(1881-1969) Soviet military and statesman
Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich belonged to the group of people who linked themselves with the Bolsheviks long before the revolution. He was born in the village of Verkhny near Lugansk in the family of a railway worker. Kliment Voroshilov began his career at the Lugansk Metallurgical Plant, and later moved to railway repair shops. Later, this circumstance was the reason that the journalists called him “Luhansk locksmith”.
In 1903 Voroshilov joined the Bolshevik Party. For participating in strikes during the events of 1905, he was arrested by the police, and then exiled to Siberia, from where he fled a few years later and until the 1917 revolution was in illegal party work. It was in exile that he became acquainted with Stalin, and friendly relations between them remained for the rest of his life.
After the Bolsheviks came to power, Kliment Voroshilov headed the Lugansk Soviet of Workers' Deputies, but soon moved to Petrograd, where he became a city commissar. Already at this time, he showed himself to be an excellent organizer, but a completely inactive person. He turned out to be an ideal executor of other people's decisions.
As a representative of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, Kliment Voroshilov participated in the creation of the Cheka and was one of the initiators of the "red terror" - the first mass executions of representatives of the intelligentsia and the military elite.
In January 1918, when the immediate threat of the seizure of Petrograd by the troops of General Nikolai Yudenich arose, Voroshilov was appointed chairman of the emergency commission for the protection of the city. He was not afraid to exceed his powers and advocated the most severe repressive measures.
In March 1918, Voroshilov again went to Lugansk, where he formed a military detachment of workers from local factories. As the commander of this detachment, he participated in the battles with the German occupation forces near Kharkov, at the same time he fell under the command of the famous commander A. Yegorov. Semyon Budyonny's detachment also operated in approximately the same places, the two commanders met and more than once supported each other.
It was Kliment Voroshilov who convinced Budyonny to join the Bolsheviks. Gradually, under the command of Voroshilov, the Fifth Army was formed, which a little later played a major role in the defense of Tsaritsyn. Here the paths of Stalin and Voroshilov crossed for the second time, and since then they have never diverged.
After the liberation of Ukraine from the invaders, Voroshilov became the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of this republic. Together with Budyonny in 1919, he organized the First Cavalry Army, in which he remained a member of the military council.
In any post that Voroshilov held, he was extremely tough and acted in the most decisive manner. That is why he was often sent to liquidate various counter-revolutionary actions. So, in 1919, Kliment Voroshilov was sent to fight the supporters of Ataman Grigoriev, who opposed the Bolsheviks.
Such extremist convictions led Voroshilov to join the so-called military opposition at the eighth congress of the RCP (b). She called for the transfer of all power to the military command. However, seeing that this line was left without party leadership, Voroshilov departed from it and did not make any more critical statements.
During the tenth congress of the RCP (b), he was elected a member of the Central Committee and, among the military delegates to the congress, was sent to Kronstadt to suppress the uprising of sailors. Thanks to the decisive actions of Tukhachevsky, who led the storming of the fortress, Kronstadt was captured and the uprising was brutally suppressed.
In this difficult time, Kliment Voroshilov again proposed a total execution of all the arrested participants in the uprising. However, the leadership did not agree with the excessive brutality offered by the military, and the bulk of the rebels were sent to the camps.
Voroshilov returned to Moscow and became a member of the South-Eastern Bureau of the Central Committee. After the death of Frunze, he was appointed people's commissar for military and naval affairs and chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the republic. Moreover, he becomes Stalin's main assistant in the fight against Leon Trotsky.
It was at this time that the legend appears that Voroshilov, together with Stalin, are the main organizers of the victories of the Red Army in civil war.
As People's Commissar of Defense, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov advocated the absolutization of the experience of the Civil War and became one of the most decisive opponents of the motorization of the army, which was proposed by Marshal Tukhachevsky. True, Voroshilov always tried to please, as they say, everyone. Therefore, he authorized the development of new tank designs, one of which was even named after him.
The consistent support of Stalin led to the fact that after continuous purges in the armed forces, Voroshilov and Budyonny remained the only active marshals.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Kliment Voroshilov came up with a new military doctrine, according to which the Red Army was declared the most advancing army in the world. This led, in particular, to the conclusion that retreat as a type of military-strategic operation was unacceptable for the Red Army.
The main active force, according to Voroshilov's theory, was the rifle divisions. From here, in particular, the general training in shooting originates. Those who received the appropriate badge were called "Voroshilov's shooters".
In 1940, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was appointed deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. It was more of an honorable rather than a power-giving position. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War showed Voroshilov's military incompetence. Occupying the post of commander of the South-Western Army Group, he failed to contain the advancing German troops and became one of the culprits of major setbacks that led to the occupation of Ukraine. Nevertheless, at the direction of Stalin, Kliment Voroshilov was appointed commander of the Leningrad Front. However, even there, almost immediately, it became obvious his inability to establish a defense. By the way, Voroshilov was the most zealous supporter of the mining of Leningrad and the ships of the Baltic Fleet, which, as it were, suggested the possibility of their capture by the enemy.
In October 1941, Voroshilov was removed from this post. He was replaced by General of the Army Georgy Zhukov, who managed to organize the defense and defend Leningrad. Since that time, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov has been a member of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and performs the duties of a representative of the Headquarters on some fronts. In the summer of 1942, he turns out to be a direct participant in the unsuccessful organization of the defense of the Caucasus.
After the victory, Voroshilov was sent to Hungary, where he headed the Allied Control Commission. The harsh measures taken against the representatives of the opposition led to the fact that the communist regime came to power in this country.
After Stalin's death, Kliment Voroshilov became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. During the XX Party Congress, he opposed the famous report of Nikita Khrushchev, which for the first time openly exposed the crimes of Stalinism. From that time on, Kliment Voroshilov, together with Vyacheslav Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich, became an active opponent of the Khrushchev line. However, the attempt to remove him, made at the Plenum of the Central Committee in June 1957, ended in failure. After the resignation of Molotov and Kaganovich, Voroshilov managed to convince Khrushchev of his loyalty. True, he never began to enjoy the confidence of the first secretary. Remaining in his former position, Voroshilov continued the struggle for power in the party.
