Pyotr Nikolayevich Pospelov (russian: Пётр Никола́евич Поспе́лов; – 22 April 1979) was a high-ranked functionary of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...

Old Bolshevik Old Bolshevik (russian: ста́рый большеви́к, ''stary bolshevik''), also called Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Par ...

", since 1916),

propagandist Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...

of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

(1953), chief editor of ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...

'' newspaper, and director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. He was known as a staunch

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

who quickly became a supporter of

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

.Pospelov's biography
at khronos.ru

Life and career

Pospelov was born at

Konakovo Konakovo ( rus, Конако́во, p=kənɐˈkovə) is a town and the administrative center of Konakovsky District in Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of Ivankovo Reservoir (Volga River). Population: History Konakovo was found ...

in 1898. He joined the Bolsheviks as a student, in 1916. In 1917, he was secretary of the

Tver Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russi ...

textile workers' union. In 1918–19, he worked for the Bolshevik underground in

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...

, which was then controlled by the

White Army The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв� ...

. He was based in Tver again, in 1920, until 1924, when he was transferred to the Agitprop department of the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...

. The party machine was then already controlled by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

, whom Pospelov loyally supported until Stalin's death in 1953. In 1926–30, he studied at the

Communist Academy The Communist Academy ( Russian: Коммунистическая академия, transliterated ''Kommunisticheskaya akademiya'') was a higher educational establishment and research institute based in Moscow. It included scientific institutes ...

in Moscow, and then in the Economics Department of the

Institute of Red Professors An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

in 1930. In 1930–39, he was a member of the Central Control Commission and its successor, the Party Control Commission. Pospelov was one of the principal authors of ''

The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) The ''History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): Short Course'' (russian: История Всесоюзной коммунистической партии (большевиков). Краткий курс), translated to English u ...

: Short Course'', which served as a basic text on party history in the Stalinist period.Banerji, Arup (2008)
''Writing History in the Soviet Union: Making the Past Work''.
New Delhi: Social Science Press. p. 145. . Early in the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

, on 13 March 1937, just after two of Lenin's former closest comrades,

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...

and

Alexei Rykov Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (25 February 188115 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. He was ...

had been arrested, ''

'' gave prominence to an article signed by Pospelov, headed 'The Struggle of Bukharin and Rykov against Lenin and the party', accusing them of criminal links with

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

In 1937–40, he was appointed deputy head of Agitprop, which was headed by

Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов, p=ɐnˈdrej ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐdanəf, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician and cultural ideologist. After World War ...

. He was a member of the Central Committee, 1939–1971. In September 1940, he was appointed chief editor of ''Pravda'', but was sacked in August 1949, and replaced by Mikhail Suslov, at a time when dozens of officials who had been linked to Zhdanov were losing their jobs in a purge carried out by Zhdanov's former rival,

Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov ( – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. However, at the insistence of the rest of the Presidium, he relinquished control over the p ...

. He held the lesser post of Director of the Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin Institute, in 1949–52. Early in 1953, he was reinstated as deputy chief editor of ''Pravda''. On 6 March 1953, just after the death of Stalin, Pospelov was appointed a Secretary of the Central Committee. In the power struggles of the early 1950s, he backed

against Malenkov. Pospelov was reputedly so upset when Stalin died that he was started sobbing, until the police chief,

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...

shook him, exclaiming "What's the matter with you? Cut it out!". Yet he played a prominent role in dismantling Stalin's reputation. Speaking to the USSR Academy of Sciences on 19 October 1953, Pospelov was one of the first to publicly attack the 'Cult of the Personality'. Khrushchev revealed in his memoirs that in 1954 Pospelov was put in charge of what became known as the "

Pospelov commission Pospelov Commission was a commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Presidium headed by Pyotr Pospelov whose findings had laid the basis and the contents of Nikita Khrushchev's "secret speech" On the Personalit ...

" which investigated cases of loyal party officials who had been the mass repressions in the Soviet Union, and that he wrote the speech,

On the Personality Cult and its Consequences "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...

. which Khrushchev delivered during a closed session of the 20th Party Congress, in 1956. Khrushchev claimed that he had even proposed that Pospelov should deliver it, but was talked into delivering it himself. During the 21st Party Congress, in February 1959, Pospelov delivered a speech in which he denounced Malenkov and his allies as a "wretched group of bankrupts, splitters and fractionists." Pospelov lost his position as a secretary of the Central Committee in May 1960, at a time when hardliners such as Suslov had forced Khrushchev to take a harder line against the west, in the wake of the shooting down of the U2 pilot,

Gary Powers Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 i ...

. In 1961–67, Pospelov returned to his former role as Director of the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute. Despite his part in the process of de-Stalinisation, in a 1969 article in the '' Kommunist'', Pospelov praised Stalin as bulwark of party unity in the face of the " anti-Leninist" challenge of

Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

, writing that Pospelov died in Moscow in 1979 and was buried at the

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery ( rus, Новоде́вичье кла́дбище, Novodevichye kladbishche) is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular touris ...

Awards

*6 Orders of Lenin *

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (russian: Орден Октябрьской Революции, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on October 31, 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferr ...

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War (russian: Орден Отечественной войны, Orden Otechestvennoy voiny) is a Soviet military decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to partisan ...

of 2nd degree *

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples (russian: oрден Дружбы народов, translit=orden Druzhby narodov) was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military unit ...

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

(1958) *

Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to: * The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...

(1943)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pospelov, Pyotr Nikolayevich 1898 births 1979 deaths People from Konakovsky District People from Korchevskoy Uyezd Old Bolsheviks Institute of Red Professors alumni Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union candidate members Second convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Third convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Fourth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Fifth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Sixth convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Mass media in the Soviet Union 20th-century Russian writers Soviet newspaper editors Soviet journalists Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Heroes of Socialist Labour Stalin Prize winners Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Pravda people