergei Prokofiev's musical fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf" together with Sophia Loren and Bill Clinton.

Mikhail Gorbachev has been awarded many prestigious foreign awards and prizes:
Prize named after Indira Gandhi for 1987
Golden Dove for Peace Award for contributions to peace and disarmament, Rome, November 1989.
Peace Prize named after Albert Einstein for his enormous contribution to the struggle for peace and understanding between peoples (Washington, June 1990)
Honorary Award “Historical Figure” from an influential US religious organization - “Call of Conscience Foundation” (Washington, June 1990)
International Peace Prize named after. Martin Luther King's "For a World Without Violence 1991"
Benjamin M. Cardoso Award for Democracy (New York, USA, 1992)
International Prize "Golden Pegasus" (Tuscany, Italy, 1994)
King David Award (USA, 1997) and many others.
Awarded the following orders and medals: Order of the Red Banner of Labor, 3 Orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, Order of the Badge of Honour, Gold Commemorative Medal of Belgrade (Yugoslavia, March 1988), Silver Medal of the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland for outstanding contribution to the development and strengthening of international cooperation, friendship and interaction between the People's Republic of Poland and the USSR (Poland, July 1988), Commemorative Medal of the Sorbonne, Rome, Vatican, USA, “Star of the Hero” (Israel, 1992), Gold Medal of Thessaloniki (Greece, 1993), Gold Badge of the University of Oviedo ( Spain, 1994), Republic of Korea, Order of the Association of Latin American Unity in Korea “Simon Bolivar Grand Cross for Unity and Freedom” (Republic of Korea, 1994).

Gorbachev is Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Agatha (San Marino, 1994) and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty (Portugal, 1995).

Speaking at various universities around the world, giving lectures in the form of stories about the USSR, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev also has honorary titles and honorary academic degrees, mainly as a good messenger and a peacemaker.

He is also an Honorary Citizen of many foreign cities, including Berlin, Florence, Dublin, etc.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR on March 15, 1990 at the III Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.
On December 25, 1991, in connection with the cessation of the existence of the USSR as a state entity, M.S. Gorbachev announced his resignation from the post of President and signed a Decree transferring control of strategic nuclear weapons to Russian President Yeltsin.

On December 25, after Gorbachev’s announcement of resignation, the red state flag of the USSR was lowered in the Kremlin and the flag of the RSFSR was raised. The first and last President of the USSR left the Kremlin forever.

The first president of Russia, then still the RSFSR, Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin was elected on June 12, 1991 by popular vote. B.N. Yeltsin won in the first round (57.3% of the votes).

In connection with the expiration of the term of office of the President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin and in accordance with the transitional provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, elections for the President of Russia were scheduled for June 16, 1996. This was the only presidential election in Russia where two rounds were required to determine the winner. The elections took place from June 16 to July 3 and were distinguished by intense competition between candidates. The main competitors were considered the current President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin and the leader of the Communist Party Russian Federation G. A. Zyuganov. According to the election results, B.N. Yeltsin received 40.2 million votes (53.82 percent), significantly ahead of G.A. Zyuganov, who received 30.1 million votes (40.31 percent). 3.6 million Russians (4.82%) voted against both candidates .

December 31, 1999 at 12:00 pm Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin voluntarily ceased to exercise the powers of the President of the Russian Federation and transferred the powers of the President to the Chairman of the Government, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. On April 5, 2000, the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, was awarded pensioner and labor veteran certificates.

December 31, 1999 Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin became acting president of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with the Constitution, the Federation Council of the Russian Federation set March 26, 2000 as the date for holding early presidential elections.

On March 26, 2000, 68.74 percent of voters included in the voting lists, or 75,181,071 people, took part in the elections. Vladimir Putin received 39,740,434 votes, which amounted to 52.94 percent, that is, more than half of the votes. On April 5, 2000, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation decided to recognize the presidential elections of the Russian Federation as valid and valid, and to consider Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin elected to the post of President of Russia.

In the Soviet Union, the private life of the country's leaders was strictly classified and protected as a state secret of the highest degree of protection. Only an analysis of recently published materials allows us to lift the veil on the secrecy of their payroll records.

