Vyacheslav Molotov (Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin): biography, political career

Molotov was one of the few Bolsheviks of the first draft, who managed to survive the era of Stalinist repression and remain in power. He occupied a variety of leading government posts in the 1920s-1950s.

early years

Vyacheslav Molotov was born on March 9, 1890. His real name is Scriabin. Molotov is a party pseudonym. In his youth the Bolshevik used a variety of surnames, printing in newspapers. He used the Molotov pseudonym for the first time in a small pamphlet dedicated to the development of the Soviet economy, and since then he has not been separated from him.

The future revolutionary was born in a philistine family, who lived in the village of Kukharka in Vyatka province. His father was a fairly wealthy man and was able to give his children a good education. Vyacheslav Molotov studied in the real school in Kazan. For the years of his youth, the first Russian revolution came , which, of course, could not but affect the views of the young man. The student joined the Bolshevik youth group in 1906. In 1909, he was arrested and exiled to Vologda. After the liberation, Vyacheslav Molotov moved to St. Petersburg. In the capital, he began to work in the first legal newspaper of the party called Pravda. Scriabin was brought there by his friend Viktor Tikhomirnov, who came from a merchant family and financed the publication of socialists at his own expense. The real name of Vyacheslav Molotov ceased to be mentioned just then. The revolutionary finally linked his life with the party.

Revolution and civil war

By the beginning of the February Revolution, Vyacheslav Molotov, unlike most of the famous Bolsheviks, was in Russia. The main people of the party have been in emigration for many years. Therefore, in the first months of 1917, Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich had a great weight in Petrograd. He remained the editor of Pravda and even joined the executive committee of the Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies.

When Lenin and the other leaders of the RSDLP (b) returned to Russia, the young functionary receded into the background and for a time ceased to be noticeable. Molotov was inferior to his older comrades both in oratorical art and in revolutionary courage. But he also had the advantages: diligence, diligence and technical education. Therefore, during the Civil War, Molotov is mainly in the "field" work in the province - he organized the work of local councils and communes.

In 1921, the party member of the second echelon was lucky to get into the new central body - the secretariat. Here Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich plunged into bureaucratic work, being in his element. In addition, he became a colleague of Stalin in the secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.), Which predetermined all his future destiny.

The Right Hand of Stalin

In 1922, Stalin was elected General Secretary to the Central Committee. Since that time young VM Molotov became his protege. He proved his loyalty by participating in all combinations and intrigues of Stalin both in the last years of Lenin and after the death of the leader of the world proletariat. Molotov really was in his place. He was never a leader by nature, but he was distinguished for his bureaucratic diligence, which helped him in countless clerical work in the Central Committee.

At the funeral of Lenin in 1924, Molotov carried his coffin, which was a sign of his hardware weight. From this moment, the internal struggle began in the party. The format of "collective power" did not last long. There were three people claiming leadership: Stalin, Trotsky and Zinoviev. Molotov was always a protege and an apprentice of the first. Therefore, according to the drifting rate of the Secretary-General, he actively spoke to the Central Committee at first against the "Trotskyite", and then the "Zinoviev" opposition.

January 1, 1926 VM Molotov became a member of the Politburo, the governing body of the Central Committee, which included the most influential persons of the party. At the same time, the final defeat of Stalin's opponents took place. On the day of the celebration of the decade of the October Revolution, attacks on Trotsky's supporters took place. Soon he was exiled to Kazakhstan in an honorific reference, and then completely left the USSR.

Molotov was the conductor of the Stalinist course at the Moscow City Party Committee. He regularly opposed one of the leaders of the so-called right-wing opposition Nikolai Uglanov, who, after all, deprived him of the post of first secretary of the Moscow City Committee. In the years 1928-1929. A member of the Politburo himself took this place. During these several months, Molotov held demonstrative purges in the Moscow apparatus. From there all the opponents of Stalin were fired. However, the repressions of that period were relatively mild-no one was shot or sent to camps.

The conductor of collectivization

Tearing up their opponents, Stalin and Molotov by the beginning of the 1930s secured the sole authority of Koba. The Secretary-General appreciated the devotion and diligence of his right hand. In 1930, after Rykov's resignation, the post of chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was vacant. This place was taken by Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich. In short, he became the head of the Soviet government, holding this post until 1941.

