Sergei Kirov

This article is adapted from an original work. It may be also be translated from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, EcuRed, or Baidu Baike.

Sergei Kirov Сергей Киров
Born	27 March 1886 Urzhum, Vyatka Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	1 December 1934 (aged 48) Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Cause of death	Assassination
Political party	CPSU (1918–1934) RSDLP (1904–1918)

Kirov, Sergey Mironovich, was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who was one of the most prominent leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Stalin's closest ally. He was a member of the Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, secretary of the Leningrad regional party committee and member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. He was killed on 1 December 1934 by an agent of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist counter-revolutionary group.

S. M. Kirov

Biography

Early life and education

Sergei Mironovich Kostrikov (party name Kirov, also: Sergei, Serzh) was born on March 27 (15), 1880 in the city of Urzhum, Vyatka province, now the Kirov Territory, in a poor family. Kirov's father went away in search of a job and went missing, when Seryozha was 3 years old. 4 years later, Seryozha's mother died of consumption, worn out by unbearable labour. When he was 7 years old, Seryozha was given to the Urzhum home for minors (orphanage), where the scarcity of food and clothing was replenished with an abundance of prayers, instructions, and sometimes cuffs. Seryozha stayed in the orphanage until 1902. Living in the orphanage, he studies at the primary school, and then at the city school. In Urzhum, Kirov makes acquaintance with political exiles (Vyatka province was a place of exile under tsarism). As the best student graduating from the city school (in 1902), the Urzhum "charitable society" sent Seryozha to study in Kazan in the lower mechanic-technical school. Living in extremely difficult conditions, Kirov studies brilliantly here too.

Underground revolutionary activity

In Kazan, Kirov already establishes contacts with circles of the revolutionary underground, reading from illegal literature. At the technical school, Kirov takes an active part in the struggle of students with the reactionary authorities. Coming to Urzhum on vacation, Kirov converges even closer with the "political". He sets up a home-made hectograph in the garden in the bathhouse, on which he reprints the proclamations, and he and his comrades scatters them around the city. In 1904 Kirov graduated from the technical school; he leaves there already with firm revolutionary sentiments. Together with a familiar student of the Social-Democrats Nikonov, Kirov leaves for Tomsk in autumn 1904. There, finding meager earnings, he enters the evening general education courses. On these courses, Kirov meets the workers that study there and establishes contacts with revolutionary circles through there. After a short time, Kirov already is a member of the small Bolshevik group of Tomsk Social-Democrats organization (the Social-Democratic committee was at that time united in Tomsk, and the Mensheviks had a significant majority there), works in the so-called subcommittee, performing a variety of functions: printing and distribution of illegal literature, convening underground meetings, establishing ties with workers, etc. In respose to January 9, 1905, the Tomsk Committee of the RSDLP decides to organize a demonstration. Kirov is one of the most active organizers of the demonstration. As the the Bolshevik-minded workers insisted, they decided to hold an armed demonstration. At the 18/1 demonstration itself, Kirov marches in the foremost ranks, speaking at the head of the armed guard next to the flag-bearer, his friend, the worker Kononov. The demonstration was dispersed by the Cossacks and the police, who opened fire. Kononov was killed, many of the demonstrators were wounded, Kirov managed to escape with his coat cut by a sword. This was Kirov's first fighting experience. On that night, Kirov, showing his inherent braveness, went to look for the corpse of the murdered Kononov in order to save from the hands of the police the red flag tucked under Kononov's coat — the battle banner of the demonstrators. Kononov's banner was saved, it became the battle banner of the Tomsk Committee of the RSDLP. Correspondence about the Tomsk demonstration on 18/1 was published in the newspaper "Vperyod" published by Lenin, and there was a complete reprint of the battle proclamation, drawn up by Kirov together with other comrades about Kononov's death "To the killed comrade". On 2 February Kirov is arrested at an illegal meeting, where a new demonstration is being discussed. Although during a search of the apartment of Kirov and other arrested persons they find illegal literature, but owing to the resolute refusal of all arrested persons to testify, no "case" can be created by the gendarmes.

Leaving prison, Kirov again fights for Bolshevik work. In July 1905 Kirov became a member of the Tomsk Committee of the RSDLP and took out a lot of work at the large junction station Taiga, where he prepared and successfully carried out a railroad strike in October, enjoying great popularity and respect among the workers despite his young age. After the publication of the tsarist manifesto, Kirov came up with decisive proposals to prepare the armed forces for a new inevitable battle. However, in the Tomsk Committee of the RSDLP, he is almost alone. The Mensheviks who have seized the leadership are not concerned with arming the masses, but with the preparation of elections to the Tomsk City Duma. The Black Hundreds, led by the governor, are making their own "amendment" to the Menshevik program: on the 20th of October, they organize a bloody massacre of the demonstrators driven into the railroad administration building. Kirov is among the militiamen who rescued the demonstrators and organized resistance to the Black Hundreds. Only after this pogrom, at the insistence of Kirov and the Bolshevik workers, more significant armed squads were organized, and the Black Hundred thugs no longer dare to march until the end of the year.

