Mikhail Pervukhin
Encyclopedia
Mikhail Gyeorgievich Pervukhin was a Soviet
official during the Stalin Era, Khrushchev Era and the early Brezhnev Era
. He served as a First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, literally First Vice-Premier of the Soviet Union, from 1955 to 1957.
, Russian SFSR
, Soviet Union
to a Russian working class
family. Pervukhin became a member of the Russian Communist Party
in 1919. In August to September 1919 Pervukhin was a member of the Zlatoust
city commission on the nationalisation of property belonging to the bourgeoisie
. He began working for the Zlatoust newspaper Borba
in October 1919, and worked there until February 1920 when he started to attend after-school lessons. He fought alongside the Bolshevik
s in the Russian Civil War
in the South Urals. From October to November 1920 Pervukhin was a member of the Bolshevik squad quelling the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Chrysostom.
From January 1921 to mid-autumn Pervukhin worked as the Executive Secretary of the Proletarian Thought. He was a member of the Bureau of the Zlatoust Komsomol
District Committee, and later became the head of its Department for Political Education in April 1922. Later that year he became the Zlatoust Komsomol District Committee's Deputy Secretary, and was its Technical Secretary from April to August 1922.
The Metal Workers' Union of the Zlatoust District Committee ordered Pervukhin to Moscow
in the late summer of 1922 to study. He graduated in 1929 from the Electrical Department of the Moscow Institute of the National Economy with a degree in electrical engineering
. Following his graduation, Pervukhin started work at Mosenergo
, the Moscow electric power company. In May 1936 he became the Director of the Kashirskaya Power Plant. From June to September 1937, Pervukhin worked as Mosenergo's Chief Engineer, and later that year became its acting head. Pervukhin started to work for the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry in late 1937, and was later appointed to the post of Deputy People's Commissar for Heavy Industry in 1938, and First Deputy People's Commissars for Heavy Industry in June 1937 when Lazar Kaganovich
was People's Commissar for Heavy Industry. During the Great Purge
Pervukhin was promoted to Deputy Head of the Moscow Electrical Power Administration Bureau, and then its head. On 24 January 1939 Pervukin was promoted to the newly established post of People's Commissar for Electric Power Stations and was given a seat in the Communist Party's Central Committee
at the 18th Party Congress.
in Russa), Pervukhin served as a Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (literally, Soviet Deputy Premier), and from 1943 until 1950 he served as the Minister of Chemical Industry. Pervukhin, alongside Boris Vannikov
, was Vyacheslav Molotov
's deputy on the State Defense Committee's commission responsible for the development of the Soviet atomic bomb
since 1943. Along with Molotov, Pervukhin was in charge of the commission's uranium
project. When Joseph Stalin
signed the State Defense Committee Resolution No. 9887, he established a Special Committee with emergency powers. The Committee's main duty was to oversee the work of those who contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. Stalin personally picked the members of the committee; Pervukhin was one of nine members. Pervukhin was the Deputy Chairman under Vannikov's Chairmanship of the First Main Directorate of the Council of People's Commissars, the executive branch of the special committee. He also served as Chairman of the State Commission on the RDS-1 testing at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.
In 1950 Pervuhkin was once again appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and in 1952, at the 19th Party Congress
, he was elected a member of the Presidium
, the renamed Politburo. At the 35th anniversary of the October Revolution
in 1952, Pervukhin delivered the main speech at the Moscow Kremlin
commemoration. If Stalin was absent or could not carry out his duty as Chairman
of the Council of Ministers, government meetings would be chaired, in turn by Pervukhin, Lavrentiy Beria
, or Maksim Saburov
.
was established with both Georgy Malenkov
and Nikita Khrushchev
vying for control. At the very beginning, Pervukhin, along with Georgy Zhukov
and Saburov, actively participated in foreign policy decision-making. Malenkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, appointed Pervukhin the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers on 28 February 1955. From 5 March 1953 to 17 April 1954, Pervukhin was the Minister of Power and Electrical Industry, and from December 1953 to February 1955, he was Chairman of the Bureau for Energy, Chemical and Forest Industries of the Council of Ministers. On 25 December 1956 Nikolai Bulganin
, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, removed Saburov from his post as Chairman of the State Economic Commission on Current Planning
and replaced him with Pervukhin. who held the post until 10 May 1957.