With the commencement of collectivization in the village Molotov again often goes on business trips throughout the country. He directed the defeat of the kulaks in Ukraine. The state demanded all peasant bread, which led to resistance in the village. In the western regions came to the riots. The Soviet leadership, or rather, Stalin alone, decided to arrange a "big leap" - a sharp start to the industrialization of the country's backward economy. For this, we needed money. They were taken from the sale of grain abroad. To get it, the authorities began to requisition the whole harvest from the peasantry. Vyacheslav Molotov was also involved in this. The biography of this functionary in the 1930s was filled with various sinister and ambiguous episodes. The first such campaign was an attack on the Ukrainian peasantry.

Inefficient collective farms could not cope with the mission entrusted to them in the form of the first five-year plans for grain procurements. When joyless reports about the harvest for 1932 arrived in Moscow, the Kremlin decided to organize another wave of repression, this time not only against the kulaks, but also local party organizers who failed to do their work. But these measures did not save Ukraine from hunger.

The second person in the state

After the campaign to destroy the kulaks, a new attack began, in which Molotov took part. Since its inception, the USSR has been an authoritarian state. Stalin, in many ways, thanks to his associates, got rid of the numerous oppositionists in the Bolshevik Party itself. Those functionaries who were disgraced were expelled from Moscow, received secondary posts on the outskirts of the country.

But after Kirov's assassination in 1934, Stalin decided to take this opportunity as an excuse for physically destroying the objectionable ones. Preparations for demonstration vessels began. In 1936 a trial was organized against Kamenev and Zinoviev. The founders of the Bolshevik Party were accused of participating in a counterrevolutionary Trotskyite organization. It was a well-planned propaganda story. Despite his usual conformism, Molotov spoke out against the court. Then he himself was almost a victim of repression. Stalin knew how to keep his supporters in check. After this episode, Molotov never again tried to resist the unfolding wave of terror. On the contrary, he became his active participant.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, only Voroshilov, Mikoyan, Litvinov, Kaganovich, and Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov were among the 25 people's commissars who worked in the CPC in 1935. Nationality, professionalism, personal devotion to the leader - all this has lost any significance. Everyone could get under the NKVD rink. In 1937, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars made a speech at one of the Plenums of the Central Committee, in which he called for toughening the struggle against the enemies of the people and spies.

It was Molotov who initiated the reform, after which the "troika" got the right to judge the suspects not in isolation, but in whole lists. This was done in order to facilitate the work of the organs. The flowering of repression took place in 1937-1938, when the NKVD and the courts simply could not cope with the flow of the accused. The terror unfolded not only at the top of the party. He also affected ordinary citizens of the USSR. But Stalin, in the first place personally supervised high-ranking "Trotskyists", Japanese spies and other traitors to the homeland. Following the leader, his chief associate was engaged in examining the cases of those who fell into disgrace. In the 1930s, Molotov was actually the second person in the state. The official celebration of his 50th anniversary in 1940 became indicative. Then the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars not only received numerous state awards. In honor of him the city of Perm was renamed Molotov.

People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs

Since Molotov was in the Politburo, he was engaged in foreign policy as a high-ranking Soviet official. The chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Maxim Litvinov, often disagreed with questions of relations with the countries of the West, etc. In 1939 castling took place. Litvinov left his post, and Molotov became a People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Stalin appointed him at the very moment when foreign policy again became the determining factor for the life of the whole country.

What led to Litvinov's dismissal? It is believed that Molotov in this capacity was more convenient for the Secretary-General, since he was a supporter of rapprochement with Germany. In addition, after Scriabin took the post of People's Commissar, a new wave of repression began in his department, which allowed Stalin to get rid of diplomats who did not support his foreign policy course.

When in Berlin it became known about the displacement of Litvinov, Hitler instructed his charges to find out what the new mood in Moscow. In the spring of 1939, Stalin still doubted, but in the summer he finally decided that it was worth trying to find a common language with the Third Reich, and not with England or France. August 23 of the same year in Moscow flew the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Negotiations with him were conducted only by Stalin and Molotov. They did not disclose their intentions to the other members of the Politburo, which, for example, disconcerted Voroshilov, who at the same time was in charge of relations with France and England. The result of the arrival of the German delegation was the famous treaty of non-aggression. It is also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, although, of course, this name began to be used much later than the events described.