In 1960, by decision of Khrushchev, he was dismissed. The external pretext was concern for the state of his health. From that time on, Kliment Voroshilov lost all real power and remained a living relic of the past. Like other old Bolsheviks, after his death, Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was buried at the Kremlin wall.
Our beloved country is great and immense. It is captivating with the beauty of endless seas, wide steppes, flowering meadows, mighty forests. Unforgettable greatest feats of his people. Labor, combat, in the fields of science, culture, art ... Many "nuggets" were given to the world by the Russian land. Many sons glorified her
We reached from the shores of the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean without destroying a single people on our way. We carried with us the spirit of peace and enlightenment. We have always extended a helping hand to our neighbors, relieving them of foreign oppression. We have broken the back of fascism. We were the first to fly into space.
We are proud of our glorious ancestors. This is our story.
There were also "dark" times in our history. There were troubles and misfortunes. There were such falls when it seemed that Russia would no longer rise from its knees. But faith in oneself and love for the Motherland did their job. Russia, like the Phoenix bird, each time was reborn from the ashes with its head held high.
Our past is a part of ourselves, of our identity. That is why we keep our history and protect it from outside encroachments. This is our memory and heritage.
ROOIVS "Rusichi" brings to your attention an excerpt from the chapter "Red Marshal Voroshilov" of the book by the author of works on the history of RA Medvedev "Stalin's inner circle. Companions of the leader", dedicated to Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich
Difficult childhood
KE Voroshilov was born on February 4, 1881 in the family of a retired soldier, a railroad watchman, Efrem Voroshilov. Klim's mother - Maria Vasilievna - worked as a cook and a laundress. It was a poor family, where everyone was illiterate, including little Klim, who at the age of ten had to work as a shepherd, and at eleven - as an auxiliary worker in a mine near Lugansk, one of the industrial centers of the Donetsk basin. Soon his mother took him away from the hard work in the mine, and he was able to attend the zemstvo elementary school for two seasons. At the age of fifteen, Voroshilov began working at a metallurgical plant in the city of Alchevsk, first as a courier, then as an assistant driver at a water pumping station, a locksmith in an electrical shop, a crane driver in an iron foundry. Here, in Alchevsk, seventeen-year-old Klim joined the Social Democratic circle and read the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" by Marx and Engels. He took part in the first strike, was arrested, fired from his job, and then wandered around the southern provinces of Russia for three years, making odd jobs.
In 1903 Voroshilov returned to Donbass and got a job in Lugansk at the Hartmann steam locomotive plant. In Lugansk in the same year, a city social democratic organization was created, which Voroshilov also joined. He joined the Bolshevik faction and soon became a member of its city committee.
Professional revolutionary
The revolutionary events of 1905 shook the workers of Donbass. In Lugansk, Voroshilov headed not only the city Bolshevik committee, but also the Soviet of Workers' Deputies. Strikes and demonstrations of the Luhansk workers took place under his leadership. In the summer of 1905, Voroshilov was arrested, but soon he was released on bail at the request of a demonstration of many thousands.
At the beginning of 1906, Voroshilov was elected from the Lugansk Social Democrats as a delegate to the IV Congress of the RSDLP. There he first met Lenin. He also met and made friends with Stalin, who was known in party circles under the name Koba, and also under the party pseudonym Ivanovich. Voroshilov had a party pseudonym Volodya or Volodin. Voroshilov combined his participation in the Stockholm Congress with the purchase of weapons for the combat groups of the Luhansk workers. He organized several transports of weapons from Finland. With Voroshilov's help, an underground printing house was organized in Lugansk, and the local Bolshevik newspaper Donetskiy Kolokol began to appear under his editorship.
In 1907, Voroshilov came to London to participate in the 5th Congress of the RSDLP. At party congresses, he met many famous Bolsheviks of that era, but became especially close with MV Frunze and MI Kalinin. In 1907, Voroshilov met with Ekaterina Davydovna Gorbman, who soon became his wife.
The revolution of 1905-1907 ended in defeat. The Luhansk organization of the Bolsheviks was also defeated. Voroshilov was arrested again and exiled to the Arkhangelsk province. He escapes from exile to the south, to Baku, where in 1908 he worked with Stalin as part of the Baku Bolshevik Committee. In the same year he returned to St. Petersburg and was arrested again. Until 1912, Voroshilov visited many prisons and distant settlements of the Arkhangelsk exile. Having freed himself, he returned to Donbass, where he resumed his activities among the workers. But he was again seized and sent into exile in Perm, from which he was released a year later under an amnesty on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the royal house of the Romanovs.
It was dangerous for Voroshilov to remain in the Donbass, and he got a job as a worker at a gun factory in Tsaritsyn.
Started World War.
Many Bolsheviks did not shy away from being drafted into the army, they went to the front to conduct Bolshevik agitation there and prepare the army for participation in the revolution. But Voroshilov decided to avoid mobilization. Therefore, he and his family left Tsaritsyn and after a while settled in Petrograd, where he began to work in a small factory and established contact with the illegal city committee of the Bolsheviks. Here, in Petrograd, Voroshilov was caught by the February Revolution.
The year of new revolutions
On the decisive days of February, Voroshilov is in the midst of workers' demonstrations. At the beginning of 1917, he established contact with some of the soldiers of the Izmailovsky regiment. Now he has gained influence in the garrison. From the soldiers of the Izmailovsky regiment, Voroshilov was elected to the very first composition of the Petrograd Soviet. However, he is called to Luhansk, and with the consent of the party leadership, he again goes to Donbass, where he is elected chairman of the party's city committee.