Pervukhin opposed Khrushchev's Regional Economic Soviet
reform, whose main aim was to reduce the powers and functions of the central ministries
. He told Khrushchev and other Presidium members that this reform would weaken branch administration, and that the centralisation and specialisation which had been the system's cornerstone would be lost. Instead, Pervukhin proposed to reduce the numbers of central ministries and establish territorial commissions to provide "horizontal cooperation". Later, in 1957, Pervukhin joined the Anti-Party Group
in a bid to remove Khrushchev as First Secretary
.
and West Berlin
; he believed that creating a barrier would increase anti-Soviet sympathies not only in Berlin but in Germany as well. Instead, he proposed three options: 1) "introducing restrictive measures" for East Germans to enter both East Berlin and West Berlin; 2) strengthening the border security; 3) stopping the free movement between the two cities. However, he did admit that closing the borders was a possibility, claiming that if the political situation worsened, the East German regime and the Soviets would not have another option.
Walter Ulbricht
, the East German leader, invited Pervukhin to his summer house to discuss the East German immigration flow to West Germany
. There Ulbricht told Pervukhin that if the Soviets did not react soon, East Germany would "collapse". Pervukhin discussed other problems as well, claiming that Ulbricht but also the East German leadership in general, were opposed to the Soviet Union's plan to improve relations with West Germany. When Khrushchev gave his approval to construct what would become the Berlin Wall
, Pervukhin was the first to know. Ulbricht told Pervukhin of the need to create the East–West barrier at night, and he and Khrushchev would later agree to this.
At the 22nd Party Congress in 1961, Pevurkhin lost his seat in the Central Committee
. He left his post as Soviet ambassador to East Germany in 1962.
Soviet people
Soviet people or Soviet nation was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Initially used as a nonspecific reference to the Soviet population, it was eventually declared to be a "new historical, social and international unity of people".-Nationality politics in early Soviet...
official during the Stalin Era, Khrushchev Era and the early Brezhnev Era
History of the Soviet Union (1964–1982)
The history of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, referred to as the Brezhnev Era, covers the period of Leonid Brezhnev's rule of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . This period began with high economic growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with a much weaker Soviet Union facing social,...
. He served as a First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, literally First Vice-Premier of the Soviet Union, from 1955 to 1957.
Early life and career
He was born on 14 October 1904 in the village of Yuryuzansky ZavodYuryuzan (town)
Yuryuzan is a town in Katav-Ivanovsky District of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Yuryuzan River , from Chelyabinsk and from the closed town of Tryokhgorny. Population:...
, Russian SFSR
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to a Russian working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
family. Pervukhin became a member of the Russian Communist Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
in 1919. In August to September 1919 Pervukhin was a member of the Zlatoust
Zlatoust
Zlatoust is a city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Ay River , west of Chelyabinsk. Population: 181,000 ; 161,000 ; 99,000 ; 48,000 ; 21,000 ....
city commission on the nationalisation of property belonging to the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
. He began working for the Zlatoust newspaper Borba
Borba
Borba may refer to:Place names* Borba, Amazonas, a municipality in Amazonas state in Brazil* Borba Municipality, Portugal* Borba, Portugal * Borba DOC, a Portuguese wine region* Borba de Montanha, parish in Celorico de Basto Municipality...
in October 1919, and worked there until February 1920 when he started to attend after-school lessons. He fought alongside the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s in the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
in the South Urals. From October to November 1920 Pervukhin was a member of the Bolshevik squad quelling the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Chrysostom.
From January 1921 to mid-autumn Pervukhin worked as the Executive Secretary of the Proletarian Thought. He was a member of the Bureau of the Zlatoust Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
District Committee, and later became the head of its Department for Political Education in April 1922. Later that year he became the Zlatoust Komsomol District Committee's Deputy Secretary, and was its Technical Secretary from April to August 1922.
