Kaganovich Lazar Moiseevich: biography, family

The future revolutionary Kaganovich Lazar Moiseevich was born on November 22, 1893 in a small village of Kabany, that in the Kiev province. Information about his father is ambiguous. In the Soviet era, it was stressed that Kaganovich was a descendant of a poor family. However, modern biographers point out the inconsistencies of this version of the testimony of people who knew Lazarus as a child. So, some of them called Moses Kaganovicha prasoleer - the buyer of cattle with considerable earnings.

early years

Whoever the father is, the son does not follow in his footsteps. Kaganovich Lazar Moiseevich as a child began to master the skills of a shoemaker. From the age of 14 he worked in shoe factories. Kaganovich was a Jew, which could not but affect his position in the Russian Empire. Most of the Jewish population was forced to endure the Pale of Settlement and various defeats in the rights. Because of this, many Jews went to the revolution.

Kaganovich Lazar Moiseevich in this sense was no exception. However, his party choice was unusual for a Jew. At that time, the Jewish population massively joined the anarchists, Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Bundists. Lazarus followed in the footsteps of his elder brother Michael and in 1911 joined the Bolsheviks.

Young Bolshevik

The life of a young man has become a classic example for a revolutionary environment. He was constantly arrested for a short time, and the Bolshevik regularly changed his place of residence: Kiev, Ekaterinoslav, Melitopol, etc. In all these cities Kaganovich Lazar Moiseevich created party circles and trade unions of shoemakers and tanners. On the eve of the revolution, he settled in Yuzovka. Working and agitating at a local shoe factory, Kaganovich met a young Nikita Khrushchev. In the future, they maintained contact over the long years of their career growth in the party.

After the October Revolution, Kaganovich went to Petrograd, where he was elected to the Constituent Assembly on the list of Bolsheviks. Later he was engaged in the organization of agitatorial activity, including in the newly created Red Army. When civil war broke out, a loyal member of the party began to work at the front: in Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Central Asia.

In Turkestan, Kaganovich became a member of the local CC of the RCP (B.) And entered the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front. The party functionary was appointed chairman of the city council of Tashkent. Then Kaganovich was elected to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR. The swift movement along the nomenclature ladder of the young member of the party could not help but be left without attention to Stalin, who at that time occupied the post of People's Commissar for Nationalities.

Stalin's protege

Even under Lenin, the young Kaganovich became a loyal supporter of Stalin, who supported him in the inner-Party struggle. The conflict between the leaders of the Bolsheviks flared up immediately after the death of their permanent leader in 1924. Stalin, preparing to confront Trotsky and other Politburo members unpleasant to him, began to raise his own henchmen. Koba had an administrative resource, as a secretary of the Central Committee, he could offer candidacies of his people to important party posts.

Lazar Moiseevich Kaganovich found his place in this scheme. The family and youth of the functionary were tightly connected with Ukraine - it was there that Stalin recommended him as the general secretary of the local Central Committee. At that time, there was no dictatorship. Nevertheless, the collective government did not oppose this proposal, and the party approved an important appointment.

In Ukraine

Once in Ukraine, Lazar Kaganovich began to pursue a policy against "Ukrainization" - the promotion of national culture, school, language, etc. In his new post, the Bolshevik acquired many hardware opponents, among them the chairman of the Republic Council of People's Commissars Vlas Chubar and the People's Commissar of Education Alexander Shumsky . In 1928, they achieved their goal, and Stalin recalled Kaganovich to Moscow. During his tenure in office, the General Secretary of the CC CP (b) of Ukraine achieved some economic recovery after the Civil War.

Collectivization leadership

Returning Kaganovich to the capital, Stalin left him in his cadre cohort and appointed secretary of the Moscow party committee. In addition, Lazar Moiseevich got a seat in the Politburo. In the Central Committee he became responsible for agriculture. Just at the turn of the 20's and 30's. The peasantry had to go through dekulakization. Kaganovich directed the creation of collective farms. It was this loyal and executive supporter that Stalin made responsible for a complex state campaign in the countryside.

For his contribution to collectivization, Kaganovich was one of the first to receive the newly created Order of Lenin. Stalin, once again convinced of his loyalty, made his protege chairman of the commission that carried out a major party purge in 1933-1934. At this time Kaganovich stayed in Moscow "for the main", when the leader left for a whole summer to rest on the Black Sea.

At the head of the Commissariat of Railways

The first five-year plan came . In the economic race, Lazar Moiseevich Kaganovich found himself an application. The biography of the functionary would be incomplete without mentioning his work at the head of the Commissariat of Communications. Appointed to this post in 1935, he lost his post in the Moscow Committee of the Party. The hardware reshuffle was presented as an enhancement. From the point of view of Stalin himself, Kaganovich's movements fit into his own system, inside of which he never concentrated too many posts and power in the hands of one of his proteges.