After the defeat of the December uprising in Moscow, reaction everywhere reared its head, and mass arrests were made. 1/30/1900 Kirov is arrested when he is about to leave Tomsk. They find proclamations from him, try to create a "case", but a few months later Kirov is released from prison on bail. In the spring of 1900 Kirov was free again, and again doing Bolshevik work. On behalf of the committee, he, together with Popov, Shpilev and Reshotov, organizes a large, carefully conspiratorial printing house in a house specially rented on the outskirts of Tomsk. But in July, when the printing house was already set up and skillfully disguised in the basement, which was dug under the house with great labors, the gendarmes appear there, apparently on a denunciation. In spite of all their efforts, the police snoopers can't detect the printing house, but they do arrest Kirov and his comrades. The gendarmes have not succeeded in creating a special "case" about the underground printing house, and they have to release Kirov's comrades. But there is still an old "case" against Kirov, and in February 1907, after a 7-month stay in prison, he was sentenced by the court to 1 year 4 months confinement in the fortress. Kirov leaves prison only in July 1908 — after serving his sentence. After being set free, Kirov leaves for Irkutsk. However, Kirov could not to stay for long in Irkutsk: in May 1909 he learned that the printing house he organized in Tomsk in the summer of 1906 (already abandoned) fell into the hands of the gendarmes, since the house under which it was located had collapsed, and now the gendarmes are strenuously looking for him.

Kirov hastily moved to Vladikavkaz (now the town of Ordzhonikidze), lives in an illegal position, working as a proofreader and then as an employee in the liberal newspaper Terek. Kirov makes connections with the workers and makes attempts to restore the Social-Democrats. an organization that had been completely destroyed by the police three years before. In the fall of 1910 Kirov speaks at an illegal working crowd. The police tracked down Kirov in Vladikavkaz; in August 1911 Kirov was arrested again and sent in a convoy to Tomsk for trial in the case of an underground printing house. In March 1912, it is heard in the Tomsk District Court; but the main witness for the prosecution, a police officer who arrested Kirov in 1906, did not recognize him at the trial; moreover, in 1912 there was a new political upsurge, and the court rendered Kirov an acquittal.

Kirov returns to Vladikavkaz, the gendarmes establish surveillance over him. Kirov re-establishes contact with the workers, re-establishes an illegal organization and wages a vigorous struggle against the Mensheviks. He continues to work for the Terek newspaper. In November 1912, Terek published an article entitled “The Simplicity of Morals” signed “S. Kirov" (this literary pseudonym later becomes the party name of Kirov). The article sharply exposes the reactionary nature and groveling of the right-wing deputies of the State Duma. Persecution is initiated against Kirov as the author of the article. Continuing his work among the Vladikavkaz workers, Kirov establishes contacts with the workers of illegal circles in Grozny, Mineralnye Vody, Pyatigorsk, who often turn to him for instructions. Kirov worked a lot on himself, carefully studying the living conditions and life of the mountain peoples; gets acquainted with the practice of the colonialist policy of Russian tsarism.

During the civil war — XI Army

During the imperialist war, Kirov firmly adheres to the Leninist position of transforming the imperialist war into a civil war, fighting opportunism and for the creation of the Third International. The February bourgeois-democratic revolution finds Kirov in Vladikavkaz as a member of the Vladikavkaz Committee of Social-Democrats organizations, where he, at the head of a small group of Bolsheviks, develops a large agitation and propaganda work, speaking at all kinds of meetings and tirelessly exposing the treacherous policies of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. In August 1917 Kirov, on the instructions of the Vladikavkaz Bolshevik organization and the Soviet, went to Petrograd. During the Kornilov rebellion, which found Kirov in Moscow, the Moscow Soviet, on the initiative and proposal of Kirov, seeks from the Central Committee of Mountain Peoples (in Vladikavkaz) to send a special Muslim delegation to the “Wild Division” and keeps it from participating in the rebellion.

The energetic work of the Vladikavkaz Bolsheviks led by Kirov in September led to a decisive victory over the Compromisers. When the Vladikavkaz Soviet is re-elected, the Bolsheviks receive a majority. Kirov was elected as a delegate to the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets and in the growing days of October, in the ranks of the St. Petersburg workers, participates in the struggle for the victory of the Great October proletarian revolution. Upon his return to Vladikavkaz, Kirov develops intensive work to mobilize revolutionary forces against the counter-revolution, which has raised its head in the North Caucasus. In early January 1918 Kirov was forced to leave Vladikavkaz, since the counter-revolutionary Cossack officers defeated the Vladikavkaz Soviet and organized the hunt for the Bolsheviks. In February, Kirov takes part in the congress of the peoples of the Terek region in Mozdok as a delegate from Pyatigorsk. This congress was convened on the initiative of the counterrevolutionary Cossack officers, who, striving to inflame an interethnic war, were preparing the Cossack campaign against the Ingush and Chechens. Kirov, at the head of a small group of Bolsheviks, with skillful tactics and his fiery eloquence, ensured that the congress rejected the proposals of the Cossack officers; in that way, an interethnic war, ready to break out, was averted. At the second session of the congress of the peoples of the Terek region, held in Pyatigorsk in February-March 1918, Kirov was already the recognized leader of the congress. At the suggestion of Kirov, the congress solemnly proclaims Soviet power in the North Caucasus and sends a telegram of greetings to Lenin. Soon Kirov with the entire congress arrives from Pyatigorsk to Vladikavkaz - the administrative center of the Terek region. There the congress elects the Council of People's Commissars headed by the Bolshevik Noy Buachidze. Kirov is directly involved in the elimination of the armed struggle between the Ingush and Ossetians, and by his courageous performance succeeds in ending the fighting. In April-May, Kirov, on behalf of the North Caucasian organizations, went to Moscow for help against the advancing counter-revolution. In November, as a delegate from the Terek region, Kirov took part in the work of the 6th All-Russian Congress of Soviets. At the end of December, instructed by Ya. M. Sverdlov, Kirov headed an expedition with a large transport of weapons and military supplies to the North Caucasus (through Astrakhan, since Rostov was occupied by the White Guards at that time). But Kirov did not manage to get to the North Caucasus, since the XI Army, under the pressure of the White Guards, was already retreating to Astrakhan along the deserted Kalmyk steppes. Kirov remains in Astrakhan. Here he organizes the defense of this strategic point and gathers forces for an offensive in the North Caucasus.