The Metal Workers' Union of the Zlatoust District Committee ordered Pervukhin to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in the late summer of 1922 to study. He graduated in 1929 from the Electrical Department of the Moscow Institute of the National Economy with a degree in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
. Following his graduation, Pervukhin started work at Mosenergo
Mosenergo
Mosenergo is the Russian largest power generating company operating on fossil fuel and the world largest thermal generation company. In addition to electric power it also generates and sells heat for consumers in Moscow and the Moscow Oblast...
, the Moscow electric power company. In May 1936 he became the Director of the Kashirskaya Power Plant. From June to September 1937, Pervukhin worked as Mosenergo's Chief Engineer, and later that year became its acting head. Pervukhin started to work for the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry in late 1937, and was later appointed to the post of Deputy People's Commissar for Heavy Industry in 1938, and First Deputy People's Commissars for Heavy Industry in June 1937 when Lazar Kaganovich
Lazar Kaganovich
Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire...
was People's Commissar for Heavy Industry. During the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
Pervukhin was promoted to Deputy Head of the Moscow Electrical Power Administration Bureau, and then its head. On 24 January 1939 Pervukin was promoted to the newly established post of People's Commissar for Electric Power Stations and was given a seat in the Communist Party's Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
at the 18th Party Congress.
World War II and the Stalin Era
From 1940 to 1942, during World War II (known as the Great Patriotic WarGreat Patriotic War (term)
The term Great Patriotic War , Velíkaya Otéchestvennaya voyná,) is used in Russia and some other states of the former Soviet Union to describe the portion of World War II from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945, against Nazi Germany and its allies in the many fronts of Soviet-German war.-History:The term...
in Russa), Pervukhin served as a Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (literally, Soviet Deputy Premier), and from 1943 until 1950 he served as the Minister of Chemical Industry. Pervukhin, alongside Boris Vannikov
Boris Vannikov
General Boris Lvovich Vannikov , Soviet government and military official, a three-star General. People's Commissar for Armament from January 1939 through June 1941, and for Ammunition from February 1942 through June 1946. From 1945 through 1953 Vannikov was Head of the 1st Main Directorate of the...
, was Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
's deputy on the State Defense Committee's commission responsible for the development of the Soviet atomic bomb
Soviet atomic bomb project
The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb , was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project...
since 1943. Along with Molotov, Pervukhin was in charge of the commission's uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
project. When Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
signed the State Defense Committee Resolution No. 9887, he established a Special Committee with emergency powers. The Committee's main duty was to oversee the work of those who contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. Stalin personally picked the members of the committee; Pervukhin was one of nine members. Pervukhin was the Deputy Chairman under Vannikov's Chairmanship of the First Main Directorate of the Council of People's Commissars, the executive branch of the special committee. He also served as Chairman of the State Commission on the RDS-1 testing at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.
In 1950 Pervuhkin was once again appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and in 1952, at the 19th Party Congress
19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from October 5–14, 1952. It was the last congress of the Stalin regime and the first to take place since before World War II...
, he was elected a member of the Presidium
Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Politburo , known as the Presidium from 1952 to 1966, functioned as the central policymaking and governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.-Duties and responsibilities:The...
, the renamed Politburo. At the 35th anniversary of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
in 1952, Pervukhin delivered the main speech at the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
commemoration. If Stalin was absent or could not carry out his duty as Chairman
Premier of the Soviet Union
The office of Premier of the Soviet Union was synonymous with head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . Twelve individuals have been premier...
of the Council of Ministers, government meetings would be chaired, in turn by Pervukhin, Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
, or Maksim Saburov
Maksim Saburov
Maksim Zakharovich Saburov was a Soviet engineer, economist and politician, three-time Chairman of Gosplan and later First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union...
.
