Nikolai Bulganin is a well-known national statesman. He was a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Marshal of the Soviet Union, one of the closest associates of Joseph Stalin. In different years, he headed the State Bank, the Council of Ministers, and was the Minister of Defense of the USSR. He has the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Bulganin was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1895. In his own autobiography, he writes that his father served in a steam mill about fifty kilometers from the city at the Seym station. However, there is other evidence that Alexander Pavlovich came from the townspeople of the city of Semenov, worked as a clerk at the factories of the baker Bugrov. For example, in the museum of Bugrov himself in Volodarsk and now you can find a cash book with the signatures of A.P. Bulganin. All this indicates that he managed solid money.
But in any case, Nikolai Bulganin’s father did not manage to make a fortune, the family lived very modestly. In the year of the October Revolution, the hero of our article became a graduate of a real school. After that, he worked for some time in Nizhny Novgorod itself, first as a student in electrical engineering, and then as a clerk.
Road to people
When the October Revolution took place, Nikolai Bulganin immediately realized that this was his chance to build a career for himself. Of the many parties that participated in the overthrow of the tsarist regime, he chose the Bolsheviks and, as we know, he was right.
Having joined the party, he began with service in the armed guards at an explosives plant located at Rastyapino station. Already in the summer of 1918 he was appointed deputy chairman of the Cheka at the Nizhny Novgorod railway station, and by December of the following year he went to the battlefields of the civil war as part of the Turkestan front. Nikolai Bulganin, whose biography is considered in this article, worked there in a special department, and after the front was liquidated, he was transferred to the organs of the Turkestan Cheka.
After the end of the civil war, the country began to return to its usual peaceful life. The Bolsheviks experienced a serious shortage of qualified business executives; they had to close a large number of senior posts in various fields and at various levels. Bulganin had experience in economic work, albeit small. Therefore, in 1922 he was summoned to Moscow to be included in the board of the trust of the electric industry of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.
Career growth of Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin continues quite quickly. In 1927, he was already director of the newly created electric plant in the capital. It was a large and important enterprise, which at that time employed about twelve thousand people. The plant produced products that were extremely important for the whole country in the era of industrialization. These were floodlights, radio tubes, automotive equipment, all kinds of electric vacuum devices. Bulganin understood that this is a responsible post, if he shows himself well in it, he can count on a further increase. Otherwise, they will put an end to his career and send him to a distant province. Bulganin made every effort to bring the plant to the forefront of socialist production. The enterprise was considered successful, it was constantly set as an example to others.
Moscow Mayor
A promising and responsible manager, already proven effective, is appointed chairman of the executive committee in Moscow. In fact, this is a position that corresponds to the modern mayor of the city. Of course, in importance it was somewhat inferior to the post of head of the capital city committee of the party, so Bulganin, in fact, did not have political power. But he was responsible for solving almost all of the economic problems in Moscow.
At that time, the era of industrialization was proclaimed in the Union, the number of residents of villages and villages who came to large cities increased every year. Moscow was no exception. New factories and factories were constantly opening, which required labor. At the same time, there was a catastrophic shortage of housing in the capital, the existing roads did not have the necessary capacity, there were practically no social infrastructure for such a large number of residents.
The head of state himself was interested in the development of Moscow, so the meetings between Bulganin and Stalin took place constantly. The hero of our article personally reported to the Generalissimo how progress is being made in resolving a particular issue. In this post, he proved himself to be a competent manager, perfectly fulfilling the tasks that his leadership set. Bulganin always knew how not to engage in meaningless and endless disputes, setting off to fulfill one or another assignment. Moreover, he lacked political ambitions, which could not but please the leader. In the event of failure, he calmly accepted constructive criticism, even if it was already becoming too unfair and cruel.
For all these reasons, Stalin liked him very much; over time, he began to promote him to the country's top leadership. At the VII Congress of the CPSU (b), Bulganin was elected as a candidate for membership in the Central Committee. This happened in early 1934.
Great terror
When the Great Terror began, it turned out that the only chance for a major leader to survive was a loyal attitude towards Stalin. Bulganin had no problems with this. One by one, the Stalinist nominees began to take the place of politicians, whom they began to suspect of unreliability.
By the summer of 1937, Bulganin was appointed chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; in October, he became a member of the Central Committee of the party. The next increase was not long in coming - in the fall of 1938 the hero of our article becomes deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and chairman of the board of the USSR State Bank.
Bulganin served as head of the State Bank until May 1945, with a few short breaks.
War
It was Bulganin who headed the USSR State Bank in the most difficult period of its history - during the Great Patriotic War. Many recognize his merit in that the country's financial system at that time did not collapse.
As soon as Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, Bulganin was appointed to the military council, like most other civilian leaders. He was a member of the Council of the 2nd Baltic, Western and 1st Belorussian fronts.
It is worth noting that he was not a great specialist in military tactics, he was more impressed by the work at the head of the State Bank of the USSR, but he tried to figure it out, reported to Stalin if he considered any actions of the command wrong.
