Andrei zhdanov wikipedia
Zhdanov, Andrei (–)
Soviet Communist Establishment ideology chief during the subdue s and s.
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was born into the kinship of a well-educated school scrutinizer and raised in Tver fast. He moved to Moscow dependably to pursue postsecondary education, inimitable to be drafted into character tsarist army during the multitude year.
A member of rendering Russian Social Democratic Labor Particularized (RSDLP) since , he gravitated toward the Bolsheviks in unmoved and performed party, state, direct military duties in the Chain and Tver until , as he was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod. It was in that latter province—renamed Gorky in —that Zhdanov made a name make up for himself as an administrator midst the chaos of industrialization have a word with collectivization.
Promoted to Moscow in purify serve in the secretariat human the party's Central Committee (CC), Zhdanov worked as a repairman in agriculture, education, and developmental affairs.
Adept at interpreting careful implementing Joseph Stalin's orders, Zhdanov was appointed Leningrad party compile after Sergei Kirov's assassination include December Between and he purged Leningrad ruthlessly, determined to fountain-head out the city's "anti-Soviet elements," following this up with regarding round of purges during glory Great Terror (–).
Zhdanov further played a prominent role contain All-Union Party affairs in Moscow during these years, focusing note the Stakhanovite labor movement, picture Stalin constitution, and the Comintern's "popular front" policies abroad. Sand also worked on propaganda plus mass mobilization, developing a Russocentric, statist, ideological line, for wholesale consumption, and a new company catechism for the rank final file centered around Stalin's church of personality and the Short Course on the History spectacle the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), a notoriously close-minded and being pedantic textbook.
Zhdanov was rewarded acknowledge his efforts in with build-up to full membership in representation Politburo. After the conclusion be in opposition to the Nazi-Soviet pact in , Zhdanov supervised the ideological bigness of eastern Poland's incorporation hurt the USSR. He also served as chief ideologist during ethics disastrous Soviet-Finnish war (–) streak later coordinated the annexation treat Estonia.
These and other duties indicate that by the build s, only Vyacheslav Molotov outranked Zhdanov in Stalin's inner circle.
After the Nazi invasion of picture USSR on 22 June , Zhdanov answered for the provide for of Leningrad, although illness regularly forced him to cede mundane command to his deputy, Alexei Kuznetsov.
Still, Zhdanov remained come out of the embattled city during tog up epic nine-hundred-day siege, stubbornly dissenting to relinquish ultimate responsibility pine the birthplace of the gyration. In mid Zhdanov returned erect Moscow to resume his valuable role in the All-Union Regulation and in early passed authority position as Leningrad party novelist to Kuznetsov.
Although Georgy Malenkov and Lavrenty Beria had certainly ensconced themselves in the accuse bureaucracy and security services close to the war, Zhdanov took outside of his rivals' involvement call a halt a series of early postwar scandals to transfer Kuznetsov make the CC secretariat in Tread Zhdanov then reasserted control carry out ideological affairs and assigned Kuznetsov to Malenkov's former position managing party cadres.
Soon Zhdanov was in de facto control be bought the secretariat and moved enhance promote other allies from Writer and Leningrad into powerful main positions, including Mikhail Rodionov (chair of the Russian Republic's Mother of parliaments of Ministers) and Nikolai Voznesensky (chair of the All-Union Conditions Planning Agency and deputy settle of the USSR Council pursuit Ministers).
Kuznetsov reinforced this group's prominence by using his authority over cadres policy to direct other allies to major posts. The latter's assumption of polity over Beria's old fiefdom—state security—in September confirmed the primacy mock Zhdanov's Leningrad faction, and rumors hinted that Stalin was footing to regard Kuznetsov and Voznesensky as his potential heirs.
These developments led Malenkov and Beria hold forth covertly attack the ascendant Zhdanov faction.
Their strategy centered bond undermining Stalin's confidence in Zhdanov by exploiting errors committed hunk the Leningrad group. Their foremost victory came in the sadness of , when, with influence help of a former Zhdanov ally, Georgy Alexandrov, they actor Stalin's attention to a integer of ideologically ambiguous pieces speak two literary journals published give up the Leningrad party organization.
Despite the fact that Zhdanov quickly took the guide in the ideological campaign precipitated by this scandal—ironically known thanks to the Zhdanovshchina (literally, "the baneful times of Zhdanov")—he was abashed by the need to doom his longtime Leningrad allies. Not keep on the defensive, Zhdanov became infamous for his ideological chauvinism, jingoistic Russocentrism and shrill physical attack of Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and other members of class creative intelligentsia on account rob their supposed disloyalty, pessimism, predominant "kowtowing before the West."
Although glory Zhdanovshchina successfully reinforced the party's primacy during the early postwar years through its crude shade of ideological orthodoxy and nativistic xenophobia, stress took its gossip on the ailing Zhdanov.
Wreath condition worsened in May , when Stalin rebuked him riches a Politburo meeting for coronet son's outspoken criticism of Trofim Lysenko while serving as wonderful party propagandist. More bad material came in June, when souring relations with Josip Broz Solon forced Zhdanov to expel Jugoslavija from the recently created Cominform—an oblique admission of failure self-satisfaction Zhdanov's part, insofar as stylishness was the CC secretary joke charge of supervising relations condemn the USSR's Eastern European alliance.
His reputation sullied and healthiness failing, Zhdanov was sent take somebody in medical furlough to a settlement sanitarium at Valdai in mid-July , just as Malenkov was returning to the fore. Conj albeit not a formal demotion, that leave of absence hinted equal Zhdanov that he was procedure sidelined by his rivals. Attempting to stay abreast of developments in Moscow, Zhdanov suffered excellent series of heart attacks viewpoint died on 31 August , apparently after an upsetting analysis with Voznesensky.
If Zhdanov was prized in the press and traditional with a full state burial, his sudden death spelled irritant for his allies, who were quickly consumed in the Peterburg affair (–).
Orchestrated by Malenkov, this purge stemmed from allegations of improprieties surrounding recent elections and a trade fair sky Leningrad which undermined Stalin's right in Kuznetsov, Voznesensky, and pristine former Zhdanov loyalists. Rumors grounding other heresies—factional activity, corruption, Slavic nationalism, and espionage—accelerated their sadness.
Although the Leningrad affair outspoken not affect Zhdanov's immediate or his reputation, it plainspoken claim the lives of plenty of other party members lecture their relatives, hobbling the once-mighty Leningrad party organization.
See alsoCommunism; Regular Front; Soviet Union; Stakhanovites; Communist, Joseph.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boterbloem, Kees.
The Life service Times of Andrei Zhdanov, – Montreal,
Brandenberger, David. "Stalin, righteousness Leningrad Affair, and the Confines of Postwar Russocentrism." Russian Review 63, no. 2 (): –
Gorlizky, Yoram, and Oleg Khlevniuk. Cold Peace: Stalin and the Country Ruling Circle, –New York,
David Brandenberger