The February revolution gave freedom to all political parties and groups in Russia. Along with various nationalist organizations, 15 different parties operated in Luhansk alone. However, the Bolsheviks became the most powerful revolutionary organization here. By the end of July, the Luhansk organization of the Bolsheviks already included more than 2,500 people. On behalf of Luhansk, Voroshilov also participated in the 6th Party Congress, which set a course for an armed uprising. But in Luhansk, the matter went without an uprising. Already in August, the Bolsheviks won here in the elections to the city duma, whose chairman was Voroshilov. During the days of the Kornilov rebellion, several units of the Red Guard were created in Lugansk. And in September, at the re-elections to the Soviets, the Bolsheviks received two-thirds of all mandates. Voroshilov added the post of chairman of the Council to his post as mayor. Not only in fact, but also formally, the Bolshevik organization of Lugansk took power in the city into its own hands. Voroshilov did not go to the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, he had too many things to do in the city. Two Bolsheviks attended the congress from Luhansk. However, it was Voroshilov who was elected in absentia at this Congress of Soviets as a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
Only in November 1917, Voroshilov, a delegate to the Constituent Assembly, left for Petrograd. He took part in the work of the 3rd Congress of Soviets and was again elected to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Together with Dzerzhinsky, he was organizing the Cheka. His stay in the capital was delayed due to the need to fulfill many orders of the Central Committee, as well as the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. In one of the resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars, for example, it was written: “Instruct comrade. Voroshilov liquidation of the former Petrograd City Administration according to the plan of comrade. Dzerzhinsky and the organization of a special body to maintain peace and order in Petrograd ... "
At the head of the 5th Ukrainian army
In February 1918, after the breakdown of peace negotiations and the end of the armistice, German troops launched an offensive to the east. It was suspended after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty between the RSFSR and Germany. However, in Ukraine, German troops, in agreement with the so-called Central Rada, continued to advance and occupied Kiev. The Soviet detachments withdrew in battles under the pressure of the German divisions. In the cities of Donbass, working detachments were created, armored trains were equipped. In Lugansk, under the leadership of Voroshilov, the 1st Lugansk socialist partisan detachment was formed, which took part in the battles near Kharkov. In the industrial regions of Ukraine, the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic was formed. In the course of the battles, individual detachments united into hastily put together armies. One of the largest was the 5th Ukrainian Army, the command of which was entrusted to Voroshilov.
The Germans did not recognize the Donetsk Republic. Poorly armed Soviet troops were defeated and retreated. Voroshilov ordered his army to leave Lugansk and retreat into the RSFSR. However, in the Don region, through which Voroshilov's army was to pass, Soviet power was overthrown. The Cossack government of General Krasnov entered into an agreement with the German command. This put the soldiers of the Red Army in a very difficult position. Already in the first battle at the station of Likhaya, they were defeated and retreated to Belaya Kalitva. It was decided, however, not to abandon the trains, not to leave the refugees, but to continue along the line of the railway to Tsaritsyn. Voroshilov later recalled:
“Tens of thousands of demoralized, exhausted, ragged people and thousands of wagons with belongings of workers and their families had to be carried through the raging Cossack Don. For three whole months, surrounded on all sides by Generals Mamontov, Fitzkhelaurov, Denisov, and others, my troops fought their way, restoring the railway. a canvas, demolished and burned for tens of miles, rebuilding bridges and erecting embankments and dams. Three months later, "Voroshilov's group of troops" made its way to Tsaritsyn ... "
In battles near the city of Tsaritsyn
Participation in the defense of Tsaritsyn is undoubtedly the main episode in Voroshilov's military biography. He brought several thousand soldiers to Tsaritsyn, of whom they formed one of the front divisions. In addition, several more divisions and separate brigades were formed. All of them, by order of the RVS, were united into the 10th Army, at the head of which was put KE Voroshilov. E. A. Shchadenko became the political commissar of the army. The army also included the cavalry division of B. M. Dumenko, one of the brigades of this division was commanded by S. M. Budyonny. The general leadership of the defense of Tsaritsyn was taken over by Stalin, who had been there since the beginning of June 1918 as the head of the food business in southern Russia, vested with emergency rights. For many months at Tsaritsyn there were heavy battles with varying success, mainly with the Cossack regiments of General Krasnov. Voroshilov proved to be a brave commander. But this could rather be attributed to his personal bravery, rather than military talent. The Cossack magazine "Donskaya Volna" wrote in February 1919: "We must give justice to Voroshilov that if he is not a strategist in the generally accepted sense of the word, then in any case he cannot be denied the ability to stubbornly resist."
In those years, such harsh criticism of Voroshilov was not an isolated fact. Even earlier, A.E.Snesarev, military commander of the North Caucasian Military District and commander of the detachments defending Tsaritsyn, wrote in his memo to the Chairman of the Supreme Military Council:
"…T. Voroshilov, as a military commander, does not possess the necessary qualities. He is not sufficiently imbued with duty and does not adhere to the elementary rules of commanding troops "(Quoted from: V. Pariyskiy, G. Zhavoronkov Falling into disfavor ... // Soviet culture. 1989. Feb. 23).
Much more categorical was the opinion of the members of the revolutionary tribunal, which examined the circumstances of the surrender of Kharkov to Denikin's troops in the summer of 1919. The city was defended by units of the 14th Army, commanded by Voroshilov. The members of the tribunal came to the conclusion that the military knowledge of the army commander does not allow even the battalion to be entrusted to him. The revealed incompetence of Voroshilov turned out to be so great that it became a mitigating circumstance, and the tribunal limited itself only to his removal from office.
The White divisions failed to capture Tsaritsyn in 1918, and this greatly facilitated the general military situation of the Soviet Republic. The Red Army was just being created, and Voroshilov often had sharp conflicts with the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic L. D. Trotsky. The actions of the 10th Army still bore a strong imprint of partisanism. In addition, Voroshilov for a long time refused to use military specialists from among the officers of the old army. Of course, in this case, Stalin stood behind Voroshilov, to whom he already obeyed almost unquestioningly. When Stalin left Tsaritsyn, Voroshilov was removed by Trotsky from command of the 10th Army. Ukraine at this time was already liberated from the German occupation, and Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. At the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) Voroshilov was one of the leaders of the so-called "military opposition", condemned by the majority of the congress. Speaking at the congress, Lenin said:
“… The old partisanship lives in us, and this sounds in all the speeches of Voroshilov and Goloshchekin. When Voroshilov spoke about the enormous merits of the Tsaritsyn army in the defense of Tsaritsyn, of course, Comrade. Voroshilov is absolutely right, such heroism is difficult to find in history ... But he himself was telling now, Voroshilov cited facts that indicate that there were terrible traces of partisanism. This is an indisputable fact. Comrade Voroshilov says: we did not have any military specialists, and we had 60,000 casualties. This is awful ... The heroism of the Tsaritsyn army will enter the masses, but to say, we did without military specialists, is this really a defense of the party line ... Comrade is to blame. Voroshilov is that he does not want to give up this old guerrilla war.