The defense of Astrakhan is one of the heroic pages in the biography of Kirov. In a city that did not have solid proletarian cadres at that time, overcrowded with officers, the petty and big bourgeoisie, Kirov, without any serious armed forces, organizes a decisive rebuff to the White Guards who are pressing from all sides. To this must also be added the desperate food supply in Astrakhan (which was widely used for underground agitation by the White Guards, Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries), as well as a strong typhus epidemic brought into the city by the retreating units of the XI Army. In early March 1919, a White Guard uprising broke out in Astrakhan, which was quickly suppressed only thanks to Kirov's personal energy and resourcefulness. In this extremely difficult period, Kirov, as chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Astrakhan Territory, personally supervised all military and civil work. At the end of April-at the beginning of May 1919 Kirov was confirmed as the head of the political department, and then as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the XI Army; he directs the gathering and putting the army in order. Kirov was faced with a difficult task. The defense of Astrakhan seemed to many at that time to be an absolutely no-brainer business. Trotsky from the headquarters of the commander-in-chief gave alarmist, treacherous instructions about the evacuation of Astrakhan. Kirov and other workers of Revolutionary Council of the XI Army strongly objected to this and turned directly to the Central Committee of the party to Lenin, from whom they received instructions - to defend Astrakhan at all costs. Kirov develops a vigorous activity: he organizes the work of civil and military institutions, often visits factories, especially those working for the defense, in the Red Army units, on the ships of the Volga combat flotilla (largely organized by him), speaks at meetings of workers, Red Army men, sailors, women, prisoners of war, at meetings and conferences of party and Soviet activists. Kirov keeps up wherever it is necessary to cheer up, inspire for a new struggle, where it is necessary to strengthen resolve, ignite enthusiasm. The battle call, the fiery word Kirov is forced to do what seemed impossible. In the most difficult moments, Kirov personally appears at the front in dangerous places, inspires the Red Army by his personal example and achieves success there, when the case seemed to be lost.

At the beginning of July, Kirov was approved as a representative of the southern group of forces with the rights of a member of the RVS of the southern group. Just at this time, Astrakhan was supposed to become even more difficult, since Tsaritsyn was taken by the White Guards and the communication along the Volga was broken. Kirov on these bleak days, speaking at numerous meetings, arouses a new surge of enthusiasm among the masses, creates detachments of volunteers and repels the onslaught of large gangs. At the same time, Kirov maintains contact and organizes assistance with literature, funds, weapons, sending people to the communists of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, who are on the other side of the front, and to the insurgent detachments operating in the rear of Denikin. Kirov, with the help of his Baku comrades and revolutionary seamen of the Caspian Sea, organizes on boats a nominal supply of gasoline to Astrakhan, in which the aviation and vehicles of the Red Army were experiencing an extremely acute need at that time. Thanks to the successful formation of new units, in which Kirov took an active personal participation, in September-October the situation on the fronts near Astrakhan becomes significantly more favorable, and Kirov already is preparing an offensive plan against the White Guard bands. On 18 / XI, according to a plan developed under the direct leadership of Kirov, an operation begins against General Tolstoy, who threatened Astrakhan from the east. The operation ends successfully within 12 days; 1 / X1I Kirov telegraphed Lenin about the liquidation of the armed forces of the White Astrakhan Cossacks. 24 / XII Kirov admonishes the Red fighters going on a campaign on 10.-3. along the Caspian footsteps. At that time, a ring of red troops was drawn near Tsaritsyn, and on 3/1 1920, with a heroic onslaught of parts of the X and XI armies, Tsaritsyn was captured.

In January, on the instructions of Comrade Stalin and under the direct leadership of Kirov and comrade Ordzhonikidze launched an offensive of the XI Army in the North Caucasus. Kirov telegraphed the Central Committee of the party about the entry of the Red Army into the Stavropol province. The offensive unfolds successfully, on 30 / III Kirov, together with Comrade Ordzhonikidze, arrives in Vladikavkaz, which had just been occupied by the Red Army units, and by 1 / V they are already in Baku, when the insurgent Baku workers, with the support of Red armored trains overthrew the power of the Mussavatists and proclaimed the power of the Soviets. The offensive conducted under the leadership of Comrade Stalin on the southern front ends with the defeat of Denikin and the restored Soviet power in the North Caucasus and Baku.

