Zhdanov, Andrey Alexandrovich - short biography. “And I’m a plebeian!” Andrei Zhdanov did not feast during the siege, but could not stand Akhmatova Ideology specialist

PETER ALEXANDROVICH AND PLATO ALEXANDROVICH CHIKHACHEVS Peter Chikhachev was born on August 16 (28), 1808, and Plato - in the year the war with Napoleon began, June 10 (22), 1812, in the Great Gatchina Palace - the summer residence of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Father of the Chikhachev brothers

Seventh chapter. Ivan Zhdanov Ivan Fedorovich Zhdanov was born on January 16, 1948 in the village of Tulatinnka in the Altai Territory. He grew up as the eleventh child in a peasant family. Worked as a mechanic at the Transmash plant in Barnaul, as an assistant to a drilling foreman in Yakutia, and as a literature worker

Grand Duke of Vladimir Andrei Alexandrovich Skorosy (Hot-tempered) until 1261-1304 The third son of Alexander Nevsky and the daughter of the Polovtsian khan Aepa. Received the Principality of Gorodets from his father. When the childless Vasily Yaroslavich died in 1276, Andrei Alexandrovich, in addition to

Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich (1896–1948) - Soviet party statesman. in the 20-30s he headed the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) regional committee of the CPSU (b). In 1934, Zhdanov became the first secretary of the Leningrad city and regional committees. He is often considered one of the most odious figures of the Stalinist regime. Meanwhile, Zhdanov was one of the leaders of the “Russian Party” in the Central Committee.

Andrey Aleksandrovich Zhdanov was born on February 26, 1896 in Mariupol. This city subsequently bore his name, until the second attack of anti-Stalin hysteria began during the Gorbachev catastrophe. It was no coincidence that the pack of Democratic Greyhounds, then released from the chain, attacked Zhdanov first of all.

He was especially hated by them as a Russian person, as the leader of the “Russian party” within the CPSU (b). They saw different symbolism in his name. The “intellectual” Yu. Karyakin, bursting with anger, called his article in “Ogonyok” No. 19 for 1988 “Zhdanov liquid”, referring to the composition that was used to muffle the smell of corpses. Well, let’s accept Karyakin’s comparison: yes, exactly such a liquid was needed to muffle the cadaverous smell after the death of the hopes of anti-Russian forces for dominance in Russia.

A.A. Zhdanov came from an intelligent family - his father held the same position as Lenin’s father. He studied at the Agricultural Academy, acted in the Urals during the revolution, and in 1924-1934 he headed the Nizhny Novgorod regional party organization, one of the largest in the RSFSR - Molotov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan worked in it before him. In 1930, Zhdanov became a member of the Central Committee, and in 1934 - secretary of the Central Committee.

R. Conquest writes about Zhdanov: “A strong, although not deep, mind was combined in him with ideological fanaticism, which prevailed in him to a greater extent than in other figures of his generation. To him the country owes one of the few positive phenomena of the Stalin era compared to the 20s - the restoration of the education system, which, with all its narrowness and official glorification, at least in the field of non-political sciences, regained the solidity and effectiveness of the old Russian education system after the deterioration in the intermediate period of experiments” (The Great Terror, p. 35), even Khrushchev, who in his memoirs did not hide his mortal hatred of Zhdanov’s closest comrade-in-arms Shcherbakov, speaks quite differently, respectfully speaking of Zhdanov as a very important figure.

Then, in 1934, Zhdanov was still completely alone at the top. But he established some particularly close relations with Stalin. They usually vacationed together in the south. In August 1934, during such a joint vacation, they made notes on the notes on textbooks on the history of the USSR and modern history. Kirov, who had just visited Stalin and Zhdanov in the south, was also credited as a co-author of these remarks, but Kirov himself was only surprised by this circumstance: “What kind of historian am I?” - he honestly admitted (S. Krasnikov. S.M. Kirov. M., 1964, p. 196).