... Maybe we wouldn't have to give these 60,000 if there were specialists there, if there was a regular army ... "(Leninsky collection T. 37. S. 138, 139.)
At the head of the First Cavalry Army
The civil war in Ukraine was particularly fierce and complex, and Voroshilov was not able to work quietly in the Soviet government of Ukraine. He participated in battles with the detachments of the rebellious ataman Grigoriev, Makhno, then at the head of the 14th army he defended Yekaterinoslav, commanded the internal Ukrainian front. Under the pressure of the troops of General Denikin, the Red Army had to leave most of Ukraine. After the formation of the First Horse, Voroshilov was appointed a member of the RVS of this army. Budyonny, Voroshilov and Shchadenko stood at the head of the First Horse in the fall of 1919, when she fought fierce battles with white cavalry divisions in Central Russia, and then pursued the retreating Denikin. The First Horse played an important role in the battles in the North Caucasus. The battles in Tavria and the Crimea against the troops of General Wrangel, and then against the detachments of Makhno and Petliura, completed the combat path of the First Horse. From the party organization of this army, Voroshilov was sent to the X Congress of the party. He was elected to the presidium of the congress and presided over some of its meetings. Together with a group of delegates to the congress, he participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion in the spring of 1921. For this military operation Voroshilov was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner. With two orders on his chest, he appeared at a regular meeting of the party congress, for which he was awarded Lenin's sarcastic remarks. It was then considered bad form for party members to demonstrate their awards at business meetings or even at conventions. Voroshilov came to the next meeting in an embroidered Ukrainian shirt and without orders. At the X Congress of the Party, Voroshilov was elected a member of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). The Central Committee in 1921 consisted of only 25 members and 15 candidates.
Unfortunately, already during the Civil War, both as a military leader and as a political worker, Voroshilov distinguished himself not only on the battlefields. He, Shchadenko and Budyonny were involved in the arrest, trial and execution of the then famous hero of the Civil War, organizer of the first cavalry units of the Red Army, “the first saber of the Republic” BM Dumenko. The false and even absurd testimonies of Voroshilov, Shchadenko, Budyonny, which survived in the Dumenko case, gave rise to a hasty and unjust verdict. For example, what Shchadenko said, referring to himself and Voroshilov: “... We tried to make Budyonny think that maybe he did not understand Dumenko and that Dumenko was starting an adventure against Soviet power, talking about“ black clouds, ”then after that, Budyonny decided that, apparently, this is the way it is ... "In Budyonny's written testimony that" there was some discontent on the part of Dumenko towards political workers ... Orders were not always carried out by Dumenko accurately ... ", Voroshilov put up a" resolution ":" he (Dumenko. - R. M.) is insignificant "(See: N. Starov. The first saber of the Republic // Izvestia. 15 Aug. 1988). Ordzhonikidze and Tukhachevsky asked the hastily summoned Revolutionary Tribunal to refrain from arrest or from a harsh sentence. However, the organizers of the falsified "Dumenko case" were in a hurry, and immediately after the verdict was pronounced, he was shot.
We found in Voroshilov a propensity for a fair exaggeration of their achievements and for the appropriation of other people's successes. For example, reporting on the fight against Grigoriev's rebellion, he wrote: "Under my personal leadership, the gangs were defeated ..."
In reality, the commanders of the directions P.V. Yegorov and P.E.Dybenko made a very significant contribution to the defeat of the Grigorievshchina. The commander of the Ukrainian front, VA Antonov-Ovseenko, who was entrusted with command of all the armed forces of Ukraine, rejecting Voroshilov's claims, wrote: “Voroshilov was the commander in a certain sector of the internal front. At first, he had big failures on it, corrected by successes in other areas, where he was not in command ... He can only attribute the success of the fight against Grigoriev to himself because of a big misunderstanding. Then - the reports of his headquarters about the defeat of Grigoriev near Alexandria turned out to be false ...
Voroshilov's assertions both in the field of his own successes and in relation to the behavior of our units are shamefully exaggerated "(Quoted from: Fesenko A. P. On the assessment of the role of K. E. Voroshilov in the defeat of the Grigoriev region // Questions of history. 1988. No. 10. P . 188.).
At the head of the military districts
Although Voroshilov was not a professional military man, he was left behind in military work after the end of the Civil War. In 1921-1924 he was in command of the large North Caucasian military district. During these years Mikoyan was the party leader of the North Caucasian Territory, with whom Voroshilov established friendly relations. Together with Ordzhonikidze, Voroshilov was introduced in 1924 to the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR. He soon became a member of the PBC Presidium. These appointments were clearly intended to limit the influence of Trotsky and his closest supporters in the Revolutionary Military Council. In May 1924, Voroshilov was also appointed commander of the Moscow military district instead of N.I.Muralov. Muralov was one of the heroes of the Civil War. He distinguished himself on the Eastern Front in the battles against Kolchak. But he was a political ally and personal friend of Trotsky, and Stalin wanted to remove him from the Moscow garrison. Therefore, Muralov replaced Voroshilov as commander of the North Caucasian Military District. In January 1925, the Party Central Committee accepted Trotsky's resignation. MV Frunze was appointed to the post of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR. Remaining the commander of the Moscow military district, Voroshilov also became Frunze's deputy.
Voroshilov - People's Commissar of Defense
Frunze led the Red Army for only about a year. He died in late 1925 during an inept and negligent medical operation. The Soviet Union then had a good cadre of military commanders, commissars and military specialists. Many of them commanded not only individual armies and divisions, but also fronts during the Civil War, participating in the planning and conduct of large-scale military operations. In military experience, Voroshilov was inferior to many. He was far from the first among equals. However, some of the most prominent military leaders of the Civil War, such as Tukhachevsky, were newcomers to the Bolshevik party and did not occupy a prominent place in the party hierarchy. Some of the old Bolsheviks who distinguished themselves during the Civil War, such as M. M. Lashevich, although they were members of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), took part in one or another opposition. Therefore, Voroshilov's candidacy for the post of People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs did not raise objections in the Politburo, although this appointment was commented on very critically in the circles of the new opposition.