Having seized power in the country, Vladimir Lenin in December 1917 set himself a monthly salary of 500 rubles, which approximately corresponded to the wages of an unskilled worker in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Any other income, including fees, to high-ranking party members, at Lenin’s proposal, was strictly prohibited.

The modest salary of the “leader of the world revolution” was quickly eaten up by inflation, but Lenin somehow did not think about where the money for a completely comfortable life, treatment with the help of world luminaries and domestic service would come from, although he did not forget to sternly tell his subordinates every time: “Deduct these expenses from my salary!”

At the beginning of the NEP, the General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party Joseph Stalin was given a salary less than half of Lenin’s salary (225 rubles) and only in 1935 it was increased to 500 rubles, but the next year a new increase to 1200 rubles followed. The average salary in the USSR at that time was 1,100 rubles, and although Stalin did not live on his salary, he could well have lived modestly on it. During the war years, the leader's salary became almost zero as a result of inflation, but at the end of 1947, after the monetary reform, the “leader of all nations” set himself a new salary of 10,000 rubles, which was 10 times higher than the then average salary in the USSR. At the same time, a system of “Stalinist envelopes” was introduced - monthly tax-free payments to the top of the party-Soviet apparatus. Be that as it may, Stalin did not seriously consider his salary and of great importance didn’t give it to her.

The first among the leaders of the Soviet Union who became seriously interested in his salary was Nikita Khrushchev, who received 800 rubles a month, which was 9 times the average salary in the country.

Sybarite Leonid Brezhnev was the first to violate Lenin’s ban on additional income, in addition to salaries, for the top of the party. In 1973, he awarded himself the International Lenin Prize (25,000 rubles), and starting in 1979, when the name of Brezhnev adorned the galaxy of classics of Soviet literature, huge fees began to pour into the Brezhnev family budget. Brezhnev’s personal account at the publishing house of the CPSU Central Committee “Politizdat” is replete with thousands of sums for huge print runs and multiple reprints of his masterpieces “Renaissance”, “Malaya Zemlya” and “Virgin Land”. It is curious that the Secretary General had the habit of often forgetting about his literary income when paying party contributions to his favorite party.

Leonid Brezhnev was generally very generous at the expense of “national” state property - both to himself, and to his children, and to those close to him. He appointed his son first deputy minister of foreign trade. In this post, he became famous for his constant trips to lavish parties abroad, as well as huge senseless expenses there. Brezhnev's daughter led a wild life in Moscow, spending money coming from nowhere on jewelry. Those close to Brezhnev, in turn, were generously allocated dachas, apartments and huge bonuses.

Yuri Andropov, as a member of the Brezhnev Politburo, received 1,200 rubles a month, but when he became secretary general, he returned the salary of the general secretary from the time of Khrushchev - 800 rubles a month. At the same time, the purchasing power of the “Andropov ruble” was approximately half that of the “Khrushchev ruble”. Nevertheless, Andropov completely preserved the system of “Brezhnev’s fees” of the Secretary General and successfully used it. For example, with a basic salary rate of 800 rubles, his income for January 1984 was 8,800 rubles.

Andropov’s successor, Konstantin Chernenko, having kept the Secretary General’s salary at 800 rubles, intensified his efforts to extort fees by publishing various ideological materials in his own name. According to his party card, his income ranged from 1,200 to 1,700 rubles. At the same time, Chernenko, a fighter for the moral purity of communists, had the habit of constantly concealing large sums from his native party. Thus, researchers could not find in the party card of Secretary General Chernenko in the column for 1984 4,550 rubles of royalties received through the payroll of Politizdat.

Mikhail Gorbachev “reconciled” with a salary of 800 rubles until 1990, which was only four times the average salary in the country. Only after combining the posts of president of the country and secretary general in 1990 did Gorbachev begin to receive 3,000 rubles for average salary in the USSR 500 rubles.

The successor to the general secretaries, Boris Yeltsin, fumbled almost to the end with the “Soviet salary”, not daring to radically reform the salaries of the state apparatus. Only by decree of 1997 was the salary of the President of Russia set at 10,000 rubles, and in August 1999 its size increased to 15,000 rubles, which was 9 times higher than the average salary in the country, that is, it was approximately at the level of the salaries of his predecessors in running the country, who had the title of General Secretary. True, the Yeltsin family had a lot of income from “the outside”.