After the conclusion of a peace treaty between the RSFSR and the Georgian Menshevik government, Kirov was appointed the plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR in Georgia and worked in an atmosphere of tense relations between Soviet Azerbaijan and Menshevik Georgia. For two and a half months, Kirov fights through diplomatic notes and protests with the government of Noy Dzhordaniy because of the failure of the latter to fulfill the most important points of the peace treaties, especially the part of it that obliged them to stop persecuting the communists. In early September Kirov participates in the work of the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku and is elected to the Council for Action and Propaganda in the East. At the end of September 1920 Kirov received a new responsible diplomatic assignment — he was appointed the representative of the RSFSR in peace negotiations with Poland. After signing an agreement with Poland, Kirov again in the North Caucasus became a member of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). He plunges headlong into the work, especially difficult in the conditions of the multinational North Caucasus, to unite the party ranks, create the bodies of Soviet power and ensure revolutionary order. Kirov is successfully carrying out this extremely difficult task together with Comrade Ordzhonikidze on the instructions and with the direct participation of Comrade Stalin. Kirov together with Comrade Stalin on 17 / XI takes part in the work of the Congress of the Peoples of the Terek Region, at which Comrade Stalin makes a declaration on the formation of the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Republic. In December, Kirov took part in the work of the VIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets and was elected to the All-Russian Central Council Kirov. In February 1921, Kirov organized aid to the workers and peasants of Georgia who had rebelled against the Menshevist tyranny. On the mountain gorges covered by deep snow, Kirov directs a horse brigade through the Mamison Pass. By carefully preparing this heroic transition he has seen, he achieves the successful completion of an extremely important task.

Struggle against Trotskyism and deviationism

In the midst of a discussion about the trade unions, Kirov launched a fierce struggle against Trotskyism. He repeatedly speaks at party meetings. In mid-February, after Kirov made a report at the 2nd regional party conference in Vladikavkaz, 172 delegates voted for Lenin's platform, 3 for Trotsky's platform. Kirov was unanimously elected as a delegate to the X Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In March 1921 Kirov took part in the work of the X Congress and was elected a candidate for membership in the Central Committee of the RCP (b). 10-22 / IV Kirov directs the work of the constituent congress of the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Republic in Vladikavkaz. There Kirov makes a number of speeches brilliant in form and deep in content, in which he, exposing the lurking enemies of Soviet power, points out the ways to resolve the most complex issues that arise in the Northern Caucasus. Particularly remarkable is his speech on the Shariah. At the end of May Kirov is already in Tiflis; he makes a number of reports there. In mid-June, Kirov took a direct part in the holding of the 1st legal conference of trade unions of Georgia, sharply opposed the Mensheviks there, the branches in the trade unions tried to conduct demoralizing anti-Soviet work. At the beginning of July, Kirov, in Tiflis, at the plenum of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), whose work is directed by Comrade Stalin, was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. The most important task of the party in Azerbaijan at that time was to fight against national deviators and restore the unity of the party ranks. Under the leadership of Kirov, the Communist Party of Azerbaijan defeated national deviationism and ensured a clear implementation of the Leninist-Stalinist nationality policy in multinational Azerbaijan. Six months later, Kirov had the opportunity to declare in his report at the IV Congress of the Azerbaijani Communist Party that the internal struggle that had paralyzed the work of the Azerbaijani organization had been eliminated.

The defeat of the national deviationists in the party organization of Azerbaijan was of great importance for the entire Transcaucasia: relying on the largest proletarian organization in the Transcaucasus, the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), headed by Comrade Ordzhonikidze, was able to successfully carry out the struggle against the nationalist deviators and in other Transcaucasian republics, especially in Georgia, where the national deviationists were especially strong. Already in 1921, on the direct orders of Lenin and Stalin, the question of organizing the Transcaucasian Federation was raised, despite the stubborn resistance of all local national deviators, who saw in the organization of the Transcaucasian Federation an infringement of the national interests of the local republics. Under the leadership of Kirov, "the Baku proletariat, faithful to the international banner of Lenin-Stalin, came out in the front ranks of fighters for the formation and strengthening of the Transcaucasian federation" (Beria, 1S on the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia, Moscow, 1930, p. 146 ). In 1922, the First Transcaucasian Congress of Soviets gathered in Baku, which formed the Transcaucasian Federation, and the Transcaucasian Central Executive Committee was elected. The resistance of the national deviators was broken. That completely justified form of fraternal cooperation of the Transcaucasian republics is being created, which paved the way for a peaceful comradely resolution of all national disputes and joint friendly work of the peoples of Transcaucasia in the struggle to build socialism. The Transcaucasian Federation ensured the overcoming of local nationalism and prepared the transition of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to the number of union republics on the basis of the Stalin constitution. In all this tremendous work carried out on the direct instructions of Comrades. Lenin and Stalin, Kirov played the leading role together with Comrade Ordzhonikidze.