We are not going to talk here about the long and varied activities of Voroshilov as the head of the People's Commissariat for military and naval affairs. The construction of the modern Red Army and the Navy in our country in the conditions of capitalist encirclement was given no less importance than the creation of modern industry or the development of culture. Voroshilov, as the People's Commissar of Defense, had a lot of things and responsibilities. However, he performed mainly representative functions and functions of the political leader of the army, doing little about military science and the study of problems of military strategy. This distinguished him from such prominent military figures as B. M. Shaposhnikov, who studied the problems of the activities of army headquarters (the book "The Brain of the Army"), like M. N. Tukhachevsky, who was considered an expert on strategy (the book "Questions of Modern Strategy"), like KB Kalinovsky, who studied the role of tank formations (the book "Tanks"), and others. In fact, Voroshilov never became a professional military man, and more than once he lacked both general and special military education. Perhaps he himself felt that he was far from complete correspondence with the post he held and the duties that he imposed on him. He wrote: “If I possessed the qualities that Comrade Frunze had, it would be easy for me to fulfill my party responsibilities in the work that I manage” (Quoted from: Chistyakov B.Narkomvoenmor number three // Smena (Leningrad) 1989. Feb 19).
It would seem that such a critical self-assessment should have prompted Voroshilov to vigorous study. But, alas, even in November 1927, talking with the French delegation, he said not without pride: “I am a worker, a locksmith by profession, and I have no special military training. I did not serve in the old, tsarist army. My military "career" began with the fact that in 1906-1907. I illegally transported weapons from Finland to the Donetsk Basin and there, together with our entire organization, I built Bolshevik military workers' squads. At that time I worked at a factory, and then, as befits any decent Bolshevik, in prisons, I was in exile (from 1907 to 1914 I was in prison and exile with short intervals). From 1914 he worked in Tsaritsyn, then in Leningrad until April 1917. From April he went to professional party work. I have been working in the Red Army since March 1918, but since November 1917 I have been at military work as the revolutionary “mayor” of Leningrad ”(Voroshilov K. Ye. Articles and Speeches. M., 1937, pp. 174-175 ).
These words, without additional comments, give an idea of who was put in charge of the military department. However, in general, the cadres of the People's Commissariat of Defense in 1926-1936 were distinguished by a very high professional level. For their time, perhaps, these were the best cadres of military leaders in the world.
In 1926 Voroshilov was elected to the Politburo. There was hardly any doubt that in the struggle against the "left" opposition, in which a great many military and military-political workers took part, Voroshilov invariably sided with Stalin and the majority of the Central Committee. For example, in 1927, he addressed the July-August Plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with his statement directed against L. D. Trotsky, which at the same time reflected Voroshilov's long-standing dislike of military specialists. The statement, in particular, said: "It is enough to run through at least one volume of his" works "" How the Revolution Armed "in order to understand this simple mechanics, with the help of which the party, thousands of glorious communard workers, Lenin himself, disappear from the historical scene, and there remains the “fairytale hero” Trotsky, who, together with several smaller “heroes”, mostly specialists, armed the revolution ”(Quoted from: B. Chistyakov, People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, number three // Smena (Leningrad). 1989. 19 Feb.).
Voroshilov distinguished himself during the Civil War. But among its participants there were many people who had more significant merits than he. Among the military leaders of the Civil War, some enjoyed greater popularity and fame than Voroshilov. He also "lagged behind" in the number of military awards. V.K.Blyukher, the first in the republic awarded the Order of the Red Banner, by the end of the 20s had four Orders of the Red Banner, like J.F. Fabritius and I.F. Fedko, not to mention those who were awarded three times. Voroshilov was vain, and Stalin exploited this flaw. The legend of Voroshilov, a special cult of the "worker-commander", began to be created. A year after Voroshilov's appointment as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, his first biographies and stories of his exploits began to appear (see: V. Efimov, E. Gay Voroshilov with us. M .; L., 1926; Vardin I. Voroshilov - worker leader of the Red Army. M., 1926, etc.). The poet and writer K. Altaysky wrote not only a collection of stories, but also a poem about Voroshilov, there are the following lines:
... The poet Vladimir Mayakovsky sketched for us Ilyich ... The poet-party member Bezymensky drew Dzerzhinsky ... Stalin has not yet been sketched, Kalinin is bypassed by the song ... The big theme captivated us, The bell is like a battle, Ostra is like a bayonet. Clement Efremich Voroshilov, Soldier, People's Commissar and Bolshevik.
Another poem about Voroshilov was composed by the 90-year-old Kazakh akyn Dzhambul. "On those who dared to violate the borders, you will bring down the troops, you are beautiful and brave, batyr Voroshilov ..."
Voroshilov did not remain in debt. At the end of 1929, a long article "Stalin and the Red Army" was published, which laid the foundation for the legend of Stalin as the greatest commander of the Civil War and the organizer of the main victories of the Red Army. Voroshilov wrote:
“In the period 1918-1920. Comrade Stalin was, perhaps, the only person whom the Central Committee threw from one combat front to another, choosing the most dangerous, most terrible places for the revolution. Where it was relatively calm and prosperous, where we had success, Stalin was not visible there. But where ... the red armies were crumbling, where counterrevolutionary forces ... threatened the very existence of Soviet power ... - there appeared Comrade Stalin "(Stalin: Collection of articles dedicated to the 50th anniversary of his birth. Moscow; Leningrad, 1929, p. 57 .).
Of course, in 1929, historical falsifications should have been approached with some caution. In 1929 Voroshilov inserted the word "perhaps" into the above passage. He speaks of Stalin as "one of the most prominent organizers of the victories of the Civil War." After 10 years, these reservations could be dropped. In 1939, in his article "Stalin and the Construction of the Red Army," Voroshilov writes:
“Many volumes will be written about Stalin, the creator of the Red Army, its inspirer and organizer of victories, the author of the laws of strategy and tactics of the proletarian revolution.
We, his contemporaries and comrades-in-arms, can only give some touches on his enormous and fruitful military work "(Voroshilov KE Stalin and the Armed Forces of the USSR. M., 1951, p. 66.).
