Valery Ivanovich Meshlauk

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Valery Meshlauk

Valery Ivanovich Meschlauk ( Russian Валерий Иванович Межлаук , Latvian Valērijs Mežlauks ; born February 7, 1893 in Kharkov ; † July 29, 1938 ) was a Soviet politician and chairman of Gosplan (1934 to 1937). He was also known for his caricatures from various committee meetings.

biography

Meshlauk was the son of a noble Latvian who was a teacher. He had a German mother. His brother was the Soviet politician Iwan Meshlauk (1891-1938).

Education and advancement

Meshlauk studied history and philology at the University of Kharkov from 1914 to 1917 . As early as 1907 he is said to have joined the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDLP). From October 1916 he served in the army. From March 1917 he was a member and later chairman of the Kharkov Campaign Committee , since October 1917 a member of the military revolutionary committee in Kharkov and in early 1918 People's Commissar for Finance in the Soviet Republic of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog and a member of the Donetsk Regional Committee of the regional Communist Party. At the end of 1918 he was a member of the Revolutionary War Council of the 5th and 10th Red Army . In early 1919 he took up the position of Deputy People's Commissar for Military Affairs of Ukraine . He then worked in various military councils of the army and since 1920 as the representative of the People's Commissariat for the railways.

From 1922 to 1924 he was Commissioner of the People's Commissariat for Communication of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR). In 1927 he became a candidate and in 1934 a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (Central Committee).

At Gosplan

From 1924 to 1928 Meshlauk served as a member of the Presidium and from 1928 to 1931 as deputy chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR.

From November 1931 he assumed the position of First Deputy Chairman and from April 25, 1934 to February 25, 1937 and from October 17 to December 1, 1937 that of the Chairman of the Committee for Economic Planning of the USSR , the powerful state planning Gosplan , true. He became Gosplan chairman as successor to Valerian Kuibyshev ; he was followed in 1937 by Gennady Ivanovich Smirnov.

From 1934 to 1937 he was also deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in the government of Molotov , since February 1937 People's Commissar for Heavy Industry of the USSR and in August / September 1937 People's Commissar of Technology.

He was considered one of the most important theorists and organizers of Soviet economic planning. The industrialization of the Soviet Union took place under his leadership. Khrushchev wrote about him in his memoirs: "I think of the chairman of the State Planning Commission, he was the best after Kuibyshev".

Stalin victims

In the course of the Great Purge initiated by Stalin , Meshlauk and his wife Sophia Petrovna were arrested on December 1, 1937. He was accused of having had contacts with the German government, sentenced to death and shot . His brother Ivan Meshlauk was arrested the day after, also sentenced to death and executed . In 1956 both brothers were rehabilitated .

Honors

literature

  • Montefiore: Stalin - At the court of the red tsar; S. Fischer-Verlag, 2005
  • Spuler: Regents and Governments of the World, Minister-Ploetz Vol. 4.1964, ISBN 3-87640-026-0

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Meshlauk, Valery Ivanovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Межлаук, Валерий Иванович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet politician and chairman of Gosplan (1934 to 1937)
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Kharkov
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 1938