Under Lazar Moiseevich in the People's Commissariat of Railways, they have achieved an increase in the level of transportation, so important for the then forced modernization. New ways were being built and old ones were being renovated (some of them were in a sad state due to the long exploitation and adversity of the civil war).

Moscow construction sites

For his successes Kaganovich received the Order of the Labor Banner. In addition, in 1936 - 1955 years. His name was Moscow Metro (later received the name of Lenin). It was the people's commissar of communications who led the construction of the "subway" in the capital. Under his control, Moscow was reconstructed. The city received a new look of the capital of the proletarian state. At the same time, many churches were destroyed. The People's Commissar was in charge of the explosion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

In the late 30's, Kaganovich was concurrently head of the energy and economic departments (heavy, fuel and oil industries). In Sovnarkom (government), the Bolshevik became deputy chairman of Comrade Molotov.

During the years of repression

In 1937, Stalin embarked on a new major campaign of purges in the party and the Red Army. Kaganovich, as expected, supported the initiative of the chief with all his strength. He stimulated repression not only in his own People's Commissariat of Railways, but also suggested looking for pests and enemies of the people in all tiers of Soviet society.

Kaganovich - an associate of Stalin, who received access to the lists, which were shot with the sanction of the party top. Dozens of documents with the signature of the People's Commissar remained in the Kremlin archives. According to historians, only 19,000 people were shot on these lists. Other such approximate Stalin were Molotov, Voroshilov and Yezhov (later shot). Kaganovich directed the purges and on the ground. To do this, in 1937 he traveled to some regions of the USSR (including Yaroslavl, Kiev and Ivanovo regions). The party functionary was involved in the infamous Katyn massacre - the murder of Polish prisoners of war.

The Great Patriotic War

During the Great Patriotic War, Kaganovich (as the People's Commissar of Communications) was responsible for the evacuation of enterprises to the east of the country. The biggest burden fell on the railways, which as a whole coped with their task. The Soviet industry managed to quickly establish work in the rear and begin all the necessary supplies to the front. In 1942, the People's Commissar was included in the Military Council of the North Caucasian Front. However, in the main he worked in Moscow, and in the south he visited by visits. Once in Tuapse, where the command post was, during the bombing, he was wounded with a splinter in his hand. At the front, Kaganovich organized the work of military tribunals and the military prosecutor's office.

In the second half of the war, Stalin began to include new members in the State Defense Committee. Among them was Lazar Moiseevich Kaganovich. Books of historians show that he did not play a large role in state short-term bonds, and in many respects was a nominal and technical figure.

Loss of power

In the last Stalin years, Kaganovich continued to occupy the highest state posts. As a "business executive" he was appointed head of the Ministry of Construction Materials Industry. In addition, Lazar Moiseevich returned to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine.

After Stalin's death, Kaganovich entered a fierce party struggle. At first he supported the removal of Beria. However, already in 1957 he, together with Molotov and Malenkov, was included in the new "anti-Party grouping" and removed from all posts. It is noteworthy that Kaganovich knew Khrushchev ever since the Revolution and at some stage even promoted his rise in the ranks of the Stalinist nomenclature.

The former People's Commissar was sent to honorable exile in Asbestos, where he remained on party work. In 1961 he was finally expelled from the CPSU and sent to Kalinin. Old age Kaganovich was isolated - his figure never appeared on the political horizon. Already during perestroika, journalists were able to reach him, recording the memoirs of one of the most senior Soviet officials of the Stalin era. The former People's Commissar died on July 25, 1991 at the age of 97 years.

A family

Like all Stalin's closest associates, Lazar Moiseevich Kaganovich, whose personal life has grown together with the service, has experienced more than one family drama. His elder brother Mikhail, the first to join the Bolshevik Party, was a People's Commissar of the aircraft industry of the USSR. In 1940, he was removed from office and issued a warning. Mikhail, realizing that he could soon become a victim of the NKVD, committed suicide. The other two brothers of Kaganovich were more fortunate. Israel worked in the Ministry of Dairy and Meat Industry, and Israel in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade.

Kaganovich's wife Maria Privorotskaya joined the RSDLP back in 1909. In the Soviet era, she worked in trade unions, led children's homes and was a deputy of the Moscow City Council. When in her youth Maria was engaged in agitatorial party activity, she was met by her future husband Kaganovich Lazar Moiseevich. Children of this couple: Maya's own daughter (prepared the publication of her father's memoirs) and adopted son Yuri.