Here is another example of the zeal of the "first red officer" in this field - an excerpt from his speech at a meeting of the party activists of the Moscow garrison on January 20, 1938:
“Lenin died ... Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and others claimed the leadership of the party. Fortunately for us, there were old Bolshevik cadres in the party who united and opposed a revolutionary line to outsiders and opportunists.
Among these people was a man, a true Leninist, a real student of his. Comrade Stalin became Lenin's deputy not because one or another individual comrade or group wanted it, but because in the process of the struggle, in the process of terrible upheavals within the party, Comrade Stalin was defined as a true party leader who would not be lost in difficult conditions, as a person who knows where to do business, what to achieve, where to send the working class "(Quoted from: Chistyakov B. Narkomvoenmor number three // Smena (Leningrad). 1989. Feb. 19).
In the late 1920s, Voroshilov still retained the features of an independent personality. In 1928-1929, when Stalin launched an offensive against the peasantry, Voroshilov sometimes expressed doubts about such a policy at Politburo meetings. He feared that the discontent of the peasantry would affect the fighting efficiency of the Red Army, staffed mainly at the expense of peasant youth. Rumors of differences between Voroshilov and Stalin were, however, so exaggerated that in exile, Trotsky, in some of his letters, spoke of the possibility of an uprising of the peasantry against Stalin under the leadership of Voroshilov and Budyonny.
When I. Babel wrote the famous cycle of stories "Cavalry" in 1926, Budyonny was angry and accused him of slander. Unpleasantly greeted Babel's essays and contemporary criticism. However, not only A.M. Gorky, but also Voroshilov then defended the writer.
In the 1930s, Voroshilov increasingly fell under the influence and power of Stalin. At this time, he was part of the very closest circle of Stalin and was considered his intimate friend. They sat together in the presidiums of various conferences, stood side by side on the platform of the Mausoleum, went hunting together, rested in the south, spent time at Stalin's dacha and in his apartment in the Kremlin. Quite often, Stalin and Voroshilov visited Gorky, who finally returned to the USSR. Once Alexei Maksimovich read them his fairy tale "The Girl and Death". On the last page of the text of the tale, Stalin wrote: “This thing is stronger than Goethe's Faust (love conquers death). 11.X.31 ". On the next page, Voroshilov wrote his own review: "On my own behalf, I love M. Gorky, as my and my class of writer, who spiritually determined our forward movement."
Voroshilov had to travel abroad several times. At the receptions held there, Kliment Efremovich did not dance - he could not. A military officer who cannot dance made a strange impression in the West. On the initiative of Voroshilov, in the numerous Houses of the Red Army, which were created in almost all large cities, and in the command clubs in military camps, training of commanders in modern European dances, so despised by the Komsomol youth in the 1920s, was introduced.
Of course, much more important than the introduction of dances into army life was the intensive technical re-equipment of the Red Army, which began in the early 30s simultaneously with the forced industrialization of the country. The party did not hide the fact that the development of the military industry and the maximum technical equipment of the army and navy were one of the main tasks of the first and second five-year plans. Even before 1930, the Red Army had mainly the weapons that it got from the First World War and the Civil War. In the next four years, the Red Army received a large number of new tanks, artillery, communications equipment, and chemical equipment. Particularly great concern was shown for the Air Force, including bomber and other types of aircraft. The Navy was enlarged and modernized. Speaking at the 17th Party Congress, Voroshilov argued that by the beginning of 1934 the Red Army was technically better equipped than the French and American armies, and even more mechanized than the British army, which was then considered the best in the world in terms of technical equipment.
Voroshilov's cult increased even more after the 17th Party Congress. At this time, the names of "leaders" were assigned to many cities and villages. The city of Lugansk was renamed Voroshilovgrad. Stavropol, a large city in the North Caucasus, then part of the Ordzhonikidze Territory, was renamed Voroshilovsk (the former name was returned to the city in 1943, when a new wave of renaming began in the North Caucasus). Several more cities and towns in different parts of the country began to bear the name of Voroshilov. Factories, collective farms and mountain peaks named after Voroshilov appeared. The best shooters received the honorary title "Voroshilovsky shooter". The heavy Soviet tank "KB" was named after Voroshilov. In one of the regions, the village of Ostolopovo and the Ostolopovsky village council were renamed into the village of Voroshilovo and the Voroshilovsky village council.
Meanwhile, the management and technical equipment of the Red Army in the 30s became more complicated, and Voroshilov could no longer cope with solving complex problems of military development. Disagreements often arose in the RVS, especially since Voroshilov and Budyonny continued to exaggerate the role of large cavalry formations in a future war, slowing down the motorized mechanization of the army.
Change was needed. In 1934, the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was transformed into the People's Commissariat for Defense. MN Tukhachevsky became one of Voroshilov's deputies. In the book by Lydia Nord about Tukhachevsky, the following opinion about Voroshilov is given:
“Everything will go on in a new way,” he (Tukhachevsky. - RM) continued at the table. - Voroshilov, Yegorov, Blucher, Ordzhonikidze and others who joined the Defense Council sat for three weeks, day and night, behind plans. Voroshilov, I must say, is very blunt, but he has that positive quality that he does not climb into wise men and readily agrees with everything ... "(Nord L. Marshal Tukhachevsky. Paris, 1978, p. 102. (Lydia Nord personally knew Tukhachevsky over the years.However, her book contains not only true facts, but also many unreliable rumors and gossip, which greatly reduces its importance as a source.Tukhachevsky's opinion about Voroshilov, however, could hardly be different.Tukhachevsky highly appreciated M.V. Frunze, but he did not consider Voroshilov an authority in purely military affairs and, in general, a professional military man. By the way, not only Tukhachevsky did not have a very high opinion of Voroshilov's mental abilities.))
However, the transition of the Red Army to mechanized units and formations was delayed for a long time. Even in 1938, Voroshilov still argued:
“The cavalry in all the armies of the world is going through, or rather, has already gone through a crisis and in many armies has almost come to naught ... We take a different point of view ... We are convinced that our valiant cavalry will more than once make us speak of itself as a powerful and victorious Red cavalry ... Red cavalry is still a victorious and crushing armed force and can and will solve large tasks on all combat fronts "(Quoted from: A. Nenarokov Armor and Horses // Moscow News. 1988. April 3).