The conversation about history did not arise by chance. On May 16, 1934, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee on the teaching of history was published, which noted that the teaching of this discipline is abstract, schematic in nature, and instead of the history of real peoples, students are presented with abstract definitions of formations. Later, on January 27, 1936, a new decree explained that these harmful trends and ATTEMPTES to eliminate history as a science are connected, first of all, with the spread among historians of erroneous historical views characteristic of the so-called “Pokrovsky school”, Even later, in August 1937 years were condemned: a lack of understanding of the progressive role of Christianity and monasteries; lack of understanding of the progressive significance of the annexation of Ukraine to Russia in the 17th century and Georgia at the end of the 18th century; idealization of the Streltsy rebellion directed against the civilizing policies of Peter I; incorrect historical assessment of the Battle of the Ice. Thus, the disgusting anti-Russian orientation of Soviet historical science was gradually eliminated and replaced by views, the correctness of which today has to be defended again in a difficult struggle, in the conditions of a new Sabbath of anti-Russian forces.

The “liberal” intelligentsia still never tires of denouncing Zhdanov for interfering in literary and musical affairs and for persecuting Zoshchenko and Akhmatova. The veil over the real reasons for this public’s hatred of Zhdanov was lifted by the well-known Zionist M. Agursky, already mentioned by us, for whom Zhdanov and Shcherbakov were the main leaders of the “Black Hundred” trend at the top, and Zhdanov’s handbook was supposedly “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” As for the background of the well-known resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of August 14, 1946 “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, it was perfectly shown by Vitaly Volkov in the article “Behind the Scenes” (“Aurora”, 1991, g8). He noted that Zhdanov’s accusers “failed to see the direct, albeit subtle, at first glance, connection between the sharp attack against the Leningrad literary community in 1946 and the bloody massacre of Leningrad party and economic cadres in 1949-1950.”

The main role in this matter, according to V. Volkov, was played by Malenkov. He could not bring charges of an ideological nature against Zhdanov, since in this area of ​​political activity he did not feel in his element and was clearly inferior to Zhdanov in the ability to conduct relevant discussions. To attack the Leningrad group, Malenkov chose the area of ​​party work in which he felt most confident - personnel. Malenkov tried to draw the attention of Stalin, who had been very suspicious of “Leningrad separatism” since the Zinoviev and Kirov times, to the fact that in Leningrad “arbitrariness is going on in matters of selection and placement of personnel,” which turns into “blatant disregard for the guidelines of the Central Committee.” “If,” writes V. Volkov, “Malenkov had managed to convince Stalin of this, then the position of Zhdanov, Kuznetsov and all the Leningrad promoters would have been seriously undermined already in 1946.”

“Circumstances developed in such a way that in the multi-move combination that Malenkov played against Zhdanov, one of the central figures was destined to become... M.M. Zoshchenko.”

According to the same V. Volkov, “Zoshchenko had long felt, if not the patronage, then the completely favorable attention of Zhdanov, and this was, of course, known to Moscow. It is clear that under these circumstances, any blow to the popular writer was indirectly directed against Zhdanov.” Malenkov’s people made the first attempt at such a strike back in 1943 in connection with the publication in the October magazine of the first part of Zoshchenko’s story “Before Sunrise,” approved for publication by the deputy head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee, Egolin, Zhdanov’s man. The head of this department, G. Aleksandrov, was Malenkov’s protege and filed a report, accusing Zoshchenko of “slander against our people.” Zhdanov managed to neutralize this attack with minimal losses, but Malenkov was presented with a new chance in 1946, when Zoshchenko was recommended to the editorial board of the Zvezda magazine on May 22, and was approved in this capacity on July 26, and V. Volkov does not exclude the possibility of provocations from the department of Beria, an ally of Malenkov, and not just an oversight of the Leningrad city committee, which “almost became a prologue to another pogrom of Leningrad personnel.” Malenkov immediately slandered Stalin, and Zhdanov was forced to “sacrifice Zoshchenko for the sake of saving himself and his entourage.” “Zhdanov’s main strategic task was to remove the Leningrad Party organization from under attack. And he dealt with it quite successfully.” “Zhdanov sought to close as quickly as possible the inopportunely arose case with the Leningrad writers in order to finally protect himself from any further attacks by Malenkov in this direction.” And Zhdanov managed to localize the attack and limit the discussion of the oversight in personnel policy to the writing community. Of course, Zhdanov had to scold Zoshchenko with the last words, literally reproducing Stalin’s instructions to the writer. Living with wolves, Zhdanov skillfully used the guise of a wolf, without being one in essence.