For the first 10 months of his reign, Vladimir Putin received the “Yeltsin rate.” However, as of June 30, 2002, the president's annual salary was set at 630,000 rubles (approximately $25,000) plus security and language allowances. He also receives a military pension for his rank of colonel.

From this moment on, for the first time since Lenin’s times, the basic salary rate of the leader of Russia ceased to be just a fiction, although compared to the salary rates of the leaders of the leading countries of the world, Putin’s rate looks rather modest. For example, the President of the United States receives 400 thousand dollars, and the Prime Minister of Japan has almost the same amount. The salaries of other leaders are more modest: the Prime Minister of Great Britain has 348,500 dollars, the Chancellor of Germany has about 220 thousand, and the President of France has 83 thousand.

It is interesting to see how the “regional secretaries general” - the current presidents of the CIS countries - look against this background. Former member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, and now the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, essentially lives according to the “Stalinist norms” for the ruler of the country, that is, he and his family are fully provided for by the state, but he also set a relatively small salary for himself - 4 thousand dollars per month. month. Other regional general secretaries - former first secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of their republics - formally set themselves more modest salaries. Thus, the President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, receives only $1,900 a month, and the President of Turkmenistan, Sapurmurad Niyazov, receives only $900. At the same time, Aliyev, having placed his son Ilham Aliyev at the head of the state oil company, actually privatized all the country's income from oil - the main currency resource of Azerbaijan, and Niyazov generally turned Turkmenistan into a kind of medieval khanate, where everything belongs to the ruler. Turkmenbashi, and only he, can resolve any issue. All foreign currency funds are managed only by Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmens) Niyazov personally, and the sale of Turkmen gas and oil is managed by his son Murad Niyazov.

The situation is worse than others former first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia and member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee Eduard Shevardnadze. With a modest monthly salary of $750, he was unable to establish complete control over the country’s wealth due to strong opposition to him in the country. In addition, the opposition closely monitors all personal expenses of President Shevardnadze and his family.

Lifestyle and real capabilities of current leaders former country The Soviets are well characterized by the behavior of the Russian President's wife, Lyudmila Putina, during her husband's recent state visit to the UK. The wife of the British Prime Minister, Cherie Blair, took Lyudmila to view 2004 clothing models from the Burberry design firm, famous among the rich. For more than two hours, Lyudmila Putina was shown the latest fashion items, and in conclusion, Putina was asked if she would like to purchase anything. Blueberry's prices are very high. For example, even a gas scarf from this company costs 200 pounds sterling.

The Russian president's eyes were so wide-eyed that she announced the purchase... of the entire collection. Even super-millionaires did not dare to do this. By the way, because if you buy the entire collection, people will not understand that you are wearing next year’s fashion clothes! After all, no one else has anything comparable. Putina’s behavior in this case was not so much the behavior of the wife of a major statesman of the early 21st century, but rather resembled the behavior of the main wife of an Arab sheikh in the mid-20th century, distraught by the amount of petrodollars that had fallen on her husband.

This episode with Mrs. Putina needs a little explanation. Naturally, neither she nor the “art critics in plainclothes” accompanying her during the collection display had as much money with them as the collection was worth. This was not required, because in such cases, respected people only need their signature on the check and nothing else. No money or credit cards. Even if Mr. President of Russia himself, who is trying to appear before the world as a civilized European, was outraged by this act, then, of course, he had to pay.

Other rulers of former countries Soviet republics- also know how to “live well.” So, a couple of years ago, the six-day wedding of the son of the President of Kyrgyzstan Akaev and the daughter of the President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev thundered throughout Asia. The scale of the wedding was truly Khan-like. By the way, both newlyweds graduated from the University of College Park (Maryland) only a year ago.

The son of Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, Ilham Aliyev, also looks quite decent against this background, having set a kind of world record: in just one evening he managed to lose as much as 4 (four!) million dollars in a casino. By the way, this worthy representative of one of the “General Secretary’s” clans is now registered as a candidate for the post of President of Azerbaijan. Residents of this one of the poorest countries in terms of living standards are invited to elect in the new elections either the son Aliyev, who loves the “beautiful life,” or father Aliyev himself, who has already “served” two presidential terms, has crossed the 80-year mark and is so sick that he can no longer able to move independently.

