Leonid Georgievich Melnikov

Leonid Georgievich Melnikov ( Russian Леонид Георгиевич Мельников ; born May 18 ^jul. / 31 May  1906 ^greg. In Degtjarewka, Ujesd Mglin , Chernigov Governorate , Russian Empire ; † 16th April 1981 in Moscow ) was a Soviet politician of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) in the Ukrainian SSR and Kazakh SSR as well as a member and candidate of the Presidium of the CPSU .

Life

Advancement through promotion of Stalin

Melnikov, who came from a simple farming family, started working in a sugar factory when he was fourteen .

At the age of majority he began his political career and was first secretary of a community committee between 1924 and 1928 and then a regional committee of the Komsomol youth association . After joining the CPSU ( Bolsheviks ), he did his military service in the Red Army from 1928 to 1930 and then studied at the Donetsk Industrial Institute . After working as an engineer in a coal mine , his ascent within the CPSU began in 1937 with the support of Josef Stalin .

First he was secretary and finally second secretary of the CPSU in Donetsk Oblast before he became an organizer in the department for personnel selection of the Central Committee (ZK) of the CPSU . Between 1938 and 1954 he was also a member (deputy) of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR . In October 1942 he was appointed First Secretary of the CPSU in Karaganda Oblast in the Kazakh SSR, but then took over the post of First Secretary of the CPSU in Donetsk Oblast in February 1944.

In July 1947 he was first secretary, then second secretary and finally in December 1949 first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine . This made him party leader of the largest regional division within the Soviet Union. Between 1950 and 1954 he was also a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet .

At the 19th party congress of the CPSU in October 1952 he was elected a member of the Central Committee's Politburo and a member of the Presidium, which later became the Politburo.

Loss of power through de-Stalinization

After the death of his sponsor Stalin on March 5, 1953, Melnikov's decline began: on March 6, 1953, he was demoted from being a member of the presidium of the CPSU to his status as a candidate three months later on June 6, 1953 loses. On June 12, 1953 he was finally replaced as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine by Alexei Illarionowitsch Kirichenko on charges of "gross distortion of the Leninist - Stalinist policy of the Soviet Union within the framework of the Korenisazija ".

Subsequently he was first ambassador to Romania between 1953 and 1955 and then from April 1955 to May 1957 Minister for Coal Mining of the USSR. On the XX. At the CPSU party convention in February 1956, which initiated de-Stalinization , he was only elected as a candidate for the CPSU Central Committee.

Melnikov was then transferred to the Kazakh SSR in May 1957, where he was initially 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. From 1958 and 1962 he was again a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Then he was Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR and there at the same time Chairman of the State Planning Commission ( Gosgortekhnadzor ). He then held the office of chairman of the State Planning Commission from 1961 to February 1966.

Most recently, Leonid Melnikov was chairman of the State Committee for the Supervision of Safety in Industry and Mining at the Council of Ministers of the USSR from February 1966 until his death . During this time he was again a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

After his death he was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.