Such stubborn resistance to long-overdue changes is surprising. Moreover, it will seem completely absurd if we remember that the same Voroshilov belongs to another, quite reasonable statement:
"The modern front, saturated to the extreme with machine-gun fire, can hardly be penetrated without the help of a tank" (Quoted from: A. Chistyakov, People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, number three // Smena (Leningrad). 1989. Feb. 19).
Such a "strangeness" of thinking can be explained by the fact that, not possessing the necessary erudition and being unable to keep up with the development of military equipment and new forms of its combat use, feeling more and more lagging behind the current level of strategic thinking, but at the same For a while, not wanting to part with his high post, Voroshilov, with the direct support of Stalin, in every possible way delayed the transition of the Red Army to the new principles of organization and management. This drew criticism from those who correctly understood the nature of the coming war and could not come to terms with the erroneous position of the People's Commissar of Defense. Among these top military leaders was M. N. Tukhachevsky, who, for example, in his article published in Krasnaya Zvezda literally on the eve of his arrest, wrote:
“We had to face the theory of the“ special ”maneuverability of the Red Army - a theory based not on studying and accounting for new weapons ... but on the lessons of the Civil War ... than to prepare the attack of a soldier of the capitalist army, explaining this by the superiority of the spirit of the Red Army. In fact, this narcissism could entail unnecessary bloody losses in battles and major failures "(Quoted from: V. Anfilov The most difficult years // Literaturnaya gazeta. 1989. March 22.).
It is clear that the fate of all those who disagreed with the point of view of the USSR People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov, and therefore with the opinion of Stalin himself, was a foregone conclusion ...
During the years of terror (1936-1938)
The "Great Terror" of the second half of the 30s hit military personnel with particular cruelty Soviet state... It can be said without exaggeration that the main and, as a rule, the best part of the leading cadres of the Red Army and the Navy was mercilessly killed in 1936-1938. These people did not die on the battlefield, but in the basements of the Lubyanka and other prisons of the country, as well as in the "labor" concentration camps. No one has exact data on this score, but we can say with a fair degree of confidence that from 25 to 30 thousand cadre commanders and military-political workers of the Red Army and Navy were killed. In 1935, the title of Marshal was introduced to the USSR. It was assigned to five military leaders: Voroshilov, Budyonny, Blucher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov. But already in 1937-1939 Blucher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov were shot as "enemies of the people." From the command staff of 1935, during the terror, died: out of 16 commanders of the 1st and 2nd rank - 15, out of 67 corps commanders - 60, out of 199 divisional commanders, 136 were repressed, out of 397 brigade commanders - 221. Of the four flagships of the fleet, four were killed, out of six flagships of the 1st rank - six, out of 15 flagships of the 2nd rank - nine. All 17 army commissars of the 1st and 2nd rank were killed, as well as 25 of the 29 corps commissars. Out of 97 divisional commissars, 79 were arrested, out of 36 brigade commissars - 34. A third of the military commissars of the regiments was arrested (According to the author's calculations. Ed.).
What is the role of the people's commissar Voroshilov in this terrible beating of the military cadres? We have no information that it was he who drew up the proscription lists for arrests and executions. But Stalin did not need Voroshilov to deal with arrests. It was enough that he sanctioned them and signed most of the lists together with Stalin and Yezhov. None of the prominent military leaders could be arrested without the knowledge and consent of the People's Commissar of Defense. And Voroshilov always gave such consent. Voroshilov contributed to fomenting spy mania in the army and navy. Back in August 1937, that is, shortly after the military trial and execution of M.N. Tukhachevsky, I.E. Yakir, I.P. Uborevich, B.M. Feldman, A.I.Kork and others, and the suicide of Voroshilov's deputy. B. Gamarnik, People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov and People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov signed a joint order on the Armed Forces of the USSR. It stated that in the USSR, and especially in the Red Army, an extensive network of spies from various states had been created. Hence the requirement: everyone who is somehow connected with the spies - to confess; and to those who know something or suspect about espionage activities - to inform. The repressions caused a terrible damage to the fighting efficiency of the Red Army, bled its personnel, but this did not prevent Voroshilov, speaking on March 23, 1939, before the military - delegates of the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), to declare:
“We have basically already cleared ourselves of the spy scum, but we still have Gestapo agents” (Quoted from: V. Anfilov The most difficult years // Literaturnaya gazeta. 1989. March 22.).
In a number of cases, Voroshilov also acted as a direct accomplice to the repressive organs. I. Fedko, appointed first deputy commissar of defense after the deaths of Tukhachevsky and Gamarnik, offered armed resistance to the NKVD workers who came to him and ordered his guards to keep them at gunpoint. At the same time Fedko immediately called Voroshilov. He told Fedko that he, Voroshilov, would personally figure it out. But at the same time Voroshilov ordered Fedko to stop resistance and "temporarily" submit to the NKVD workers. Soon Fedko was shot according to the list, which was undoubtedly signed not only by Stalin and Yezhov, but also by Voroshilov. And here is what G.L.Blyukher, the widow of V.K.Blyukher, tells:
“... the People's Commissar (Voroshilov. - RM) offered to“ rest ”VK Blucher with his family at his personal dacha“ Bocharov Ruchei ”in Sochi.
And there, in a luxurious "trap" at that time, Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher was arrested, then I, then VK Blucher's brother, Pavel Konstantinovich Blucher, captain of the Air Force ... "(Military History Journal. 1989. No. 1. P. 3 covers.)
Some of the USSR military attachés abroad were summoned to Moscow for an appointment with Voroshilov, and they were arrested in the waiting room of the People's Commissar of Defense. It was obvious that this was done with his consent and approval.
When Hitler was preparing to attack the USSR, he bluntly referred to the destruction of Soviet military personnel as a factor favorable for Germany, and Field Marshal F. von Bock wrote:
One can challenge such judgments, one can show their rashness, but it cannot be denied that, along with other circumstances, these assessments were used by the Nazi leadership in developing their plans.