Life in the USSR and the struggle for power after the death of Vladimir Lenin
The creator and first head of the Soviet state and government, Vladimir Lenin, died at 18:50 on January 21, 1924. For the Soviet Union, then only 13 months old, this death became the first political shock, and the body of the deceased became the first Soviet shrine.
What was our country like at that time? And how did the death of the leader of the Bolshevik Party affect her future fate?

Russia after Lenin's death

By the time of Vladimir Ulyanov’s death, on the site of the former Russian Empire a new state was located - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the fighting of the Civil War, the Bolshevik Party inherited almost the entire territory of Tsarist Russia, with the exception of Poland and Finland, as well as small pieces on the outskirts - in Bessarabia and Sakhalin, which were still occupied by the Romanians and Japanese.

In January 1924, the population of our country, after all the losses of the World War and Civil War, was about 145 million people, of which only 25 million lived in cities, and the rest were rural residents. That is, Soviet Russia still remained a peasant country, and the industry destroyed in 1917–1921 was only being restored and barely caught up with the pre-war level of 1913.

The internal enemies of the Soviet government - various movements of the Whites, outlying nationalists and separatists, peasant rebels - had already been defeated in open armed struggle, but still had a lot of sympathizers both within the country and in the form of numerous foreign emigration, which had not yet come to terms with their defeat and was actively preparing for a possible revenge. This danger was complemented by the lack of unity within the ruling party itself, where Lenin’s heirs had already begun to divide leadership positions and influence.

Although Vladimir Lenin was rightfully considered the undisputed leader of the Communist Party and the entire country, formally he was only the head of the Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The nominal head of the Soviet state, according to the constitution in force at that time, was another person - Mikhail Kalinin, the head of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the highest government body that combined the functions of legislative and executive power (the Bolshevik Party fundamentally did not recognize the “bourgeois” theory of “separation of powers”).

Even in the Bolshevik party, which by 1924 remained the only legal and ruling party, there was no formal single leader. The party was headed by a collective body - the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. At the time of Lenin’s death, this highest body of the party included, in addition to Vladimir Ulyanov himself, six more people: Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Mikhail Tomsky and Alexei Rykov. At least three of them - Trotsky, Stalin and Zinoviev - had the desire and opportunity to claim leadership in the party after Lenin and headed influential groups of their supporters among the party and state officials.

At the time of Lenin’s death, Stalin had already been elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party for a year and a half, but this position was still not perceived as the main one and was considered “technical”. From January 1924, it would take almost four more years of internal party struggle before Joseph Dzhugashvili became the sole leader of the ruling party in the USSR. It was Lenin’s death that would push forward this struggle for power, which, starting with quite comradely discussions and disputes, would result in bloody terror 13 years later.

The difficult internal situation of the country at the time of Lenin’s death was complicated by considerable foreign policy difficulties. Our country was still in international isolation. At the same time, the last year of the life of the first Soviet leader passed for the leaders of the USSR in anticipation not of international diplomatic recognition, but of an imminent socialist revolution in Germany.

The Bolshevik government, realizing the economic and technical backwardness of Russia, then sincerely counted on the victory of the German communists, which would open access to the technologies and industrial capacities of Germany. Indeed, throughout 1923, Germany was rocked by economic and political crises. In Hamburg, Saxony and Thuringia, the German communists were closer than ever to seizing power; the Soviet intelligence services even sent their military specialists to them. But the general communist uprising and socialist revolution never happened in Germany; the USSR was left alone with the capitalist encirclement in Europe and Asia.

The capitalist elites of that world still perceived the Bolshevik government and the entire USSR as dangerous and unpredictable extremists. Therefore, by January 1924, only seven states recognized the new Soviet country. There were only three of these in Europe - Germany, Finland and Poland; in Asia there are four - Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Mongolia (however, the latter was also not recognized by anyone in the world except the USSR, and Germany, defeated in the First World War, was then considered the same rogue country as Soviet Russia).

But with all the differences in political regimes and ideologies, it was difficult to completely ignore such a large country as Russia in politics and economics. The breakthrough occurred just shortly after Lenin's death - during 1924, the USSR was recognized by the most powerful countries of that time, that is, Great Britain, France and Japan, as well as a dozen less influential but noticeable countries on the world map, including China. By 1925, of the major states, only the United States still did not have diplomatic relations with Soviet Union. The rest of the largest countries, gritting their teeth, were forced to recognize the government of Lenin's heirs.

