Background
Kirov, Sergei was born on March 27, 1886 in Urzhum near Viatka.
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Sergei Mironovich Kirov
Edit ProfileEducation
Educated at the Kazan’ Technical School, 1904.
Career
Brought up in an orphanage. Worked as a draughtsman in Tomsk Town Hall. Organized a railway strike in Siberia during the 1905 Revolution.
Several arrests after 1905. Moved to Vladikavkaz, 1909, where he worked for the newspaper Terek. One of the most capable Bolshevik organizers before and during World War I. After the February Revolution 1917, member of the Vladikavkaz Soviet.
As a delegate to the 2nd Congress of Soviets in Petrograd, took part in the October Revolution 1917. Returning to Vladikavkaz, became one of the organizers of Soviet rule in the North Caucasus, 1918. Organized the defence of Astrakhan’ against the Whites during the Civil War, 1919.
In the early 1920s (with Ordzhonikidze and Mikoian), led the struggle for communist power in the Caucasus and Azerbaidzhan, nationalizing the Baku oilfields. During the power struggle among Lenin’s heirs, joined Stalin against the Old Bolsheviks and became his closest collaborator. After the removal of Zinoviev, appointed party boss in Leningrad and North-West Russia, February 1926.
Member of the Politburo, 1930, Secretary of the Central Committee and member of the Orgburo, 1934. Effective orator, gained wide popularity, overshadowing Stalin and arousing his jealousy. Assassinated in December 1934 by a minor party functionary under very suspicious circumstances.
His death, which still remains a mystery, was officially blamed on Fascists and their allies in the Communist Party and signalled the beginning of Stalin’s worst purges. According to some historians, this was the purpose of the murder, which had been engineered personally by Stalin. An official investigation of the murder, promised by Khrushchev in the 1950s, never materialized, but was promised again in the late 1980s.
Extremely intricate shifts in the Leningrad NKVD at the time of the murder and thereafter seem to confirm suspicions.
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Born
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Died
December 1, 1934 (aged 48) -
Nationality
USSR