Iosif Vasilievich Shikin (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Иосиф Васильевич Шикин; 8 September O.S. 26 August">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 26 August1906 – 30 July 1973) was a Soviet army political commissar and party official, who was Soviet ambassador in Tirana at the time of the Albanian–Soviet split.

Biography

Iosif Shikin was born into a peasant family in the Ivanovo Oblast, Ivanovo region of west Russia. He worked in an automobile factory in

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

(Gorky) at a time

Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андрей Александрович Жданов, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ˈʐdanəf, a=Ru-Андрей Жданов.ogg, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician. He was ...

was the regional party boss. In 1935, he was appointed secretary of the communist party committee for the district that included the automobile plant. In 1939, he was appointed a political commissar with the Red Army, and was transferred to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

(St Petersburg) where, again, Zhdanov was head of the regional communist party. He was, evidently, a protege of Zhdanov – or as one historian described him – a "solid Zhdanovite". During the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

, Shikin was the political officer, appointed by Zhdanov, to ensure that food and supplies were brought to the city across the ice when

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

froze during the winter. In 1946, after the death of Aleksandr Shcherbakov, Shikin was appointed Head of the Political Directorate of the Red Army. In 1949, Shikin was a victim of the

Leningrad affair The Leningrad affair, or Leningrad case (, ''Leningradskoye delo''), was a series of criminal cases fabricated in the late 1940s–early 1950s by Joseph Stalin in order to accuse a number of prominent Leningrad based authority figures and membe ...

, a purge of officials who had been linked to Zhdanov, who was now dead – but unlike most of the high-profile victims, who were shot – he was not arrested, but was demoted to the post of head of the Lenin Military Political Academy. In 1950, he was transferred to the staff of the Central Committee Shikin was appointed soviet ambassador to Albania in November 1960, but was recalled on 25 November, during the Albania–Soviet split, when the USSR Foreign Ministry accused the Albanian authorities of having "intentionally created such conditions" that made it impossible for Shikin to carry out his responsibilities. The Albanians denied this and claimed that though he held the title of ambassador for 11 months, Shikin had actually spent only five months in Albania. In 1962, he was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Party and State Control Committee.

References

{{authority control 1906 births 1973 deaths Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Chiefs of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Soviet Navy Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Albania Second convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union People from Vladimir Governorate