Alexander Ivanovich Muralov (; 14 June 1886 – 30 October 1937) was a Soviet

agriculturist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the Agricultural science, science, practice, and management of Farming, agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, ...

and politician. He was the younger brother of revolutionary and Soviet military leader Nikolai Muralov.

Biography

Muralov was one of 11 children, whose parents had a small farm near

Taganrog Taganrog (, ) is a port city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, on the north shore of Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don (river), Don River. It is in the Black Sea region. Population: Located at the site of a ...

. He joined the

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, ...

faction of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...

in 1905. Two of his brothers, and two sisters were also Bolsheviks. In 1906 he entered

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

. In his student years, he was arrested for revolutionary activities. After graduating from the university in 1912–1915 he worked in the Kashirsky district of the Tula province as a local zemstvo agronomist and head of the laboratory of the Verkhnedneprovsky experimental field. In 1915 he came to Serpukhov and after the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

was elected to the Serpukhov Soviet of Workers' Deputies. From October 1917 to 1919 Muralov was Chairman of the Aleksinsky District Bolshevik Committee and the District Executive Committee. In 1919 he was appointed provincial military commissar of Tula and commandant of the Tula fortified area. From 1920 to 1923 – Chairman of the Moscow, then Donetsk economic councils and from 1923 to 1928 he was Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Executive Committee. In the years 1928–1929 Muralov was deputy commissar and from 1930 to 1933 he served as People's Commissar of Agriculture of the RSFSR. From 1933 to 1936 he was Deputy People's Commissar of Agriculture of the USSR and Chairman of the Committee for Resettlement. Muralov was Vice President (1930–1935) and then President of

VASKhNIL VASKhNIL (), the acronym for the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences or the V.I. Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (), was the Soviet Union's academy dedicated to agricultural sciences, operating from 1929 to the dissolution of ...

(1935-1937). One of the theorists and leaders of collectivization in the countryside, he took part in drawing up the

first five-year plan First five-year plan may refer to: * First five-year plan (China) * First Five-Year Plans (Pakistan) * First five-year plan (Soviet Union) The first five-year plan (, ) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economi ...

for the development of agriculture in the RSFSR. He was also a member of the

All-Russian Central Executive Committee The All-Russian Central Executive Committee () was (June – November 1917) a permanent body formed by the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (held from June 16 to July 7, 1917 in Petrograd), then became the ...

and the

Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union The Central Executive Committee of the USSR (), which may be abbreviated as the CEC (), was the supreme governing body of the USSR in between sessions of the All-Union Congress of Soviets from 1922 to 1938. The Central Executive Committee elec ...

. In July 1937 Muralov was arrested on charges of sabotage and being involved in an underground counter-revolutionary organization. On 21 October 1937 , his name was included on a death list signed by

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov. He was tried and convicted on October 29 of the same year, and sentenced to capital punishment. On 3 September 1938 Muralov was shot on 30 October 1937. He was rehabilitated in 1956. A street in the city of Aleksin bears the name of Muralov. Alexander Muralov was the author of many scientific works on agrochemistry and agriculture. Under his editorship, the first yearbook "Agriculture of the USSR" was published. Muralov's wife, Valentina Kuzmina, a teacher, died in 1923 from appendicitis. Their daughter, Yulia (born 1918) was arrested on 28 April 1938, for allegedly belonging to "an anti-Soviet student group whose parents were repressed", and was sentenced to five years in a labour camp. His brother, Nikolai, was shot on 1 February 1937.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muralov, Alexander 1886 births 1938 deaths People from Donetsk Oblast People from Don Host Oblast Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks People's commissariats and ministries of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic All-Russian Central Executive Committee members Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members Soviet agronomists Moscow State University alumni Academicians of the VASKhNIL Great Purge victims from Russia Soviet rehabilitations