Alexander Ivanovich Krinitsky (; 1894,

Tver Tver (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa rivers. Tver is located northwest of Moscow. Population: The city is ...

– 1937) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

statesman and first secretary of the Communist Party of the

Byelorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and ...

from May 1924 to December 1925.

Early life and Revolution

Born in Tver, he was the eldest son in the family of an employee of the provincial chancellery. He graduated from the Tver gymnasium with a gold medal (1912). He studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute in 1912 however he did not graduate. He later studied at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University. In 1915 Krinitsky he joined the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

and fomented propaganda and agitation among students of Moscow University, from which he was expelled. He was then arrested in 1915 and sentenced to eternal settlement in Eastern Siberia. But on 6 (19) March 1917, he was amnestied and released. After his release, he was actively involved in revolutionary work.

In the Soviet Union

From September 1924 to May 1927 in the Byelorussian SSR : The Secretary, in December 1925 with the 1st Secretary of the Communist Party of Belarussia (Bolsheviks). In Belarus, A. Krinitsky, as a typical representative of the elite party, implemented the idea of strengthening the USSR as a single highly centralized union state, commanding and administratively managing the economy, and a complete monopoly on the power of the Communist Party. At the same time, he was influenced by the strength in the 1920s local nation-oriented wing of the Communist Party of Belarussia. From May 1927 he was head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (

Agitprop Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...

). From 1929 - he was secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the UCP (b), then deputy people's commissar of the RSI USSR, also a member of the editorial board of the magazine "

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

". He was deputy head of the agricultural department (b), since 1933 - Head of the Political Department and Deputy People's Commissar of the USSR and Secretary of the Saratov Regional Committee of the Party. During the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

, he was arrested on 20 July 1937, removed from the Central Committee and Orgburo on 12 October 1937, sentenced to death on 29 October 1937 and executed the next day. Krinitsky was rehabilitated on 17 March 1956.

References

1894 births 1937 deaths People from Tver People from Tverskoy Uyezd Old Bolsheviks Candidates of the Orgburo of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 13th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 14th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Heads of the Communist Party of Byelorussia Great Purge victims from Russia Executed politicians Soviet rehabilitations Head of Propaganda Department of CPSU CC First secretaries of the Communist Party of the Transcaucasian SFSR {{Belarus-politician-stub