Mausoleum and mummification of Lenin

Lenin died in Gorki, very close to Moscow, in an estate that before the revolution belonged to the Moscow mayor. Here the first leader of the Communist Party spent the last year of his life due to illness. In addition to domestic doctors, the best medical specialists from Germany were invited to him. But the efforts of doctors did not help - Lenin died at the age of 53. A serious injury in 1918 had an effect, when bullets disrupted the blood circulation in the brain.

According to Trotsky’s memoirs, a few months before Lenin’s death, Stalin had the idea of ​​preserving the body of the first leader of the Soviet country. Trotsky retells Stalin’s words this way: “Lenin is a Russian man, and he must be buried in a Russian way. In Russian, according to the canons of Russian Orthodox Church, saints were made relics...”
Initially, most party leaders did not support the idea of ​​preserving the body of the dying leader. But immediately after Lenin’s death, no one persistently objected to this idea. As Stalin explained in January 1924: “After some time you will see a pilgrimage of representatives of millions of working people to the grave of Comrade Lenin... Modern science has the ability, with the help of embalming, to preserve the body of the deceased for a long time, at least enough for a long time“to allow our consciousness to get used to the idea that Lenin is not among us after all.”

The head of the Soviet state security, Felix Dzerzhinsky, became the chairman of the Lenin funeral commission. On January 23, 1924, the coffin with Lenin’s body was brought by train to Moscow. Four days later, the coffin with the body was exhibited in a hastily built wooden mausoleum on Red Square. The author of the Lenin mausoleum was the architect Alexei Shchusev, who before the revolution served in the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and specialized in the construction of Orthodox churches.

The coffin with the leader’s body was carried into the mausoleum on their shoulders by four people: Stalin, Molotov, Kalinin and Dzerzhinsky. The winter of 1924 turned out to be cold; severe frost, which ensured the safety of the deceased’s body for several weeks.

Embalming and long-term storage experience human bodies It didn't exist then. Therefore, the first project of a permanent, rather than temporary, mausoleum, proposed by the old Bolshevik and People's Commissar (Minister) of Foreign Trade Leonid Krasin, was associated precisely with freezing the body. In fact, it was proposed to install a glass refrigerator in the mausoleum, which would ensure deep freezing and preservation of the corpse. In the spring of 1924, they even began to look for the most advanced refrigeration equipment at that time in Germany for these purposes.

However, the experienced chemist Boris Zbarsky was able to prove to Felix Dzerzhinsky that deep freezing with low temperatures suitable for storing food, but not suitable for preserving the body of the deceased, as it breaks the cells and changes significantly over time appearance frozen body. A darkened ice corpse would rather frighten than contribute to exalting the memory of the first Soviet leader. It was necessary to look for other ways and means of preserving Lenin’s body, which was displayed in the mausoleum.

It was Zbarsky who pointed the Bolshevik leaders to the then most experienced Russian anatomist, Vladimir Vorobyov. 48-year-old Vladimir Petrovich Vorobyov taught at the Department of Anatomy of Kharkov University, in particular, he had been working on the conservation and storage of anatomical preparations (individual human organs) and animal mummies for several decades.

True, Vorobiev himself initially refused the proposal to preserve the body of the Soviet leader. The fact is that he had some “sins” before the Bolshevik Party - in 1919, during the capture of Kharkov by White troops, he worked on the commission for the exhumation of corpses of the Kharkov Cheka and only recently returned to the USSR from emigration. Therefore, the anatomist Vorobyov reacted this way to Zbarsky’s first proposal to take up the preservation of Lenin’s body: “Under no circumstances will I undertake such an obviously risky and hopeless undertaking, and becoming a laughing stock among scientists is unacceptable to me. On the other hand, you forget my past, which the Bolsheviks will remember if there is failure...”
However, soon scientific interest won out - the problem that arose was too difficult and unusual, and Vladimir Vorobyov, as a true science fanatic, could not avoid trying to solve it. On March 26, 1924, Vorobyov began work to preserve Lenin’s body.