K. Simonov recalls a similar incident when one of his stories was carried in print, and then Zhdanov summoned him and “spoke about the same thing smarter, more subtly and more intelligently than it was written” (“Through the Eyes of a Man of My Generation,” p. 147). And in 1948, Zhdanov tried to soften the blow. Everyone was sure that Zoshchenko and Akhmatova would be arrested, but nothing like that happened. Moreover, food and manufactured goods cards were taken away from the writers expelled from the union, but Zoshchenko and Akhmatova were summoned to Smolny and the cards were given to them again.

Returning to Moscow, Zhdanov took all measures to ensure that none of those who openly opposed his group went unpunished. He achieved the sending of Malenkov on a “long business trip” to Central Asia, and in fact, his removal from work in the Central Committee apparatus. In the summer of 1947, according to Zhdanov’s scenario, a discussion took place on G. Alexandrov’s book “The History of Western European Philosophy,” after which Alexandrov flew from his post.

However, V. Volkov concludes his article, “neither Malenkov, nor especially Beria were knocked out. They just lay low and waited for an opportunity for revenge. They were given this opportunity after Zhdanov’s death in 1948. And it was used with interest a year later, when the bloody “Leningrad Affair” began.

Not only literature, not only philosophy, everything became an arena of political struggle. even biology.

As you know, from July 31 to August 7, 1948, the infamous session of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences took place, which ended with the victory of Lysenko’s supporters over the despised geneticists. As R. Conquest notes, “we must give Zhdanov his due: he never supported Lysenko, and the final defeat of Soviet biology occurred in 1948 and was part of his own political defeat and death” (“The Great Terror,” p. 436). A.A. Zhdanov’s son Yu.A. Zhdanov, who then headed the science department of the Central Committee and was married to Stalin’s daughter Svetlana, repeatedly spoke out against Lysenko, however, when Stalin took Lysenko’s side, Yu. Zhdanov was forced to write a penitential letter on July 7, 1948 a letter to Stalin, published the day after the end of the above-mentioned session of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Zh. Medvedev. The Rise and Fall of T.L. Lysenko, New York, 1971, p. 11O, 226), And on August 31, 1948, A. “suddenly” died. A. Zhdanov. “We will not be surprised if someday it becomes known that Beria had a hand in this act,” writes A. Antonov-Ovseenko in his previously cited work about Beria in the magazine “Yunost” (1988, M12). There is even a version that Zhdanov was simply shot while hunting “like a wild boar.” I heard this version from M. Bernshtam, and he heard it from his father, who in Beria’s time held an important post in the MGB. One thing is certain: there is a direct connection between Zhdanov’s death and the departure from his political line and the defeat of his group.

Zhdanov’s detractors even invented the contemptuous term “Zhdanovshchina,” the content of which the Chechen defector A. Avtorkhanov, on page 67 of his book “The Mystery of Stalin’s Death,” reveals as “a consistent return to pre-war Stalinism in both foreign and domestic policy.” It is curious that just a few pages further, Avtorkhanov claims that Zhdanov “began to pursue a policy of de-Stalinization of Eastern European countries,” that he was accused of conspiring with Dimitrov and Tito to create a Balkan federation (op. cit., pp. 82,84). It is not clear how such a policy can be associated in Avtorkhanov’s head with Stalinism.

Another emigrant expert on Russian affairs, N. Rutych, in his book “The CPSU in Power,” as we remember, already flashed his awareness, attributed the publication of Tarle’s book about the war of 1812 to Tukhachevsky, who had already been executed by that time. Similarly, Rutych vilifies “Zhdanov’s agitprop” for condemning a non-class approach to the Russian past and the idealization of statesmen and military leaders of Tsarist Russia, citing an article dated September 1948, that is, published after Zhdanov’s death.

