Alexei Kirichenko

Alexei Kirichenko
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine
In office
12 June 1953 – 26 December 1957
Preceded by Leonid Melnikov
Succeeded by Nikolai Podgorny
Full member of the 19th, 20th Presidium
In office
12 July 1955 – 4 May 1960
Member of the 20th Secretariat
In office
17 December 1957 – 5 April 1960
Personal details
Born 25 February [O.S. 12 February] 1908
Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire
Died 28 December 1975(1975-12-28) (aged 67)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality Soviet
Political party Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Profession Mechanical engineer, civil servant

Alexei Illarionovoich Kirichenko (Russian: Алексе́й Илларио́нович Кириче́нко; 12(25) February 1908 – 28 December 1975) was a Soviet politician. Between 1957 and 1960 he was a Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and effectively the second person in the party after Nikita Khrushchev.[1]

Biography

Kirichenko was born in the village Chornobayivka of Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire in a family of Ukrainian factory worker. From the age of 11 he started earning for living by working in the fields and then at railways. After graduating from a mechanical school he worked in Kazakhstan as an engineer in a sovkhoz. He then returned to Ukraine to receive a university degree (1936) and teach agricultural engineering. In 1938, he became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and in 1941 its Secretary of Industry (later in 1949 he was promoted to the 2nd Secretary and in June 1953 to the 1st Secretary). During World War II, serving as a party functionary, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. In 1953, he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and in 1957 one of the secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. During 1957–1960, Kirichenko was effectively the second person in the Communist Party after Khrushchev, who was his patron since the 1930s. However, Khrushchev gradually became disappointed with Kirichenko whom he saw as a somewhat arrogant bureaucrat, not capable or willing to understand and solve the management problems, either on the national or international scale. As a result, in 1960 Kirichenko was demoted to the position of the first secretary of the Party Committee of Rostov Oblast and retired in 1962. He died in 1975 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.[1]

According to Enver Hoxha, in the midst of the Soviet-Albanian split an Albanian military student studying in the Soviet Union had met Kirichenko during a train ride. The latter said to him, "Good for your Party, which exposed Khrushchev. Long live Enver Hoxha! Long live socialist Albania! . . . Don't yield, give Enver my best wishes!"[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Микалай Аляксандравич Зянькович (2002). Самые закрытые люди: Энциклопедия биографий. Olma Media Group. pp. 246–248. ISBN 978-5-94850-035-5. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  2. ↑ Hoxha, Enver. The Khrushchevites. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1984. pp. 202-203.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Nikolai Kiselyov		 1st Secretary of the Communist Party of Rostov Oblast
1960–1960 		Succeeded by
Aleksandr Basov
Preceded by
Leonid Melnikov		 First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine
1953–1957 		Succeeded by
Nikolai Podgorny
Preceded by
Anatoliy Kolybanov		 1st Secretary of the Communist Party of Odessa Oblast
1945–1950 		Succeeded by
Aleksei Yepishev


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.