Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Molotov Вячеслав Молотов
Born	Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin 9 March 1890 Kukarka, Russian Empire
Died	8 November 1986 (age 96) Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Political orientation	Marxism-Leninism
Political party	RSDLP (1906–1918) CPSU (1918–1961)

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (born Skryabin; 9 March 1890 – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet revolutionary, diplomat, propagandist, and politician. He was the last-surviving major participant in the October Revolution at the time of his death in 1986.

Molotov was born in the Vyatka province in 1890. He joined the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP in 1906 at the age of 16, adopting the name Molotov (from molot, meaning 'hammer' or 'mallet'). Molotov served as an editor for Pravda; he was arrested and exiled twice by the tsarist regime for agitation. He was a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee which planned the October Revolution of 1917.

Molotov quickly rose through the ranks of the party bureaucracy during the interwar period. He was appointed People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs in May 1939, replacing Maxim Litvinov. Following the failure of any attempts to build an Anglo–French–Soviet alliance to contain fascist aggression, Molotov completely revised Soviet foreign policy. Recognising that the USSR wasn't prepared to fight Nazi Germany and subscribing to Stalin's belief that the Western democracies were trying to provoke a war between Germany and the Soviet Union in order to weaken both rival nations, he signed a non-aggression treaty with the Germans now known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The pact bought the Soviets twenty-two months to prepare for the inevitable German invasion, secured considerable territory as a buffer between the German Army and Moscow, laid the groundwork for future German–Soviet cooperation, and turned the tables on Britain and France.

During the Great Patriotic War, Molotov served as the Deputy Chairman of the five-man State Defence Committee. He also negotiated the Anglo-Soviet Agreement, Statesian lend-lease to the Soviet Union, the Anglo-Soviet Treaty, and the Franco-Soviet Alliance, and was present at the Moscow, Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam, and San Francisco Conferences. After the war, Molotov fiercely defended Soviet interests, denouncing the Marshall Plan as imperialist and proposing his own Molotov Plan. Molotov was relieved of his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in 1949, his wife was convicted of treason, and he was openly criticised by Stalin in 1952.

Following Stalin's death in March 1953, Molotov was reappointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Georgy Malenkov, who succeeded Stalin as Chairman of the Council Ministers. A triumvirate was established consisting of Malenkov, Molotov, and Minister of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Beria. Molotov suspected that Beria was a traitor responsible for Stalin's death, and the triumvirate ended in June 1953 when Nikita Khrushchev, with the support of Molotov, Malenkov, Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov, and Georgy Zhukov had Beria arrested, tried, and executed. Khrushchev then consolidated his power by forcing Malenkov to resign from his post in 1955.

Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his "Secret Speech" to the 20th Congress of the CPSU, initiated a policy of de-Stalinisation, and pursued peaceful coexistence with the Western Bloc, all of which Molotov vigorously opposed. For his dissent, he was dismissed his post as Foreign Minister once more. In June 1957, a group consisting of Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, and others attempted to remove Khrushchev from power. Their anti-revisionist group controlled seven of 11 seats on the Presidium, but the Central Committee removed them from leadership positions. Molotov was dismissed from most of his posts and sent to Mongolia as an ambassador. He was removed from all his positions and expelled from the CPSU outright in 1962.

Molotov was rehabilitated and allowed to rejoin the CPSU in 1984 under Konstantin Chernenko. He criticised the revisionist policies of Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and continued to defend both his and Stalin's actions until his death in 1986. Like most Soviet leaders, Molotov did not leave any memoirs. However, he was frequently interviewed by Russian biographer Felix Chuev, who published their conversations in a book titled Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics (1993).