N. S. Khrushchev about A. A. Zhdanov:

After the death of Kirov, Stalin put the Leningrad party organization on Zhdanov. Zhdanov was elected Secretary of the Central Committee at the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and before that he worked in Gorky. I was better acquainted with him than with Kirov. I remember our first meeting. We previously competed with the Nizhny Novgorod region. And now our delegation at the congress invited the Gorky delegation to visit. I don't remember where we gathered. Zhdanov was a cheerful person. Then he drank with us and drank even before that. In a word, he went out onto the stage and stretched out a two-row accordion. He played the accordion and piano quite well. I liked it. Kaganovich spoke contemptuously about him: “Harmonic player.” But I didn’t see anything reprehensible in this. I myself once tried to learn this kind of playing when I was young, and I had an accordion. However, I never played well, and he played well. Later, when Zhdanov began to move among the Politburo, it was clear that Stalin treated him very carefully. Here Kaganovich’s grumbling towards Zhdanov intensified; he often said sarcastically: “Here you don’t need much skill to work, you just need to have a good tongue, be able to tell jokes well, sing ditties, and you can live in the world”...

Zhdanov was a smart man. He had some malice and cunning. He could subtly notice your mistake and introduce irony. On the other hand, purely outwardly, at all plenums he sat with a pencil and took notes. People might have thought: how attentively Zhdanov listens to everything at the plenum, writes everything down so as not to miss anything. And he wrote down someone’s unsuccessful turns of speech, then came to Stalin and repeated them. For example, Yusupov’s performance caused a lot of laughter from everyone. In addition, Zhdanov really was a musical person. It turns out that he once studied music with Alexandrov, the father of the current leader of the military ensemble. He taught music at their secondary school. Zhdanov studied in Mariupol and graduated from a secondary school there.

The name of Zhdanov evokes a lot of speculation in connection with the post-war resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks regarding the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” and Muradeli’s opera “The Great Friendship”. Regarding them, I think that Zhdanov was simply an appointed speaker: what he was ordered to say, he said. How he himself thought is difficult to find out. Maybe it was the way he performed, but I doubt it. Most likely no. At that time, Zhdanov was in absolute disgrace. Attitudes towards him changed during the war. Why did he still fall out of favor with Stalin?

“At the top” the impression was formed (to what extent it was justified, it is difficult for me to judge now) that he was kind of a slacker, not eager to get to work. To some extent, everyone noted this. He could arrive at any meeting of the Party Central Committee two or three hours later, or he could not come at all. In a word, he was not like, for example, Kaganovich. He will always find something to do, he always has no time. But this one is calm: if he is entrusted with a question, he will do it, but if he is not entrusted with it, it is not necessary. Stalin and others who knew Zhdanov had this impression. Personally, it is difficult for me to speak on this issue. I've never worked particularly closely with him, so it's hard for me to talk. Otherwise, he was a very charming person.

Zhdanov, Andrei Alexandrovich (February 14 (26), 1896 - August 31, 1948) - a prominent Soviet politician. After Great Patriotic War he was considered the most likely heir to the power of I. Stalin, but died before him.

Zhdanov's party career

Andrei Zhdanov joined the Russian Social Democratic Party ( Bolsheviks) in 1915 and during the Soviet years gradually made a brilliant career, becoming after murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934 by the communist ruler of Leningrad. In July 1938 he became Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. Zhdanov was an active guide Great Terror Stalin, although he was not as active in this party purge as Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov. However, Zhdanov's personal approval of 176 execution lists is documented. In June 1940, he was sent to Estonia to lead the creation of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic and its annexation to the USSR.

Andrey Zhdanov. Photo 1937

Zhdanov played a prominent role during the defense of Leningrad, which was blockaded by German troops. After a ceasefire agreement was concluded between the USSR and Finland on September 4, 1944 in Moscow, Zhdanov led the Allied Control Commission in Finland until the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947.

In January 1945, Zhdanov was relieved of his post as First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and City Committee, but retained considerable influence in the city. In 1946, Stalin instructed Zhdanov to direct the cultural policy of the Soviet Union. First of all (in December 1946) he censored writers, including Anna Akhmatova And Mikhail Zoshchenko. He put forward a slogan, often referred to in the West as the “Zhdanov Doctrine”: “The only possible conflict in the works of Soviet culture is the conflict between good and even better.”

