Sergei kirov biography

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Who Killed Kirov? "The Crime of the Century"

The murder of Sergei Kirov--as the event that set off the purges in the Soviet Union--set the stage for Stalin's dictatorship and had a tremendous impact on the entire twentieth century, said Amy Knight, Visiting Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Carleton University, and former Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center, at a Kennan Institute lecture on 24 February

At the time of his death, Sergei Kirov was the Leningrad Party Chief, a full member of the Politburo, and Secretary of the Central Committee. According to Knight, he was enormously popular within the party and a charismatic and talented orator. He was one of the closest Politburo members to Stalin, and their friendship was widely accepted. After he was murdered by a "crazed assassin" on the third floor of the Smolny Institute in December , he became a saint and was mourned for weeks by the leadership and the people.

Knight noted that the murder is a critical event in Soviet history in that it set into motion the purges that swept the country in , leading to the death of millions of Soviet citizens. Knight remarked that on the very day of the murder Stalin signed two new laws authorizing the NKVD (secret police) to arrest people suspected of planning terrorist ac

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Sergei Mironovich Kirov

(b. 27 Mar. , d. 1 Dec. ).

Russian Communist revolutionaryBorn in Urzhum in the Vyatka province, he moved to St Petersburg, where he became an effective Bolshevik organizer in the Russian Revolutions of and He took part in the Russian Civil War, and was an important influence in the Bolshevik victory in the northern Caucasus. He became leader of the Communist Party in Azerbaijan. He helped to create the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist republic in , one of the first four republics to form the USSR. He became a close ally in Stalin's brutal quest for power against the Old Bolsheviks (former followers of Lenin), and in was made head of the Communist Party in Leningrad and north‐west Russia. His eloquence and authority soon aroused Stalin's distrust, and he was shot by a minor party official. His murder, which was possibly ordered by Stalin himself, resulted in the execution of hundreds of Leningrad citizens and the deportation of thousands more, and triggered the Great Purge.

Spartacus Educational

Primary Sources

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(7) Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin: The Challenge of description Red Tsar ()