Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov: biography, family

The history of such a totalitarian superpower as the Soviet Union contains many heroic and gloomy pages. This could not but leave a mark on the biographies of those who had made it. Among such personalities is Kliment Voroshilov. He lived a long life, which was not devoid of heroism, but at the same time on his conscience many human lives, since it is his signature is under many of the executions lists.

Kliment Voroshilov: Biography

The future famous Soviet military commander was born in 1881 in the village of Verkhny, Ekaterinoslav province (now Lisichansk). His father, Efrem Andreevich Voroshilov, was a railway worker, and his mother, Maria Vasilievna, a day laborer.

The family lived very poorly, and from the age of 7, Clement began to work as a shepherd. In 1893-1895, he attended a zemstvo school in the village of Vasilievka, which he left after 2 years to enter the Yuryev Metallurgical Enterprise. In 1903, the young man went to Lugansk, where he got a job at the locomotive building plant of Hartmann.

Participation in the preparation of the revolution

Once in the midst of professional workers, young Kliment Voroshilov was involved in anti-government activities. In particular, he was immediately invited to join the ranks of the RSDLP, and the following year he became a member of the Lugansk Bolshevik Committee. During the revolution of 1905, Voroshilov led a strike of workers of local enterprises and organized combat detachments. Elected delegate to the 4th and 5th Congresses of the RSDLP. In 1908 he was sent to the party in Baku, where he led underground party work. On his return to Petrograd he continued his revolutionary activity. Repeatedly arrested and served a link. In particular, he was sent for several months under the supervision of the police in the Cherdynsky region of the Arkhangelsk province.

1917-1918

After the February Revolution, Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich was elected a member of the Petrograd Soviet of the RSD and the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP. Then he was sent to his native Lugansk, where in March 1917 he headed the local committee of the Bolsheviks, since August - the City Council and the Duma.

In the days of revolutionary events, he was appointed to the post of commissioner of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee for city governorship. At the same time, together with F. Dzerzhinsky, he conducted an active work on the organization of the Cheka.

The aggravation of the situation in Ukraine led to the fact that in March 1918, Kliment Voroshilov returned to his homeland, organized the First Lugansk detachment, which was headed by Kharkov from German-Austrian troops.

During the Civil War

Demonstrated himself as a bold military leader in Ukraine, Kliment Yefremovich was soon appointed commander of the Tsaritsin group of troops. Further his career went on increasing, and during the Civil War he occupied many important posts. In particular, Kliment Voroshilov was deputy commander and member of the Military Council of the Southern Front, led the 10th Army, the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Kharkov Military District and the internal Ukrainian Front. In addition, he is the organizer and member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Cavalry Army.

One of the darkest pages of Voroshilov's biography was his participation in 1921 in the suppression of the Kronstadt Uprising. After these events, he was appointed a member of the South-Eastern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party, as well as the commander of the North Caucasian Military District.

From 1924 to 1925 he was commander of the troops of the MVD and a member of the RVS of the USSR.

Few know that during this same period Voroshilov patronized the Bolshoi Theater and was known as a great lover of the ballet.

At the post of Commissar of Defense

After the death of M. Frunze Voroshilov became chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and headed the naval department of the country, and in 1934-1940 - the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union.

In total, he spent almost 15 years on this post, which is a kind of record for the Soviet period. Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich (1881-1969) had the reputation of the most devoted supporter of Stalin and rendered him effective support in the struggle against Trotsky. In October 1933, he went with a government delegation to Turkey, where together with Ataturk took the military parade in Ankara.

In November 1935, on the decision of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, he was awarded the newly established rank of marshal of the Soviet Union.

Five years later he was dismissed from the post of People's Commissar, as he did not live up to Stalin's expectations during the Finnish war. However, Voroshilov was not dismissed, but was appointed head of the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union.

Kliment Voroshilov's participation in the Stalinist repressions

In the period from 1937 to 1938, Voroshilov, among many other representatives of the political elite of the USSR, participated in the consideration of lists of persons who were supposed to be repressed with Stalin's personal sanction. Everyone who got into them was subsequently shot. So, Voroshilov's signature is found on 185 lists, in which there were 18,000 names.

As a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Kliment Voroshilov approved a number of so-called limits, that is, quotas for the number of repressed people. In particular, in April 1938, together with Stalin, Kaganovich, Molotov and Yezhov, he signed an affirmative resolution according to which the number of people who were to be shot for the Irkutsk region was increased by 4,000 people.