In 1946 – 1947 Zhdanov was Chairman of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1947 he organized Cominform, similar to the previous one Comintern, intended to coordinate the actions of the communist parties of Europe.

In February 1948, Zhdanov began purges among musicians - “the fight against formalism.” Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Aram Khachaturian and many other composers were censured at this time. In June 1948, Stalin sent Zhdanov to a Cominform meeting in Bucharest. Its goal was to condemn Yugoslavia and Tito, but Zhdanov took a more restrained line here than the other Soviet delegate - and his rival - Georgy Malenkov. This infuriated Stalin, who removed Zhdanov from all posts and replaced him with Malenkov. Zhdanov was transferred to a sanatorium, where he died on August 31, 1948 from heart failure. It is possible that his death was the result of a deliberate misdiagnosis.

Zhdanov's hometown, Mariupol, was renamed in his honor on Stalin's initiative (1948). A monument to Zhdanov was erected on its central square. The name Mariupol was returned in 1989, and the monument was dismantled in 1990.

Nikita Khrushchev writes in his memoirs that Zhdanov was an alcoholic, and that in his last days, Stalin shouted at him, insisting that he stop drinking and drink only fruit juice. After the war, Stalin spoke of Zhdanov as his successor, but Zhdanov's poor health gave his rivals, Beria and Malenkov, the opportunity to undermine their rival's influence. After the death of Zhdanov, Beria and Malenkov were able to untie " Leningrad case" Zhdanov’s former protégés fell victim to him Nikolai Voznesensky And Alexey Kuznetsov, who also began to be nominated for the role of Stalin's successors.

Zhdanov's ideology

Having emerged in 1946 and lasting until the end of the 1950s, Zhdanov’s ideological teaching (“Zhdanovshchina”, “Zhdanov doctrine”) dominated cultural activity in the USSR. Zhdanov intended to create a new philosophy of artistic creativity. Zhdanov and his associates sought to eliminate foreign influence from Soviet culture, proclaiming that “apolitical” art was ideological sabotage. Their theories were based on the fact that the world was divided into two opposing camps: the “imperialist” one, led by the USA, and the “democratic” one, led by the USSR. This matched the terminology Cold War, which also began in 1946. The slogan “the only possible conflict in Soviet culture is the conflict between good and even better” perfectly expresses the meaning of Zhdanovism. This cultural policy was strictly enforced through censorship of writers, artists and intellectuals. Those who did not meet the standards defined by Zhdanov were punished. This course, officially discontinued in 1952, had a very negative impact on Soviet culture.

The origins of this ideology arose even before 1946, but it came into full force from the moment of the attack on the “apolitical,” “bourgeois,” “individualistic” works of the satirist Mikhail Zoshchenko and the poetess Anna Akhmatova, who wrote for the literary magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad.” In a special report by Zhdanov (August 1946), Zoshchenko was called “the scum of literature,” and Akhmatova’s poetry was declared “totally far from the people.” The result of the report was a formidable party resolution “ About the magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad"».

On February 20, 1948, Zhdanovism shifted its main focus to “anti-formalism,” targeting composers like Dmitri Shostakovich. In April of the same year, many of these musicians were forced to repent for “formalism” at a special congress of the Union of Composers. These composers were rehabilitated in the Soviet Union only on May 28, 1958.

Members of the Zhdanov family

Zhdanov’s son, Yuri (1919 – 2006), married Stalin’s daughter in 1949, Svetlana Alliluyeva, but already in 1950 he divorced her. They had a daughter together, Catherine.

He was found dead in his apartment in Tolyatti. According to preliminary data, the death of the 46-year-old man occurred on February 5, but his body was discovered only on the morning of February 7.

Zhdanov’s body was discovered by his mother, who came to visit her son,

said the head of the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Samara Region, Sergei. No external signs of violent death were found on the body. The authorities are conducting an investigation into this fact. Goldstein added that the man's cause of death will be determined during a forensic examination.

