The history of such a totalitarian superpower as the Soviet Union contains many heroic and gloomy pages. This could not but leave an imprint on the biographies of those who performed it. Among these personalities is Clement Voroshilov. He lived a long life, which was not without heroism, but at the same time on his conscience a lot of human lives, since it was his signature that stands under many death lists.
Clement Voroshilov: biography
The future famous Soviet military leader was born in 1881 in the village of Upper Yekaterinoslav province (now the city of Lisichansk). His father, Efrem Andreyevich Voroshilov, was a railway worker, and his mother, Maria Vasilievna, was 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 Vasilyevka, which he left 2 years later to enter the Yuryevsky Metallurgical Plant. In 1903, the young man went to Lugansk, where he got a job at the Hartmann locomotive plant.
Participation in the preparation of the revolution
Once among professional workers, the young Kliment Voroshilov was involved in anti-government activities. In particular, he was immediately offered to join the ranks of the RSDLP, and the next year he became a member of the Lugansk Committee of the Bolsheviks. During the revolution of 1905, Voroshilov led the strike of workers at local enterprises and was involved in the organization of fighting squads. He was elected a delegate to the 4th and 5th congresses of the RSDLP. In 1908 he was sent by the party to Baku, where he conducted underground party work. Upon his return to Petrograd, he continued his revolutionary activity. Repeatedly arrested and served a link. In particular, he was sent under police surveillance to the Cherdynsky Territory of the Arkhangelsk Province for several months.
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 commissar of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee for city government. At the same time, he, along with F. Dzerzhinsky, was active in organizing 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, at the head of which he defended Kharkov from German-Austrian troops.
During the Civil War
Proving himself a brave military leader in Ukraine, Kliment Efremovich was soon appointed commander of the Tsaritsyno group of forces. Further, his career went on increasing, and during the Civil War, he held many important posts. In particular, Kliment Voroshilov was the deputy commander and member of the Military Council of the Southern Front, led the 10th army, the Peopleās Commissariat of 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 Horse Army.
One of the darkest pages of Voroshilovās biography was his participation in 1921 in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. After these events, he was appointed a member of the Southeast Bureau of the Party Central Committee, as well as the commander of the North Caucasian Military District.
From 1924 to 1925 he was the commander of the Moscow Military District and a member of the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR.
Few people know that during the same period Voroshilov patronized the Bolshoi Theater and was known as a great ballet lover.
As People's Commissar of Defense
After the death of M. Frunze Voroshilov became chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and headed the country's naval department, and in 1934-1940 - the Peopleās Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union.
In total, he spent almost 15 years at this post, which is a kind of record for the Soviet period. Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich (1881-1969) had a reputation as the most devoted supporter of Stalin and rendered him effective support in the fight against Trotsky. In October 1933, he went with a government delegation to Turkey, where together with AtatĆ¼rk he hosted a military parade in Ankara.
In November 1935, by decision of the CEC and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, he was awarded the newly established title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
After 5 years, he was removed 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 to the post of head of the Defense Committee at the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union.
The participation of Kliment Voroshilov 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 Stalinās personal sanction. All who fell into them were subsequently shot. So, Voroshilovās signature is found on 185 lists, in which were the names of 18,000 people.
As a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Kliment Voroshilov approved many so-called limits, that is, quotas for the number of repressed. In particular, in April 1938, he, together with Stalin, Kaganovich, Molotov, and Yezhov, signed an affirmative resolution, according to which the number of people who were to be shot was increased by 4,000 for the Irkutsk region.
As people's commissar of defense, Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich took an active part in the repressions against the Red Army command staff, 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: āTo Comrade Yezhov. Take all the scoundrels ... "
During the Great Patriotic War
Since the beginning of the war, K. E. Voroshilov, as a member of the State Defense Committee, also held the following positions:
- Commander-in-Chief of the North-West Command (until 05.09.41);
- Commander of the Leningrad Front;
- representative of the Headquarters for the formation of troops;
- Head of the Trophy Committee at T-bills;
- Commander-in-chief of the partisan movement ;
- Chairman of the Armistice Commission.
Post-war activities
In the first years after the war ended, 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 then for 7 years he led the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Death and funeral
Clement 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. Marshal was buried in the capital, near the Kremlin wall, on Red Square. According to contemporaries, this was the first such a large-scale mourning ceremony of farewell to a statesman of the USSR in the twenty years that passed after Zhdanovās funeral.
Family and Children
The wife of Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich - Gold Davidovna Gorbman - was of Jewish faith, but for the sake of marriage with her lover she was baptized and took the name Catherine. Such an act provoked 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 the deputy director of the Museum V.I. Lenin.
It so happened that in the Voroshilovs friendly family there were no children of their own. However, they brought up the children of M.V. Frunze who remained orphans: Timur, who died at the front in 1942, and Tatyana. In addition, in 1918, the couple adopted the boy Peter, who later became a famous designer and rose to the rank of lieutenant general. From him, the couple had 2 grandchildren - Vladimir and Klim.
Awards
Klim Voroshilov is a holder 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 of the Red Banner and many other awards, including foreign states. In particular, the military leader is a hero of the MPR, a knight of Finlandās Grand Cross, and also an honorary citizen of the Turkish city of Izmir.
Perpetuating memory
During his lifetime, K.E. Voroshilov became the most celebrated military figure in the Civil War, in whose honor songs were composed, collective farms, ships, factories, etc. were named.
In his honor several cities were named:
- Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk) was renamed twice and returned its historical name only in 1990.
- Voroshilovsk (Alchevsk). In this city, the marshal in his youth began his labor and party activities.
- Voroshilov (Ussuriysk, 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.
To this day, Voroshilov streets are in dozens of cities of the former USSR. Among them are Goryachiy Klyuch, Tolyatti, 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 Prospect.
The breastplate for awarding the most well-aimed marksmen, approved at the end of 1932 and called the Voroshilovsky shooter, deserves special mention. According to the recollections of people whose youth fell on the pre-war years, it was prestigious to wear it, and the youth sought to be sure to be awarded such a badge.
In honor of Klim Efremovich, a series of KV tanks manufactured at the Putilov factory was also named, and in 1941-1992 he was named after the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
The monument to Clement Voroshilov is installed on his grave. And in Moscow, at house number 3 on Romanov Lane there is a memorial plate informing about this.
Now you know some facts about the biography of the famous Soviet military leader and party leader Klim Efremovich Voroshilov. A wonderful family man and a great patriot of his homeland, he, nevertheless, during the years of the Stalinist repressions sent several thousand people to death, most of whom were not guilty of what they were accused of and talked about to be shot.