Work for industry development

Kirov was elected to the Transcaucasian Regional Committee and a delegate to the XI Party Congress. At the congress Kirov was elected a member of the Central Committee PK 11 (6). Until his departure from Baku (in 1925), Kirov was one of the leaders of the Transcaucasian Federation. He is re-elected permanently secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, a member of the Presidium of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee and the Transcaucasian Central Executive Committee. Before Kirov, during his work in Baku, along with the major party political tasks, there was also a huge and responsible task - the restoration and reconstruction of the Baku oil industry, which, by technique and methods of work, was extremely backward even in the pre-revolutionary period, and during the time of the management of the Mussavatists came to a final breakdown. Kirov directly takes on the oil industry literally on the first day of his arrival in Baku. Together with the leaders of Azneft, he visits the fields day after day, at the distillation and mechanical plants, meeting with old production workers — workers, engineers, technicians, studying the entire production process from scratch, getting to know the geology of oil-bearing regions. In particular thanks to Kirov, his great attention to the oil industry, his daily personal assistance in resolving all major and minor issues, it is possible to successfully solve the urgent task of technical re-equipment of the oil industry and the development of new areas. The real revolution in the oil industry is inextricably linked with Kirov's name.

The solidarity of the party ranks under the banner of Lenin-Stalin, the strengthening of national peace and commonwealth, the successes in the field of economy, first of all in the oil industry, the unfolding cultural upsurge of the urban and rural population, the promotion and growth of new cadres of national workers — this is the result of Kirov's leadership in Azerbaijan in the course of 4½ years; Kirov enjoyed immense popularity and love among the Baku workers and workers of Azerbaijan and Transcaucasia. Since the XIV Congress of the Party, Kirov, together with a group of other members of the Central Committee - com. Molotov, Voroshilov, Kalinin, Petrovsky — was sent to Leningrad to expose before the Leningrad workers the slander of the Zinoviev opposition against the Leninist leadership of the party. Kirov, together with other members of the Central Committee, speaks almost every day at party meetings. Kirov's performances at "Elektrosila", at the "Red Weaver", at the joint meeting of the collectives of the "Red Nail Producers" and "Electroapparat", at the "Red Putilovets" are especially vivid. Kirov speaks at a number of other plants and factories, at meetings of the Komsomol, trade union workers, etc.

In Kirov's speeches, a cruel, crushing criticism of the anti-Leninist “theory” and “practice” of the opposition is given, and at the same time tremendous solicitude for an ordinary party member is shown, an exceptionally attentive and thoughtful analysis of questions is given that can cause even the slightest doubt in an ordinary party member. Kirov's performances are held with great success; he soon won great prestige and popularity among the ranks of the party members and among the broad masses of workers in Leningrad. A decisive break in the mood of the Party organization has also been reached in a short time. Already on 10/II 1926 Kirov opens the 23rd extraordinary provincial party conference, at which representatives of the Leningrad Bolsheviks expose the treacherous anti-party work of the opposition and declare their loyalty to the Leninist Central Committee.

At the conference a new Provincial Commissar is elected from among the staunch supporters of the general party. Kirov was elected secretary of the Leningrad Provincial Committee, at the same time as he was secretary of the North-Western Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b). In a few months in the Leningrad organization, at the request of the broad party masses, almost the entire leadership staff is renewed, from the provinical committee to the factory and lowest-level party organizers. Thousands of new workers, staunch defenders of the honorary line of the Leninist Central Committee of Kirovs, are being promoted to leadership positions to replace Zinoviev's students.