Zhdanov is one of the most successful participants in “Own Game” on. He appeared in 74 games and scored 49 wins, and won a car in 2001 with 10 wins. He was the winner of the 12th cycle of the “Golden Dozen” (2000), a member of the grandmaster team in Challenge Cup 2, the champion of the second half of 2005, the winner of the 2006 super final and the finalist of the 1st team tournament in 2012 as part of the Volga region team, reported on TV show website.

Andrei Zhdanov, who graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute, worked for many years as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Prizyv, a corporate publication. According to the TLTgorod portal, friends often made fun of him, calling the newspaper in which he worked “Pozyv.” “For many, this attachment to the same place of work was incomprehensible. Because at one fine moment the whole world opened up before Andrei Zhdanov - in the literal sense of the word,” the media writes. It also states that

About a week ago Zhdanov took a vacation. His colleagues haven't seen him since then.

but, since in the work collective he was considered an uncommunicative person, no one was worried because of his silence.

A year and a half ago, Andrei lost his wife: on August 28, 2015, a teacher of foreign literature at Tatishchev University committed suicide. Relatives noted that Zhdanov took the death of his wife very hard. In an interview with the Togliatti Navigator publication, Zhdanov called “the most important thing in life is ZhIK: Wife, Game, Cats.”

“Every sumo wrestling school has an “oyakata” - a coach-mentor.

For me, my wife, Annushka, has always been such an oyakata. Without her, I would never have been in this program,

- said Zhdanov. — There was an interesting moment not so long ago. A question was asked (and dear, damn, 1500 points!): who published chess poems and sketches in the Russian emigrant magazine “Rul”? I was afraid to answer it, not being sure. And when the host of the program, Petya Kuleshov, answered “Vladimir Nabokov” for us, I said: “Damn, Annushka will kill me.” This moment was not broadcast. And on the set, the audience “collapsed” with laughter, knowing that I had a strict but fair “oyakata”. Therefore, when we were watching the program at home on TV, I wisely crawled to the other end of the room on this question. The “trick” is that my wife defended her Ph.D. in , and I proofread this work three times, like a real proofreader.”

Zhdanov described himself as having come to “His Game” without experience of such games, “from the couch.” “My wife and I haven’t missed almost a single program since 1996. It was then broadcast in the old format on NTV once a week, on Saturdays. Annushka usually worked on Saturdays, and we didn’t have a VCR at that time. And I recorded her sound from the TV onto an ordinary two-cassette player. I put it close to the speaker and turned the recording on louder.”

In 1998, Zhdanov decided to try playing himself. “I called the phone number that was listed on the screen. Then, to participate in the project, you had to go through a creative competition: send your questions so that the editors would understand how “into the material” you are. By that time, I had accumulated a lot of questions, which I sent to the program. My efforts were apparently appreciated and called for selection,” he said in an interview. “It took place the same way as filming, only in a small office on Shabolovka and without cameras. And the editor himself, as the presenter, read the questions to us. I won my round then. And at the same end of 1998 I was called to filming.”

For the first six months of his participation in “Own Game,” Zhdanov, at his own suggestion, was presented as an “everyman from Tolyatti”:

“A little later, when I was entrenched in the “main team,” the editor came up and said: “Andryush, let’s stop being “exhausted.” Your bad example turned out to be contagious.” At first, this idea was truly original. But then every second person who applied for the program began to demand to be represented as a Buddhist from Sevastopol, an existentialist from Saransk, an Esperantist from Pereslavl-Zalessky.”

As for the TV show, Zhdanov called it a game that lives by its own laws. “Anyone can lose to anyone. That’s why I never tire of saying: “Your own game” is a real school of humility.”