The main document also included additional secret protocols. According to their provisions, the Soviet Union and Germany divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. This arrangement allowed Stalin to start a war against Finland, annex the Baltic states, Moldova and part of Poland. How great is the contribution that Molotov made to these agreements? The non-aggression pact was named after his name, but, of course, Stalin made all the key decisions. His People's Commissar was only the executor of the will of the leader. In the next two years, until the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Molotov was mainly concerned with foreign policy.

The Great Patriotic War

Through his diplomatic channels Molotov received information about the preparation of the Third Reich for the war with the Soviet Union. But he did not attach importance to these reports, as he feared Stalin's disgrace. The leader was placed on the table with the same agent messages, but they did not shake his faith that Hitler would not dare attack the USSR.

Therefore it is not surprising that on June 22, 1941, Molotov, after his chief, was deeply shocked by the news of the declaration of war. But it was to him Stalin instructed to make a famous speech, which was broadcast on the radio on the day of the attack of the Wehrmacht. During the war, Molotov played mainly diplomatic functions. He was also Stalin's deputy in the State Defense Committee. The People's Commissar only happened to be at the front once when he was sent to investigate the circumstances of the devastating defeat in Vyazma operation in the autumn of 1941.

In disgrace

Even on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, Molotov was replaced by Stalin himself as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. When, finally, peace came, the People's Commissar remained in his post responsible for foreign policy. He participated in the first UN meetings, and therefore often traveled to the United States. Outwardly for Molotov everything looked good. However, in 1949 his wife Polina Zhemchuzhina was arrested . She was Jewish by birth and was an important figure in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Just after the war in the USSR, an anti-Semitic campaign was launched, initiated by Stalin himself. The pearl naturally fell into its millstones. For Molotov, the arrest of his wife became a black mark.

Since 1949, he often replaced Stalin, who began to get sick. However, already this spring, the functionary was deprived of his post as a People's Commissar. At the XIX Congress of the Party Stalin did not include it in the updated Presidium of the Central Committee. In the party they began to look at Molotov as a doomed man. All the signs indicated that a new purge of the upper strata was coming to the country, similar to the one that had already shaken the USSR in the 1930s. Now Molotov was one of the first applicants for the execution. According to Khrushchev's memoirs, Stalin once spoke aloud about his suspicions that the former People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs was recruited by enemy Western intelligence during his diplomatic trips to the United States.

After Stalin's death

Molotov was rescued only by Stalin's unexpected death on March 5, 1953. His departure from life was a shock not only for the country, but for the surrounding environment. By this time Stalin had become a deity whose death it was hard to believe. People rumored that Molotov could replace the leader as the head of state. Affected by his fame, as well as many years of work in senior positions.

But Molotov once again did not claim to lead. "Collective power" again appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs. Molotov supported Khrushchev and his entourage during the attack on Beria and Malenkov. However, the emerged alliance did not last long. In the party elite there were always disputes about the foreign policy course. Particularly acute was the issue of relations with Yugoslavia. In addition, Molotov and Voroshilov objected to Khrushchev about his decisions on the development of virgin lands. The time passed when there was only one leader in the country. Of course, Khrushchev did not possess the tenth of the power that Stalin had. The lack of hardware weight eventually led to his resignation.

But even earlier, Molotov said good-bye to his leading post. In 1957 he merged with Kaganovich and Malenkov into a so-called anti-Party group. The target of the attack was Khrushchev, who was scheduled to resign. However, the party majority managed to fail the group's vote. There was a rematch of the system. Molotov lost the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Last years

After 1957, Molotov held insignificant state posts. For example, he was the Soviet ambassador to Mongolia. After criticizing the decisions of the 22nd Congress, he was expelled from the party and sent to retirement. Molotov remained active until his last days. As a private person, he wrote and published books and articles. In 1984, already a deep old man was able to achieve recovery in the CPSU.

In the 1980s, the poet Felix Chuev published his conversations with the mastodon of Soviet politics. And, for example, the grandson of Vyacheslav Molotov, political scientist Vyacheslav Nikonov became the author of detailed memoirs and studies on the biography of the Soviet functionary. The former second person in the state passed away in 1986 at the age of 96.