The embalming process took four months. First of all, the body was soaked in formalin - a chemical solution that not only killed all microorganisms, fungi and possible mold, but also actually converted the proteins of the once living body into polymers that could be stored indefinitely.

Then, using hydrogen peroxide, Vorobyov and his assistants bleached the frostbite spots that appeared on Lenin’s body and face after two months of storage in the icy winter crypt of the first mausoleum. At the final stage, the body of the late leader was soaked in aqueous solutions of glycerin and potassium acetate so that the tissues did not lose moisture and were protected from drying out and changing their shape during life.

Exactly four months later, on July 26, 1924, the embalming process was successfully completed. By that time, the architect Shchusev had built a second, more capital and substantial mausoleum on the site of the first wooden mausoleum. Also built of wood, it stood on Red Square for more than five years, until the construction of the granite and marble mausoleum began.

At noon on July 26, 1924, the mausoleum with Lenin’s embalmed body was visited by a selection committee headed by Dzerzhinsky, Molotov and Voroshilov. They had to evaluate the results of Vladimir Vorobyov’s work. The results were impressive - the touched Dzerzhinsky even hugged the former White Guard employee and recent emigrant Vorobyov.

The conclusion of the government commission on the preservation of Lenin’s body read: “The measures taken for embalming rest on strong scientific basis, giving the right to count on the long-term, over a number of decades, preservation of Vladimir Ilyich’s body in a condition that allows it to be viewed in a closed glass coffin, subject to the necessary conditions in terms of humidity and temperature... General form has improved significantly compared to what was observed before embalming, and approaches significantly the appearance of the recently deceased.”

So thanks to Lenin's body scientific work its namesake, Vladimir Vorobyov, ended up in the glass coffin of the Mausoleum, in which it has been resting for over 90 years. The Communist Party and the government of the USSR generously thanked the anatomist Vorobyov - he became not only an academician and the only holder of the title “Emerited Professor” in our country, but also a very rich man even by the standards of capitalist countries. By special order of the authorities, Vorobyov was awarded a prize of 40 thousand gold chervonets (about 10 million dollars in prices at the beginning of the 21st century).

The struggle for power after Lenin

While the learned anatomist Vorobiev was working to preserve Lenin’s body, a struggle for power unfolded in the country and the Bolshevik party. At the beginning of 1924, the ruling party actually had three main leaders - Trotsky, Zinoviev and Stalin. At the same time, it was the first two who were considered the most influential and authoritative, and not the still modest “General Secretary of the Central Committee” Stalin.

45-year-old Leon Trotsky was the recognized creator of the Red Army, which won a difficult civil war. At the time of Lenin's death, he held the positions of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the RVS (Revolutionary Military Council), that is, he was the head of all armed forces of the USSR. A significant part of the army and the Bolshevik party then focused on this charismatic leader.

41-year-old Grigory Zinoviev was Lenin’s personal secretary and closest assistant for many years. At the time of the death of the first leader of the USSR, Zinoviev headed the city of Petrograd (then the largest metropolis in our country) and the largest branch of the party among the Bolsheviks, the Petrograd branch of the party. In addition, Zinoviev served as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, an international association of all communist parties on the planet. At that time, the Comintern in the USSR was formally considered a higher authority even for the Bolshevik Party. On this basis, it was Grigory Zinoviev who was perceived by many in the country and abroad as the very first among all the leaders of the USSR after Lenin.

For the entire year after the death of Ulyanov-Lenin, the situation in the Bolshevik Party would be determined by the rivalry between Trotsky and Zinoviev. It is curious that these two Soviet leaders were fellow tribesmen and countrymen - both were born into Jewish families in the Elisavetgrad district of the Kherson province of the Russian Empire. However, even during Lenin’s lifetime they were almost open rivals and opponents, and only Lenin’s generally recognized authority forced them to work together.

Compared to Trotsky and Zinoviev, 45-year-old Stalin initially seemed much more modest, holding the post of Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and being considered only the head of the party’s technical apparatus. But it was this modest “apparatchik” who ultimately turned out to be the winner in the internal party struggle.