By the 24th regular provincial conference, the Leningrad organization came with complete unanimity, tightly united under the banner of Lenin and Stalin. Questions of party life and party work, the cultivation of new strong Bolshevik cadres loyal to the party of fighters, always come first in the work of Kirov. Along with the major tasks in the area of ​​the party, Kirov, with his inherent foresight, during the months of his work puts on the agenda the main economic issues, on the resolution of which depends the future of Leningrad as the largest industrial proletarian center. Trotsky and other alarmists from the opposition proposed to close the Putilov factory and predicted the curtailment of Leningrad industry, pointing out the impossibility of working on imported fuel and imported raw materials. The most important questions — the creation of a local fuel and energy base and the search for new sources and new types of local raw materials — Kirov set as the main tasks of economic work in Leningrad, along with the task of reconstruction and improvement of the work of Leningrad industry. Kirov paid great attention to the development of the peat industry. Kirov carefully monitored the availability of mechanization and new methods of extraction and processing of peat (hydro-peat, milled peat, etc.). As a result, the extraction of peat in the Leningrad region during the work of Kirov increased 12 times. Kirov paid great attention to oil shale mining. And here Kirov had to endure a considerable struggle against the helplessness and inertia of business executives and specialists. It got to the point that Kirov went to the Gdovskiy shale mine, himself went down into the trunk of the experimental sinking and, having got out to the surface of the earth, all wet and covered in clay, insisted with triumph: “All talk about flooding is nothing, shale is separated from the aquifer a waterproof roof, exploiting the shale is possible and necessary”. This case characterizes Kirov's methods of work: on the basis of personal verification, personal study, to resolve major issues. Oil shale mining has moved forward, the mine named after Kirov now provides oil shale for the furnaces of Leningrad factories, there are great prospects in front of the oil shale industry and Leningrad. Kirov invested a lot of care in the construction of hydroelectric power stations. With the personal active participation of Kirov, the issue of building a powerful hydroelectric station on the Svir is being resolved. We owe to the initiative and decisiveness of Kirov the construction, in unprecedentedly difficult conditions, of the polar Niva hydroelectric power station and of an even more northern station on Tuloma. On the initiative and insistence of Kirov, a new powerful peat power plant (Dubrovskaya) was built, the capacity of the 5th hydroelectric power station, which also runs on peat, was increased fivefold; old power plants operating on mineral fuel were reconstructed and strengthened. In the autumn and the winter of 1934, the last year of Kirov's life, Leningrad for the first time did not experience a shortage of electricity, factories did not have interruptions in their work, and the entire industry of Leningrad was provided with energy, light and fuel. The main focus in the economic work of Kirov, especially in the first years, concerned the Leningrad industry, equipping it with scarce raw materials, about re-equipping it on the basis of modern technology, about the expansion and reconstruction of the most important factories, about the construction of new plants and factories, about the development of new industries, on the transformation of industrial Leningrad into a forge of equipment for new buildings with a maximum reduction in imports of equipment. Kirov did not deal with these issues "in general", he personally and on a daily basis monitored supplies, the work of the most important factories and factories, and the most important construction projects. At the same time, he showed extraordinary insight, always knew how to highlight the most important thing for a given moment, in Leninist way grabbing the weakest link in order to pull out the entire chain. For example, there was a time of acute shortage of cast iron; this threatened to disrupt the fulfillment of the most important state tasks of the industry. Kirov organized in the regional committee accounting for the receipt of pig iron and personally distributed it to the factories; The same happened in difficult moments and with the distribution of fuel. Kirov especially carefully followed the work of such important factories as "Krasny Putilovets", "Electrosila", the metal plant named after Stalin, "Baltic", "Bolshevik" factory, Izhora plant. The entire reconstruction of the Putilovsky plant was carried out under the direct instructions of Kirov. Kirov put a lot of energy into building the first Soviet tractors of the Fordzon-Putilovsky type on the Krasny Putilovets. In 1928, the organization of serial production of tractors was a test for the entire Soviet industry. The Krasny Putilovets passed this test only thanks to Kirov's daily personal help, perseverance, inexhaustible energy. With the same energy, with the same attention Kirov personally supervised the construction of the first Soviet blooming plant at the Izhora plant, completed in the spring of 1931. Powerful turbines of the Stalin plant, giant turbine generators "Electrosila”, new ships of the "Baltic" plant, electric furnaces MIGE, cultivating tractors of the Putilovsky (now Kirovsky) plant — all this was created, entered the service of the Proletarian State with the closest direct help of Kirov, the leader of the Leningrad Bolsheviks. On the direct initiative of Kirov, the development of Tikhvin bauxite was organized and the first aluminum plant in the Soviet Union was created in Volkhov. The exceptional role of Kirov in the development of the wealth of the Far North is known. Kirov raised the question of the development of apatite ore. To check all sorts of "scientific" arguments about the impossibility not only to work, but even to live in the polar tundra, Kirov personally got down to business: he went to Khibiny and there on the spot established that it is possible and necessary to extract apatite ore, in the polar desert it is possible and necessary to create a socialist city. Millions of tons of apatite ore have already been mined and are providing rich fertilizers to the fields of the Soviet Union. Apatite and nepheline, mined simultaneously with it, have found their application in tens of different very important industries. A city was built on the frozen tundra, which in 1935 had already 40 thousand inhabitants. This city rightfully bears the glorious name of Kirov.