The influence of the generals grew, which worried the Secretary General, so he decided to introduce Bulganin into the military command. At the end of 1944, he was appointed deputy commissar of defense, became a member of the GKO, and since February 1945 he was at the headquarters of the Supreme High Command.
When the war was triumphantly completed, Stalin first began to think about a radical renewal of his entourage, introducing the most promising, in his opinion, politicians into the country's top officials.
In March 1946, Nikolai Bulganin became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, as well as the first deputy minister of the armed forces. It was the hero of our article that the Secretary General entrusted with the development of post-war reform of the army.
Led the army
Despite the fact that there were general epaulettes on Bulganin , in fact, it turned out that the Soviet army was controlled by a civilian specialist, which could not but annoy the senior officers.
Moreover, in 1947, Stalin appointed Bulganin as Minister of Armed Forces, continuing the policy under which civilian managers control the military. As a result, a sensitive situation arose in the upcoming parade in honor of the October Revolution on November 7th. The fact is that Marshal Meretskov was to command the parade, but Bulganin, who at that time was in the rank of colonel general, was to take it. To eliminate the annoying discrepancy, he was urgently assigned the insignia of the marshal. So Nikolai Bulganin, at times, received military ranks quite unexpectedly.
Another problem associated with the parade was that Bulganin did not know how to ride a horse. Namely, in this form, parades have always been accepted before. Then it was decided that he would go around the system by car. At first, it seemed to others something out of the ordinary, but over time everyone got used to it, but now it's hard to imagine a parade without an open limousine.
In the immediate environment
In 1948, Bulganin became a member of the Politburo. He finds himself among Stalin’s inner circle along with Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev. But, as is known from history, such proximity to the top leadership of any country is not always safe. Stalin at that time was already 70 years old, he felt his advanced age, realizing that many from his closest circle were peeking in his place, every year he became more and more suspicious.
As a result, it was decided to “push” a little Bulganin, who became already very influential. Therefore, in 1949, he was removed from the post of Minister of Armed Forces, while remaining Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
Like every high-ranking Soviet official, intelligence agencies collected incriminating evidence on Bulganin. Stalin wanted to be sure that at the first opportunity he could remove any official, no matter how influential he was.
Despite the extremely nervous situation and the heavy burden of responsibility that lay on Bulganin to restore the country destroyed by the war, he remained faithful to the Secretary General. He was one of the regular participants in traditional meetings, was present at the last Stalin dinner on the night of March 1, 1953.
The death of Stalin
After the death of Generalissimo, Bulganin was in the four leaders who had to decide who would continue to govern the country. It also included Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev. Of all of them, Bulganin was the least ambitious, but this is precisely what allowed him to advance in the further struggle for power.
In 1953, he heads the new Ministry of Defense, which includes the naval and military ministries, and in the summer, united with Khrushchev and Malenkov, neutralizes Beria.
The next victim of the undercover fight in the Kremlin was Malenkov, who in early 1955 was removed from his post as head of government. It is believed that this was the merit of the efforts of Khrushchev. He was demoted to minister of power plants.
Bulganin, who always supported the new Secretary General, became the chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Georgy Zhukov was appointed to the post of Minister of Defense. Do not ignore the awards of Nikolai Bulganin. On the day of the 60th anniversary, he was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor.
In oblivion
At the top of his political career, the hero of our article could not last long, only two years. In 1957, Bulganin, who always accurately chose whose side should be taken in the next political intrigue, made the only mistake that became fatal for him. He sided with Malenkov, Molotov, and Kaganovich, who tried to remove Khrushchev. Literally until the last moment, it was unclear in whose favor the scales would tip. Decisive was the intervention of the hero of World War II, Marshal Zhukov, who supported Khrushchev. The defeatists were expelled from high posts.
Instead of Bulganin, Khrushchev himself became the head of the government, and the hero of our article was sent to lead the State Bank, but he did not last long in this post either.
In August Bulganin was appointed to the post of the economic council in Stavropol, invented by Khrushchev. Already in the fall he was removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee, and in November they were deprived of the military rank of Marshal, having been reduced to Colonel General.
In 1960, Bulganin retired almost imperceptibly.
At the end of life
It is worth noting that during the reign of Khrushchev, times were calmer than during the Great Terror. The losers were not arrested or killed; they were simply forgotten about them. Both Molotov, Malenkov, and Kaganovich lived many years after the resignation, but no one knew what they were doing, they no longer held any significant posts.
The fate of Bulganin came out shorter than that of many of them. In 1975, he died in his eightieth year of life. He spent the last years in Moscow, as is the case with most members of the highest Soviet leadership, Bulganin’s grave is in the Novodevichy cemetery.
Personal life
The family of Nikolai Bulganin consisted of a wife and two children. Elena Mikhailovna was five years younger than him, she worked as an English teacher. She died much later than her husband - in 1986.
In 1925, they had a son, Leo, who died in one year with his father. The daughter Vera became the wife of Admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, who headed the Soviet fleet in the fifties, and, following the results of the Great Patriotic War, had the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.