Initially, all other leaders and authorities of the Bolshevik party immediately after Lenin's death united against Trotsky. This is not surprising - after all, all other members of the Politburo and the Central Committee were activists of the Bolshevik faction with pre-revolutionary experience. Whereas Trotsky, before the revolution, was an ideological opponent and rival of the Bolshevik trend in the social democratic movement, joining Lenin only in the summer of 1917.

Exactly one year after Lenin’s death, at the end of January 1925, the united supporters of Zinoviev and Stalin at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party actually “overthrew” Trotsky from the heights of power, depriving him of the posts of People’s Commissar (Minister) for Military Affairs and head of the Revolutionary Military Council. From now on, Trotsky remains without access to the mechanisms of real power, and his supporters in the party-state apparatus are gradually losing their positions and influence.

But Zinoviev’s open struggle with the Trotskyists alienates many party activists from him - in their eyes, Grigory Zinoviev, who is too openly striving to become a leader, looks like a narcissistic intriguer, too busy with issues of personal power. Against his background, Stalin, who keeps a low profile, appears to many to be more moderate and balanced. For example, in January 1925, discussing the issue of Trotsky’s resignation, Zinoviev calls for his exclusion from the party altogether, while Stalin publicly acts as a conciliator, offering a compromise: leaving Trotsky in the party and even as a member of the Central Committee, limiting himself only to removing him from military posts.

It was this moderate position that attracted the sympathy of many middle-level Bolshevik leaders to Stalin. And already in December 1925, at the next, XIV Congress of the Communist Party, the majority of delegates would support Stalin, when his open rivalry with Zinoviev began.

Zinoviev's authority will also be negatively affected by his post as head of the Comintern - since it is the Communist International and its leader, in the eyes of the party masses, who will have to bear responsibility for the failure of the socialist revolution in Germany, which the Bolsheviks had been waiting for with such hopes throughout the first half of the 20s. Stalin, on the contrary, focusing on “routine” internal affairs, increasingly appeared before party members not only as a balanced leader not prone to splits, but also as a real workaholic, busy with real work, and not with loud slogans.

As a result, already two years after Lenin’s death, two of his three closest associates - Trotsky and Zinoviev - would lose their former influence, and Stalin would come close to the sole leadership of the country and the party.

General Secretaries of the USSR in chronological order

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

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Stalin)

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as Stalin, was born on December 18, 1879 in the Georgian city of Gori. Became the first General Secretary of the CPSU. He received this position in 1922, when Lenin was still alive, and until the latter’s death he played a minor role in government.

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

In just a few years of rule, Stalin took the entire country into a tight grip. By the beginning of the 30s, he finally established himself as the sole leader of the people. The dictator's policies went down in history:

· mass repressions;

· total dispossession;

· collectivization.

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

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894 in the Kursk province (Kalinovka village) into a simple working-class family. Participated in Civil War, where he took the side of the Bolsheviks. Member of the CPSU since 1918. At the end of the 30s he was appointed secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

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

When Khrushchev was secretary general, the Soviet country:

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

· was actively built up with five-story buildings, today called “Khrushchev”;

· planted the lion's share of the fields with corn, for which Nikita Sergeevich was even nicknamed “the corn farmer.”

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

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev

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

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

· the country's development has stopped in almost all areas except military-industrial;

· The USSR began to seriously lag behind Western countries;

· citizens again felt the grip of the state, repression and persecution of dissidents began.

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

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov

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

At the time of Brezhnev's death, Andropov headed the State Security Committee. He was elected by his comrades to the highest post. The reign of this Secretary General covers a period of less than two years. During this time, Yuri Vladimirovich managed to fight a little against corruption in power. But he didn’t accomplish anything drastic. On February 9, 1984, Andropov died. The reason for this was a serious illness.

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko

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

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

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

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

He was appointed Secretary General on March 11, 1985. He entered history with the policy of “perestroika,” which included the introduction of glasnost, the development of democracy, and the provision of certain economic freedoms and other liberties to the population. Gorbachev's reforms led to mass unemployment, the liquidation of state-owned enterprises, and a total shortage of goods. This causes an ambiguous attitude towards the ruler from citizens former USSR, which collapsed precisely during the reign of Mikhail Sergeevich.

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

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

Photos of the secretaries general of the USSR in chronological order

Stalin

Khrushchev

Brezhnev

Andropov

Chernenko