As the People's Commissar for Defense Voroshilov, Clement Efremovich took an active part in the repressions directed against the RKKA commandos, which in the first years of the war had catastrophic consequences. So, on one of the lists, consisting of the names of 26 commanders, he wrote: "To Comrade Yezhov. Take all the scoundrels ... "

During the Great Patriotic War

Since the beginning of the war, Voroshilov, being a member of the State Committee of Defense, also held the posts:

• Commander-in-chief of the troops of the North-Western direction (until 05.09.41);
• Commander of the Leningrad Front;
• Representative of the Stavka for the formation of troops;
• The leader of the Trophy Committee in the GKO;
• Commander-in-chief of the partisan movement ;
• Chairman of the Armistice Commission.

Post-war activities

In the first years after the end of the war, Marshal Voroshilov headed the Allied Control Commission in Hungary. In parallel with this, until 1953 he was deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. And afterwards for 7 years he headed the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Death and funeral

Kliment Voroshilov, whose career growth in the last decades of his life was suspended due to senile infirmities, died on December 2, 1969 at the age of 89 years. The marshal was buried in the capital, near the Kremlin wall, on Red Square. According to contemporaries, this was the first such a large-scale funeral farewell ceremony with a statesman of the USSR for twenty years that passed after Zhdanov's funeral.

Family and Children

Voroshilov's wife, Kliment Efremovich's Golda Davidovna Gorbman, was a Jewish faith, but for the wedding with her beloved, she baptized herself and took the name Catherine. Such an act caused the anger of the Jewish relatives of the girl who even cursed her. In 1917, Ekaterina Davidovna joined the RSDLP and for many years worked as deputy director of the Museum of Lenin.

It so happened that the friendly Voroshilov family had no children of their own. However, they took on the upbringing of the orphaned children of MV Frunze: Timur, who died at the front in 1942, and Tatyana. In addition, in 1918 the couple adopted Peter the boy, who later became a famous designer and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General. From him the couple had 2 grandchildren - Vladimir and Clim.

Awards

Clim Voroshilov is a knight of almost all the highest awards of the USSR. Including he twice received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

He has 8 Orders of Lenin and 6 - the Red Banner and many other awards, including foreign states. In particular, the military commander is a Hero of the MPR, the Cavalier of the Great Cross of Finland, and also an honorary citizen of the Turkish city of Izmir.

Perpetuation of memory

Even during his lifetime, Voroshilov became the most glorified military figure of the Civil War, in whose honor songs were composed, collective farms, ships, factories, etc. were called.

Several cities were named in his honor:

• Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk) was twice renamed and returned the historical name only in 1990.
• Voroshilovsk (Alchevsk). In this city the marshal in his youth began his labor and party activities.
• Voroshilov (Ussuriisk, Primorsky Territory).
• Voroshilovsk (Stavropol, from 1935 to 1943).

In addition, his name was Khoroshevsky district of the capital and the central district of the city of Donetsk.

And to this day the streets of Voroshilov are in dozens of cities of the former USSR. Among them are Hot Key, Togliatti, Brest, Orenburg, Penza, Ershov, Serpukhov, Korosten, Angarsk, Voronezh, Khabarovsk, Klintsy, Kemerovo, Lipetsk, Rybinsk, St. Petersburg, Simferopol, Chelyabinsk and Izhevsk. In Rostov-on-Don there is also Voroshilovsky Prospekt.

A special mention deserves a badge for awarding the most accurate marksmen, approved at the end of 1932 and named "Voroshilovsky Shooter". According to the recollections of people, whose youth was in the pre-war years, it was prestigious to wear, and young people always wanted to get such a badge.

In honor of Klim Yefremovich, a series of KV tanks manufactured at the Putilov factory was also named , and in 1941-1992 his name was worn by the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

Monument to Kliment Voroshilov is installed on his grave. And in Moscow at the house number 3 on Romanov pereulok there is an announcing memorial plate.

Now you know some facts about the biography of the famous Soviet commander and party leader Klim Efremovich Voroshilov. A fine family man and a great patriot of his homeland, nevertheless, during the Stalinist repressions he sent several thousand people to death, most of whom were not guilty of what they were accused of and told to be shot.