Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
father was an office worker, and she joined the
KOMSOMOL
in 1938. In October 1941 during
World War II, while a tenth-grade student in
Moscow, she volunteered for service in a parti-
san detachment. With a group of other Komso-
mol members she was sent behind German lines
but was captured in late November near the vil-
lage of Petrishchevo in Moscow oblast trying to
set fire to a German supply depot. Tortured by
the Germans, she resisted courageously, gave no
information, and allegedly made a heroic, defi-
ant speech before her execution by hanging on
November 29, 1941. Hard-pressed for victories,
the government immediately began constructing
a cult that portrayed her as a Soviet Joan of Arc,
despite her very short military career and the
relative unimportance of her mission. She was
proclaimed a Hero of the Soviet Union posthu-
mously on February 6, 1942. A monument to
her memory was erected on the Minsk Highway
near the village where she was captured and
executed. After the war she was reburied in
Moscow's Novodeviche Cemetery.
through the government, from USSR commissar
for the textile industry in 1939 to minister of light
industry in 1953 and deputy chairman of the
Council of Ministers. He also rose within the
party, becoming a full member of the Politburo in
1948. Sheer luck saved him from being caught up
in the
LENINGRAD AFFAIR
, the deadly purge orches-
trated by Georgii
MALENKOV
in 1949-50 against
the protégés of Zhdanov, who had died in 1948.
After some career setbacks, Kosygin again bene-
fited from the decline of Malenkov's post-Stalin
influence in 1955. In 1957, he became a candi-
date member of the Presidium (Politburo) and the
following year was appointed as director of Gos-
plan, the state planning agency. By 1960 he was
once again a full member of the Presidium, albeit
with far more administrative authority, since he
was also named first deputy prime minister.
Blocked by Khrushchev from becoming prime
minister, Kosygin joined the anti-Khrushchev
conspiracy of October 1964, although in a sec-
ondary role. While
BREZHNEV
assumed the post of
party general secretary, Kosygin became prime
minister, and in this capacity tried to launch the
“Kosygin reforms” in 1965, a package of reforms
designed to make enterprises more self-sufficient,
yet responsible for their performance. Threatened
by changes that could minimize its leading role in
economic affairs, the party bureaucracy success-
fully diluted their impact. The Soviet-led
WARSAW
PACT
invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968
and the subsequent chill in Soviet political life put
an end to the type of reformism proposed by
Kosygin. Loyal to Brezhnev, he continued to
serve as prime minister until October 1980, two
months before his death.
Kosygin, Aleksei Nikolaevich
(1904-1980)
Soviet official
An important figure in the leadership that came
to power following the ouster of Nikita
KHRUSH
-
CHEV
in 1964, Kosygin served as prime minister
from 1964 until his death in 1980. He was born in
St. Petersburg to a working-class family. At the
age of 15 he joined the Red Army and fought in
the civil war. In 1924 he finished the secondary
schooling he had interrupted and spent the next
five years working with consumer cooperatives in
Siberia. While in Siberia, he was promoted
rapidly, especially after joining the
COMMUNIST
PARTY
in 1927. In 1935 he graduated from the
Leningrad Textile Institute and began working as
a textile engineer. His work drew the attention of
the new city party leader, Andrei
ZHDANOV
, at a
time when the ranks of the party and govern-
ment were being depleted by the Great Purge. A
talented administrator, Kosygin rose rapidly
Kovalevskaia, Sofiia Vasilievna
(1850-1891)
mathematician
The first Russian woman to hold the rank of pro-
fessor at an institution of higher learning, Kova-
levskaia was born Sofia Korvina-Krukovskaia in
Moscow to a well-educated noble family. Her
father was an artillery general in the imperial
Search WWH ::
Custom Search