Kliment Voroshilov

Apr 02, 2015

Statesman.

Voroshilov was one of Stalin’s most devoted and submissive associates. He was one of the few Stalin’s old companions who survived his terror and outlived him.

Backgound
Lived 1881-1969. Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was born in the proletarian Ukrainian family. He became a revolutionary already in 1903. After the revolution he, along with Dzerzhinsky, became one of the founders of Cheka.

Russian Civil War
Voroshilov showed some courage in the Civil War where he was leading the cavalry. He became an active supporter of Stalin against Trotsky at the Russo-Polish war.

Political Career
After the mystical death of Mikhail Frunze in 1925, Voroshilov became the next Comissar for Defence. He steadily rose in the party hierarchy in the shadow of Stalin. He was the member of the Politburo 1926-60.

Voroshilov was the chief executive of Stalin’s Great Purge of the Red Army. He personally signed 185 execution lists.

World War II
Stalin made Voroshilov the chief commander of north-western front during the Winter War (1939-40) with Finland. Voroshilov who “did not understand the idea of modern warfare” did a catastrophic job and Russia lost over 1 million men in a couple of months. Stalin had to replace him with Semyon Timoshenko. Later after Voroshilov’s failed defence of Leningrad against Hitler, he had to be replaced again by Zhukov.

After Stalin
After the death of Stalin, Voroshilov was elected the formal head of state of the Soviet Union. He was although dismissed in 1960 and stripped of his positions by Khrushchev.

Personal
Voroshilov was happily married to Yekaterina Davydovna. They had many children, including the orphans of Mikhail Frunze whom they took good care of. Voroshilov died in 1969.

Anastas Mikoyan