Thanks to Kirov's initiative and perseverance, the construction of Murmansk is rapidly developing, a well-equipped port is being created, powerful fishing operations are being organized with a large trawler fleet. Under the direct observation of Kirov, the Murmansk railway is being reconstructed, which was named after Kirov. The study of the deserts and swamps of the Kola Peninsula is far from being limited to Khibiny: according to the instructions of Kirov, new and new geological surveys are being undertaken and the most valuable minerals are found on the peninsula: nickel and copper (already being developed), rich deposits of iron, lead and other valuable minerals. The Kola Peninsula is turning into one of the treasures of the USSR, and the first merit in this belongs to Kirov. With the closest help and participation of Kirov, the Baltic-White Sea Canal named after I. Stalin is being created with miraculous speed and has a great future. On the initiative and with the direct support of Kirov, research work on the production of alcohol from wood waste was launched, and in 1934 the first experimental hydrolysis plant for the production of ethyl alcohol from wood waste was put into operation. Kirov showed great attention to the work of numerous scientific research institutions in Leningrad. Kirov played an important role in the development of the problem of obtaining artificial rubber. Kirov paid great attention to the issues of agriculture and collective farm development. Kirov initiated the introduction of wheat crops in the North, which has now won a solid and honorable place in the village. farming of the Leningrad region. Kirov clearly and decisively raised the issue of transforming the Leningrad Region from a consuming into a producing region and mobilized the forces of party organizations to work hard to resolve this problem. Like the largest economic issues, which Kirov closely dealt with, in one of the first places, especially since 1930, are the issues of the urban economy of Leningrad. Kirov studied housing construction, urban transport, and city improvement in the most attentive way. The appeal of Comrade Stalin and Comrade Molotov to the Leningrad organizations in December 1931 on the reconstruction of the city economy provided a powerful turnaround in work in this area. Kirov personally checked day after day how the most important works in the city were being carried out. Taking care of making socialist Leningrad more comfortable and more beautiful, Kirov himself looked through the projects of new construction projects, painting houses, landscaping streets. One of Kirov's big concerns was the creation of a vast and beautiful central park — a place of rest for the proletarians and all working people of Leningrad. Kirov personally looked at the grandiose work plan for the construction of this park, was interested in the progress of its implementation. Questions of wages, routine and life of workers, especially in difficult times of food difficulties, lack of manufactured goods, lack of fuel for workers' dwellings, etc., were the first questions on the order of the day. Kirov treated the Komsomol extremely attentively and thoughtfully and often raised the Komsomol to performance of one or another particularly large task. On the initiative of Kirov, a thousand Komsomol members from Leningrad were mobilized to the Gdovsk shale mines. The enthusiasm of the Komsomol members, who took up the difficult and completely unusual work with tremendous energy, saved the important construction, which was almost destroyed by the management. A tremendous amount of work was done by Kirov, strengthening the defenses of proletarian Leningrad, helping to strengthen the combat capability and enhance the combat equipment of the Red Army and the Red Fleet. For almost 9 years Kirov led the Leningrad organization, first as a secretary of the North-West Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) and secretary of the Leningrad Provincial Committee, and from 1927, after the formation of the Leningrad region, as the first secretary of the regional committee, and from 1931, after the organization of the city committee, also the first secretary of the Leningrad city party committee. Under the leadership of Kirov, the Leningrad Party organization, having smashed the Zinoviev-Trotskyist opposition and the Right deviators, achieved complete unity and close cohesion around the Leninist Central Committee, around Comrade Stalin. For party members, for all honest working people, Kirov was a sensitive leader, the best advisor, a true educator-bolshevik. He brought up with his fiery speeches, his deeply thought-out remarks at various business meetings, with personal conversations. But Kirov brought up the strongest of all by his personal example of a strictly principled Leninist, an impeccable Bolshevik, completely devoted to the party's cause. Kirov constantly and persistently spoke about the need for a thorough study of Marxism-Leninism, about the significance of Lenin's teaching. Kirov raised the Leningrad Bolsheviks and all the Leningrad workers in the spirit of the greatest love and devotion to the party and the leader of the party, the great Stalin. Kirov enjoyed great love of communists, non-party people, of all the working people of Leningrad, starting with schoolchildren and ending with venerable scientists. The significance of Kirov's work, his influence went far beyond the boundaries of the organization where he was currently working. So it was in the North Caucasus, in Baku and during his work in Leningrad. A candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee from 1926 and a member of the Politburo from 1930, secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks from 1934, Kirov was one of the first in the party's struggle against anti-party currents. At the 14th Party Congress, when Zinoviev and his associates, with the help of lies and slander, are organizing an attack on the Leninist Central Committee, hiding behind the authority of the Leningrad organization, Kirov came out with the exposure of the opposition. At the 15th Party Congress, Kirov spoke on the issue of the Trotskyite-Zinoviev bloc: “The opposition must be pushed away in the most resolute, most firm and most ruthless way. (Applause). This is what our Party expects from us, this is what the working class expects of us, this, comrades, is what the international proletariat expects from us. This is the real founder of the Comintern, the party from which the world revolution was born, which practically builds socialism, it must remain truly united. All that gets underfoot, that hesitates and doubts, should be left in the historical abyss, and you and I have a road only forward and only to victories! (Vigorouse applause)“ [XV Congress of the CPSU(b), Verbatim report, Moscow, 1935, p. 235]. On the XVI Party Congress Kirov, speaks about the speech of the leaders of the right opposition: "We heard about the acknowledgment of mistakes after the November plenum. What do we need now? What does the party and the working class expect from you? Comrades, leaders of the right opposition, you must qualify your program in a Bolshevik manner and, without going into deep theoretical research, to say frankly that your program is essentially a kulak program (Voices: “That's right!” Applause), the implementation of which would ultimately destroy the dictatorship of the proletariat and would lead to the restoration of capitalism” [XV1 Congress of the CPSU(b), Verbatim report, Moscow, 1935, p. 285]. At the XVII Congress, Kirov mercilessly exposed the former leaders of the right-wing and Trotsky-Zinoviev opposition and calls for the greatest vigilance, for “the struggle is not over, the struggle continues“. Kirov from 1922 was a member of the governing Soviet bodies at first Transcaucasian Central Executive Committee, and then VTsIK, a member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, a number of convocations. On the X Congress of the Party, Kirov was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee, and since the XI Congress - a member of the Central Committee of the party. Since 1926 Kirov has been elected a candidate member of the Politburo, and since 1930 a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b). From 1934 on, Kirov was secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) and secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and the City Party Committee. The party knows Kirov as a fiery tribune, as a staunch, unbending Bolshevik, as a tried and tested leader, as Comrade Stalin's closest comrade-in-arms and friend. At the 17th Party Congress, Kirov speaks out with a bright statement, in which he sums up the period of the victorious construction of socialism in our country, the implementation of the slogan of industrialization, the socialist transformation of the peasant economy and, as a result of all this, the enormous strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Comrade Stalin's report, says Kirov, is the most striking document of the era; it only summarizes the work done, but develops the work prospects for the near future on the way to the implementation of this task.

