Background
Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (now named Dibrova, Poliske Raion, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine).
Lazar Kaganovich's speech. Kharkiv Ukraine 1927.
Kliment Voroshilov, Lazar Kaganovich, Alexander Kosarev and Vyacheslav Molotov on the 7th Conference of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol). Jul 1932
Lazar Kaganovic People's Commissar for Transport 1936
Joseph Stalin and Lazar Kaganovich 1933
Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire (now named Dibrova, Poliske Raion, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine).
Kaganovich received almost no formal education.
Around 1911, he entered the Bolshevik party. In 1915, Kaganovich, living in Kiev, was arrested and briefly sent back to Kabany. During March and April 1917, he served as the Chairman of the Tanners Union and as the vice-chairman of the Yuzovka Soviet. In May 1917, he became the leader of the military organization of Bolsheviks in Saratov, and in August 1917, he became the leader of the Polessky Committee of the Bolshevik party in Belarus. During the October Revolution of 1917 he led the revolt in Gomel.
In 1918 Kaganovich acted as Commissar of the propaganda department of the Red Army. From May 1918 to August 1919 he was the Chairman of the Ispolkom (Committee) of the Nizhny Novgorod gubernia. In 1919-1920, he served as governor of the Voronezh gubernia.
In May 1922, Stalin became the General Secretary of the Communist Party and immediately transferred Kaganovich to his apparatus to head the Organizational Bureau or Orgburo of the Secretariat. This department was responsible for all assignments within the apparatus of the Communist Party. Working there, Kaganovich helped to place Stalin's supporters in important jobs within the Communist Party bureaucracy. In this position he became noted for his great work capacity and for his personal loyalty to Stalin. He stated publicly that he would execute absolutely any order from Stalin, which at that time was a novelty.
In 1924, Kaganovich became a member of the Central Committee. From 1925 to 1928, Kaganovich was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1928, due to numerous protests against Kaganovich's management, Stalin was forced to transfer Kaganovich from Ukraine to Moscow, where he returned to his position as a Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, a job he held until 1939.
During 1939-1940, he served as Narkom for the Oil Industry. Each of his assignments was associated with arrests in order to improve discipline and compliance with Stalin's policies.
During World War II (known as the Great Patriotic War in the USSR), Kaganovich was Commissar (Member of the Military Council) of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian Fronts. During 1943-1944, he was again the Narkom for the railways. In 1943, he was presented with the title of Hero of Socialist Labour. From 1944 to 1947, Kaganovich was the Minister for Building Materials.
In 1947, he became the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. From 1948 to 1952, he served as the Chairman of Gossnab (State Committee for Material-Technical Supply, charged with the primary responsibility for the allocation of producer goods to enterprises, a critical state function in the absence of markets), and from 1952 to 1957, as the First Vice-Premier of the Council of Ministers.
Until 1957, Kaganovich was a voting member of the Politburo as well as the Presidium. He was also an early mentor of the eventual First Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev, who first became important as Kaganovich's Moscow City deputy during the 1930s. In 1947, when Khrushchev was dismissed as the Party secretary of Ukraine, Stalin dispatched Kaganovich to replace him until Khrushchev was reinstated later that year.
Kaganovich was a doctrinaire Stalinist, and though he remained a member of the Presidium, he quickly lost influence after Stalin's death in March 1953.
In 1961, Kaganovich was completely expelled from the Party and became a pensioner living in Moscow. In 1984, his re-admission to the Party was considered by the Politburo, alongside that of Molotov. At the time of Molotov's death in November 1986, he was refused access to his friend's funeral because of his severe state of dementia.
Kaganovich survived to the age of 97, dying in 1991, just before the events that resulted in the end of the USSR. He is buried in the famed Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Religion in its origin doesn't give equal treatment to women and thus offends basic human rights.
Communist party could initiate policies in the name of the society because it knows what the best is for its progress and development.
Kaganovich was married to Maria Markovna Privorotskaya (1894-1961). Their daughter, Maya Lazarevna Kaganovich (1923-2001), an architect, prepared for publication father's memoirs - "Memorable notes", issued in Moscow in 1997. Besides, Kaganovich raised a foster son, Yuri.