Post-Stalin era
As part of the changes in the post-Stalin era, a collective leadershipCollective leadership
Collective leadership or Collectivity of leadership , was considered an ideal form of governance in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...
was established with both Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was a Soviet politician, Communist Party leader and close collaborator of Joseph Stalin. After Stalin's death, he became Premier of the Soviet Union and was in 1953 briefly considered the most powerful Soviet politician before being overshadowed by Nikita...
and Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
vying for control. At the very beginning, Pervukhin, along with Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
and Saburov, actively participated in foreign policy decision-making. Malenkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, appointed Pervukhin the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers on 28 February 1955. From 5 March 1953 to 17 April 1954, Pervukhin was the Minister of Power and Electrical Industry, and from December 1953 to February 1955, he was Chairman of the Bureau for Energy, Chemical and Forest Industries of the Council of Ministers. On 25 December 1956 Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...
, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, removed Saburov from his post as Chairman of the State Economic Commission on Current Planning
Gosplan
Gosplan or State Planning Committee was the committee responsible for economic planning in the Soviet Union. The word "Gosplan" is an abbreviation for Gosudarstvenniy Komitet po Planirovaniyu...
and replaced him with Pervukhin. who held the post until 10 May 1957.
Pervukhin opposed Khrushchev's Regional Economic Soviet
Sovnarkhoz
Sovnarkhoz, , usually translated as Regional Economic Council, was an organization of the Soviet Union to manage a separate economic region....
reform, whose main aim was to reduce the powers and functions of the central ministries
Ministries of the Soviet Union
-Ministries:- Other agencies under the Cabinet of Ministers :-See also:* Council of People's Commissars, head of government from 1917-1946* Council of Ministers, head of government from 1946-1991* Cabinet of Ministers, head of government in 1991...
. He told Khrushchev and other Presidium members that this reform would weaken branch administration, and that the centralisation and specialisation which had been the system's cornerstone would be lost. Instead, Pervukhin proposed to reduce the numbers of central ministries and establish territorial commissions to provide "horizontal cooperation". Later, in 1957, Pervukhin joined the Anti-Party Group
Anti-Party Group
The Anti-Party Group was a group within the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that unsuccessfully attempted to depose Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Party in May 1957. The group, named by that epithet by Khrushchev, was led by former Premiers Georgy Malenkov and...
in a bid to remove Khrushchev as First Secretary
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the title given to the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. With some exceptions, the office was synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union...
.
Ambassadorship to East Germany
Following the failed bid to remove Khrushchev, Pervukhin was demoted to a non-voting member of the Presidium, and became the Soviet Union's ambassador to East Germany in 1958. As ambassador, Pervukhin observed that "the presence in Berlin of an open and essentially uncontrolled border between the socialist and capitalist worlds unwittingly prompts the population to make a comparison between both parts of the city, which unfortunately, does not always turn out in favor of the Democratic [East] Berlin". Pervukin remained wary, until its very creation, of establishing a sectorial barrier between EastEast Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
and West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
; he believed that creating a barrier would increase anti-Soviet sympathies not only in Berlin but in Germany as well. Instead, he proposed three options: 1) "introducing restrictive measures" for East Germans to enter both East Berlin and West Berlin; 2) strengthening the border security; 3) stopping the free movement between the two cities. However, he did admit that closing the borders was a possibility, claiming that if the political situation worsened, the East German regime and the Soviets would not have another option.
Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ulbricht was a German communist politician. As First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971 , he played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany and later in the early development and...
, the East German leader, invited Pervukhin to his summer house to discuss the East German immigration flow to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. There Ulbricht told Pervukhin that if the Soviets did not react soon, East Germany would "collapse". Pervukhin discussed other problems as well, claiming that Ulbricht but also the East German leadership in general, were opposed to the Soviet Union's plan to improve relations with West Germany. When Khrushchev gave his approval to construct what would become the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
, Pervukhin was the first to know. Ulbricht told Pervukhin of the need to create the East–West barrier at night, and he and Khrushchev would later agree to this.
At the 22nd Party Congress in 1961, Pevurkhin lost his seat in the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
. He left his post as Soviet ambassador to East Germany in 1962.