Nikolai Bulganin is a well-known Russian 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. Over the years, he headed the State Bank, the Council of Ministers, was the Minister of Defense of the USSR. Has the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Bulganin was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1895. In his autobiography, he writes that his father served at a steam mill fifty kilometers from the city at the Seimas station. However, there are other data according to which Alexander Pavlovich came from the townspeople of the city of Semyonov, worked as a clerk at the factories of the bakery Bugrov. For example, in the museum of Bugrov himself in Volodarsk, even now you can find a cash book with the signatures of A. P. Bulganin. All this indicates that he disposed of solid money.
But in any case, Nikolai Bulganin's father failed 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 realschools. After that, he worked for some time in Nizhny Novgorod itself, first as an apprentice electrical engineer, 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 numerous 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 by serving in the armed guards at the explosives factory located at the 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 discussed 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; a large number of responsible posts in various fields and at various levels had to be closed. Bulganin had experience in economic work, albeit a small one. Therefore, in 1922, he was summoned to Moscow to be included in the board of the electrical industry trust of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.
The career growth of Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin continues quite quickly. In 1927, he was already the director of an electrical plant recently created 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 searchlights, radio lamps, automotive equipment, all kinds of electrovacuum devices. Bulganin understood that this was a responsible post, if he showed himself well in it, he would be able to count on further promotion. Otherwise, his career will be put an end to and sent to a distant province. Bulganin made every effort to bring the plant to the forefront of socialist production. The enterprise was considered a success, it was constantly held up as an example to others.
Moscow Mayor
A promising and responsible manager, who has already proven his effectiveness, 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 terms of significance, she was somewhat inferior to the post of head of the capital's city party committee, so Bulganin, in fact, had no political power. But he was responsible for solving almost all 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 plants and factories were constantly opened, which required labor. At the same time, there was a catastrophic lack of housing in the capital, the existing roads did not have the necessary capacity, there was practically nothere were social infrastructure facilities for such a large number of inhabitants.
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 the solution of this or that issue was progressing. In this position, he proved himself to be a competent manager, perfectly fulfilling the tasks that the leadership set for him. Bulganin always knew how not to indulge in senseless and endless disputes, setting out to carry out this or that assignment. In addition, he had no political ambitions, which the leader could not help but like. 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 really liked him, he eventually began to promote him to the top leadership of the country. At the VII Congress of the CPSU (b) Bulganin was elected as a candidate member of the Central Committee. This happened in early 1934.
The Great Terror
When the Great Terror began, it turned out that the only chance for a major leader to survive was loy alty to Stalin. Bulganin had no problems with this. Stalin's nominees one by one began to take the place of politicians who were suspected of being unreliable.
By the summer of 1937, Bulganin was appointed chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, in October he was a member of the Central Committee of the party. The next promotion was not long in coming - in the fall of 1938, the heroof our article becomes Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and Chairman of the Board of the State Bank of the USSR.
Bulganin served as head of the State Bank until May 1945 with several short breaks.
War
It was Bulganin who headed the State Bank of the USSR in the most difficult period of its history - during the Great Patriotic War. Many recognize his merit in the fact that the country's financial system did not collapse at that time.
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 B altic, 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 everything out, reported to Stalin if he considered some actions of the command to be 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 People's Commissar of Defense, became a member of the State Defense Committee, and from February 1945 was at the headquarters of the Supreme Command.
When the war was successfully completed, Stalin, first of all, began to think about a radical renewal of his environment, introducing the most promising, in his opinion, politicians into the top officials of the country.
In March 1946, Nikolai Bulganin became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, as well as the first deputy minister of the armed forces. Exactlythe hero of our article, the Secretary General instructed the development of the post-war reform of the army.
Leading the army
Despite the fact that Bulganin had generals' shoulder straps, it actually turned out that the Soviet army was controlled by a civilian specialist, which could not but irritate the senior officers.
Moreover, in 1947, Stalin appointed Bulganin Minister of the Armed Forces, continuing the policy of civilian control of the military. As a result, a delicate situation arose at the upcoming parade on November 7 in honor of the anniversary of the October Revolution. 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 receive him. To eliminate the unfortunate discrepancy, he was urgently assigned the shoulder straps of a marshal. So Nikolai Bulganin, at times, received military ranks quite unexpectedly.
Another problem with the parade was that Bulganin couldn't ride a horse. Namely, in this form, before that, parades were always taken. 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, and now it’s even hard to imagine a parade without an open limousine.
In the immediate environment
In 1948, Bulganin became a member of the Politburo. He is among the inner circle of Stalin, along with Malenkov, Beria and Khrushchev. But, as is known from history, suchproximity 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 of his inner circle were looking in his place, every year he became more and more suspicious.
As a result, it was decided to "push" Bulganin a little, who was already becoming very influential. Therefore, in 1949, he was removed from the post of Minister of the Armed Forces, while leaving him as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
As with every high-ranking Soviet official, the special services collected dirt 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 loyal to the Secretary General. He was one of the regular participants in traditional meetings, he was present at Stalin's last dinner on the night of March 1, 1953.
Death of Stalin
After the death of Generalissimo, Bulganin was among the four leaders who had to decide who would continue to rule 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 Navy and War Ministries, and in the summer, merging withKhrushchev and Malenkov, neutralizes Beria.
The next victim of the undercover struggle 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 Khrushchev's efforts. He was demoted to Minister of Power Plants.
Bulganin, who always supported the new General Secretary in everything, became Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Georgy Zhukov was appointed to the post of Minister of Defense. They did not bypass the awards of Nikolai Bulganin. On the day of his 60th birthday, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
Forgotten
At the top of his political career, the hero of our article could not last long, only two years. In 1957, Bulganin, who always chose exactly which side to take in the next political intrigue, made the only mistake that became fatal for him. He went over to the side of Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich, who tried to remove Khrushchev. Literally until the last moment, it remained unclear in whose favor the scales would tip. The intervention of the hero of the Great Patriotic War, Marshal Zhukov, who supported Khrushchev, was decisive. The defeatists were expelled from high positions.
Khrushchev himself became the head of government instead of Bulganin, 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 economic council invented by Khrushchev in Stavropol. Already in the autumn he was removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee, and in November he was deprived of the military rank of marshal, lowered toColonel General.
In 1960, Bulganin almost imperceptibly retired.
At the end of life
It is worth noting that during the reign of Khrushchev, times were calmer than during the Great Terror. Losing politicians were not arrested or killed, they were simply forgotten about. Both Molotov, and Malenkov, and Kaganovich lived for many more years after their resignation, but no one knew what they were doing, they no longer held any more or less significant posts.
Bulganin's fate came out shorter than many of them. He died in 1975 at the age of 80. He spent the last years in Moscow, as is the case with most members of the top Soviet leadership, Bulganin's grave is located at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Private life
The family of Nikolai Bulganin consisted of his wife and two children. Elena Mikhailovna was five years younger than him and worked as an English teacher. She died much later than her husband - in 1986.
In 1925 they had a son, Leo, who died the same year as his father. Daughter Vera became the wife of Admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, who in the fifties headed the Soviet fleet, following the results of the Great Patriotic War, he had the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