Kirov is actively involved in the development of major theoretical questions of the Communist Party. "Remarks on the synopsis of the textbook on "History of the USSR"" and "Remarks on the synopsis of the textbook "New history"" made by Stalin, Kirov and Zhdanov, open a new stage in the study of history as a science, study of the concrete general history and history of the peoples of the USSR... Kirov's great interest in the development of culture, art, music, theatre, literature speaks of him as an exceptionally whole and multifaceted personality.

Murder and response

On 1 / XII 1934, Kirov was treacherously killed by Nikolayev, a member of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist fascist gang, on the direct orders of Zinoviev and Trotsky. This gang, being the first detachment of the international counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie and acting together with the fascist Gestapo, set itself the task of restoring capitalism in the USSR and considered the main means of its struggle against Soviet power to be individual terror against the leaders of the party. The whole party, the whole country were shocked by the heinous murder of Kirov. The whole party, the entire working class, all honest working people responded to the vile murder by even more rallying around the Bolshevik Party, its Central Committee, around Comrade Stalin. In the collective appeal of Comrade Stalin and a number of leading comrades on the occasion of Kirov's death [Pravda newspaper, dated December 2, 1934, No. 331 (6217)] says: “Our party has suffered a great misfortune. On December 1, Comrade Kirov perished from the hands of a villainous murderer sent by class enemies ... A man died from the hand of the enemy, who devoted his entire bright life to the destiny of the working class, to the cause of communism, to the liberation of humanity. Comrade Kirov presented himself as a model of a Bolshevik, who did not know fear and difficulties in achieving the great goal set by the party. His directness, iron fortitude, his amazing qualities as an inspirational tribune of the revolution were combined in him with that cordiality and gentleness in personal comradely and friendly relations, with that radiant warmth and modesty that are inherent in a real Leninist ... You were close to all of us, Comrade Kirov, as a loyal friend, beloved comrade, reliable ally ... You were always with us in the years of difficult battles for the triumph of socialism in our country, you were always with us in the years of hesitation and difficulties within our party, you lived with us with us through all difficulties of the last years, and we lost you at the moment when our country achieved great victories. In all this struggle, in our achievements, there is a lot of your share, a lot of your energy, strength and ardent love for the cause of communism."

Further Reading

Works and Speeches

• Kirov S. M., Articles, speeches, documents, vol. I, ed. 2, L., 1936 (Киров С. M., Статьи, речи, документы, т. I, изд. 2, Л., 1936).
• Kirov S. M., Articles and speeches 1934, M., 1934 (Киров С. М., Статьи и речи 1934, М., 1934).
• On the frontline of historical science. Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, remarks of com. Stalin, Kirov and Zhdanov on the abstracts of textbooks and other materials, M., 1936 (Нa фронте исторической науки. Постановление ЦК ВКП(б) и СНК СССР, за-мечания тт. Сталина, Кирова и Жданова о конспектах учебников и др. материалы, M., 1936).

Literature

• S. M. Kirov, 1886-1934. Materials for biography, M., 1934 (С. М. Киров, 1886—1934. Материалы к биографии, M., 1934).
• S. M. Kirov, 1886-1934. Leader, teacher, friend, L., 1934 (С. М. Киров, 1886—1934. Вождь, учитель, друг, Л., 1934).
• In memory of S. M. Kirov, 1886-1934, Moscow, 1934 (Памяти С. М. Кирова, 1886—1934, Москва, 1934).
• In memory of S. M. Kirov (Collection of articles from newspapers in Moscow and Leningrad on the anniversary of the death of 1 XII 1 935), Leningrad, 1935 (Памяти Кирова С. М. (Сб. статей из газет Москвы и Ленинграда к годовщине со дня смерти 1 XII 1935), Ленинград, 1935).
• Indictment in the case of L. V. Nikolaev, I. I. Kotolynov, Myasnikov. L. V. et al. State Publishing House of Crimea. ASSR, Simferopol, 1935; (Обвинительное заключение по делу Николаева Л. В., Котолынова И. И., Мясникова Л. В. и др. ..., Госиздат Крым. АССР, Симферополь, 1935).
• Sergei Mironovich Kirov in the Leningrad press 1926-1934. Bibliographic index, M.-L., 1936 (Сергей Миронович Киров в ленинградской печати 1926—1934. Библиографический указатель, М.—Л., 1936).
• Beria L., On the question of the history of Bolshevik organizations in the Transcaucasus. Report at the meeting of the Tiflis party activist 21-22 / VII 1935, Moscow, 1935. (Берия Л., К вопросу об истории большевистских организаций в Закавказьи. Доклад на собрании Тифлисского партактива 21—22/VII 1935, Москва, 1935).
• "Restorers of capitalism and their defenders" [Collection of articles], 2nd edition, IM.], 1936 («Реставраторы капитализма и их защитники» [Сб. ст.], 2 издание, [M.], 1936).

References

• The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Vol. 32 (1936), pp. 397-411. (Can be found online at: http://1543.su/pub/bse/)