In 1915 he joined the RSDLP(b). Since March 1916, a member of the Tambov Committee of the RSDLP(b), was drafted into the army and sent to the 139th Infantry Reserve Regiment (Shadrinsk). After the February Revolution, he was elected to the regimental committee, and then chairman of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies. From August 1917, chairman of the Shadrinsk Committee of the RSDLP(b). After the establishment of Soviet power in Shadrinsk (Jan. 1918), commissar of agriculture of the district council. In 1918- 20 served in the Red Army, political worker, editor of the newspaper "Tverskaya Pravda". Since 1922, chairman of the Tver provincial executive committee. In 1924-34, secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) provincial committee (territorial committee) of the CPSU (b) - one of the most developed industrial regions of the USSR. 1925 candidate member, member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from 1930. Elected secretary of the PC and member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee on February 10, 1934. At the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1934) Zhdanov, emphasizing the exceptional role of I.V. Stalin in the leadership of the party and the country . called for an even closer rally around the leader. In a speech on August 17, 1934 at the Congress of Writers, he defined the essence of socialist realism and the tasks of Soviet literature! “To serve the people, the cause of the Lenin-Stalin party, the cause of socialism.” After the murder of S. M. Kirov, Zhdanov, remaining secretary and a member of the Organizing Bureau, attracted. 1934 became secretary of the Leningrad regional committee and city committee of the CPSU (b). “Mobilized the Leningrad Bolsheviks to defeat and uproot traitors,” which resulted in mass arrests, expulsions and executions of former oppositionists, as well as “class enemies,” etc. Constantly demanding an intensification of the fight against the “enemies of the people,” Zhdanov became the main organizer of the destruction of the party and economic elite of the USSR in 1936-38. At the same time, Zhdanov himself personally was not part of the “troika” that approved the execution lists; the 2nd secretary of the regional committee was usually sent there. From 1.2.1935 candidate member, from 22.3.1939 member of the Politburo of the Central Committee. In 1937 he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. On January 21, 1938, during a speech at the Bolshoi Theater, he stated: “The year 1937 will go down in history as the year when our party dealt a crushing blow to enemies of all stripes, when our party became strong and strong in the fight against the enemies of the people.” Since 1938, simultaneously a member of the Main Military Council of the Navy. Speaking at the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (March 1939), Zhdanov said: “We are fighters in the army of the great proletarian strategists Lenin - Stalin.” N.S. Khrushchev recalled: “When we visited Stalin (at that time he had already begun to drink and get others drunk, Zhdanov suffered from such weakness), it would happen that he would strum the piano and sing, and Stalin would sing along with him.” During the Great Patriotic War, member of the Military Council of the North-Western direction (June-Aug. 1941) and the Leningrad Front (Sept. 1941 - July 1945). He led the party organization and the entire life of the city during the blockade. Despite the famine that reigned in the city. Zhdanov. according to the memoirs of contemporaries, he was not going to share the difficulty of the blockade with the residents and did not deny himself anything; products were delivered to him directly from the mainland, incl. even pancakes and fruit. According to the testimony of the son A.A. Kuznetsov, at the beginning of the war Zhdanov had a nervous breakdown, he could not work, appear in public and was isolated in a personal bunker, and leadership of the defense passed to Kuznetsov. From 1944 he worked in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, where he was entrusted with the leadership of ideological work. He was directly in charge of making decisions in the field of literature and art. He fully affirmed the cult of I.V. Stalin. The period of Zhdanov’s omnipotence in the cultural life of the country later began to be called “Zhlanovshina.” In 1948 the city of Mariupol was renamed Zhdanov. In recent years, Zhdanov was seriously ill, and his influence began to decline. At the same time, according to Khrushchev, this happened because Zhdanov was idle and did not show initiative. In the early 1950s. based on a letter from L.F. Timoshuk put forward a version that Zhdanov was killed by “wrecker doctors.” which became one of the pretexts for launching a new large-scale “doctors’ case” (ended with the death of Stalin). Zhdanov's son Yuri (born in 1919) was at one time married to Stalin's daughter S.I. Alliluyeva. Yuri worked for a long time in the apparatus of the Central Committee: head. department (1947-48) and the science sector (1948-50) in the Directorate of Propaganda and Agitation, head. science department

and higher educational institutions (1950-52), department of natural and technical sciences and higher educational institutions (1952-53). In 1952-56 he was also a member of the CPSU Central Committee, and in 1952 his candidacy was seriously considered by Stalin for the post of 1st Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee. After the leader's death, Yuri's party career ended, and from 1957 he worked as rector of Rostov University.