Failures in the Soviet-Finnish war
The Red Army was extremely weakened as a result of massive repression. It was not only a matter of the loss of the first-class composition of the top Soviet cadres. Discipline in the army declined, where soldiers and junior commanders ceased to trust senior commanders. The rapid promotion of new cadres often took place simply on the basis of personal data. At the same time, platoon commanders became battalion and even regiment commanders, regiment and battalion commanders became division commanders. The activity of military academies was almost paralyzed for two or three years, and military engineering and design work was weakened. Many of the most important undertakings of the former commanders were terminated: for example, the formation of partisan bases in the western regions, the construction of defensive lines along the former state border stopped. The army increased in number, the number of regiments, divisions, army formations increased, but the new commanders did not have enough personnel and military experience. Meanwhile, the Second World War began, and this circumstance increased the requirements for the Red Army. Voroshilov, Budyonny and the new marshals of the USSR - S. K. Timoshenko, G. I. Kulik - all from the former First Horse, tried to establish order and discipline in the army, but not always successfully.
The famous comedian Yuri Nikulin, who was drafted into the army before World War II, spoke about one of such visits by Voroshilov to the regiment's location, not without humor:
“Once Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov came to our regiment. He wore a Kuban, a short jacket trimmed with fur, a small Browning in a holster on the side. He also visited our battery. The drill went well. Then Voroshilov, along with his entourage, entered the dining room. The cook, seeing the legendary marshal, was speechless from surprise.
Is dinner ready? - asked Kliment Efremovich.
No, - the cook babbled almost audibly. - Will be in an hour.
Ah, sly fellow, - said the marshal, smiling, - are you afraid that we will stay for dinner? We won't stay, don't be afraid.
He left the dining room and ordered to build a battery. Kliment Efremovich expressed his gratitude to everyone for his excellent combat training and, sitting in a black "em", left.
Voroshilov's arrival at our battery was a huge event. We discussed in detail everything that happened. Everything went well with us, but in the next regiment, they said, there was an incident. On one of the batteries, Voroshilov came unexpectedly. The orderly, bewildered, let his superiors pass without calling the battery duty officer and not informing him of the marshal's arrival.
Where is the battalion commander? - Voroshilov immediately asked.
And over there, in the house, - answered the orderly.
Voroshilov went to the house, opened the door and saw: the commander of the battery in his underpants was sitting at the table with his back to the door and was writing something in a notebook. Voroshilov coughed. The battalion commander turned around and, immediately jumping up, exclaimed:
Clement Efremovich! It is you?!
It's me, ”said Voroshilov. - What is your name and patronymic?
Yes, his name is Pavel Alekseevich.
Very nice, Pavel Alekseevich, - Voroshilov answered and ... taking the battalion commander by the arm, led him to the position.
So the battalion commander walked in front of everyone - in shorts - and, on Voroshilov's orders, announced the alarm.
When everyone had gathered, Voroshilov gave an assignment: there, at such and such an altitude, the enemy plane. Open fire.
From unexpectedness and unpreparedness, everything went badly: the guns looked in all directions, but not at the target.
Voroshilov, without saying a word, got into the car and drove away "(Nikulin Yu. Almost Seriously ... M., 1982, pp. 75-76).
In an effort to create more strategically advantageous borders in the west, Stalin decided to push back the Soviet-Finnish border, which on the Karelian Isthmus ran too close to Leningrad. Stalin himself received in the Kremlin a Finnish delegation led by Juho Kusti Paasikivi and proposed to exchange the territory of 2,700 square kilometers near Leningrad for 5,500 square kilometers in Karelia. However, the Finns had to lose not only the economically more developed territories, but also their main lines of fortifications. The Finnish government rejected this proposal and did not respond to the direct threats of war with which Molotov made. It was November 1939, and the Finns thought that the Soviet Union would not dare to start a war before winter began. It was a delusion: on the morning of November 30, the first bombs fell on Helsinki, and the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Finnish border. But it was also a big mistake of Stalin, who was confident that it would be a short and not too expensive military action. After all, an army of 450 thousand people, 1700 guns, 1000 tanks and 800 aircraft was deployed against small Finland. Finland had 215 thousand soldiers under arms, but only 75 combat aircraft, 60 old tanks, several hundred guns 1989. No. 47.). However, only the first line of the Finnish defense was defeated by the Red Army without much difficulty. On the second line, Soviet units got bogged down in battles. Attack followed attack, but there was no success. The Finns defended bravely, they were better prepared for war in winter conditions. One after another, more and more Soviet divisions were drawn into the war. Voroshilov personally supervised the hostilities, often going to the front. However, every kilometer of the territory occupied by the enemy had to be literally covered with the bodies of dead and frozen soldiers. The wounded and frostbite numbered at first in tens, and then in hundreds of thousands. The winter of 1939/40 turned out to be incredibly harsh, with frosts reaching at times 50 degrees. In such conditions, a battalion of Finnish skiers could both stop and defeat the Red Army division.
The failures of the Red Army caused Stalin's irritation and anger. Even before the defeat of Finland, Stalin at many unofficial meetings expressed his dissatisfaction with this. N. S. Khrushchev later recalled:
“Stalin, in the conversations that took place, criticized the military department, he criticized the Ministry of Defense, he criticized Voroshilov especially, he concentrated everything on the person, on Voroshilov ... I agreed with Stalin, and others agreed with this criticism, because indeed in the first place answered Voroshilov, because he served as Minister of Defense for many years ... I remember when Stalin was in the heat of heated polemics, and this was not at any meetings, it happened in an apartment in the Kremlin and at Blizhnyaya dacha. There, I remember, when Stalin was very critical, got nervous, got up, it means, on Voroshilov, Voroshilov too ... boiled, blushed, got up ... he says to criticism of Stalin: "You are to blame for this, you destroyed the military personnel ..." And Stalin corresponding to him gave a rebuff ... "(Khrushchev NS Memoirs. New York, 1981. Book. 2. S. 39-40.)
Already in January 1940, Stalin actually removed Voroshilov from the direct leadership of military operations, appointing Marshal S.K. Timoshenko as the commander of the active army. Tymoshenko received reinforcements, including several divisions from Siberia. With an army of almost 500,000, Tymoshenko launched a general offensive. The ice of the Gulf of Finland became so strong that Soviet tanks could move along it bypassing Vyborg. Ultimately, the USSR won the victory, but at an extremely high cost. According to Soviet data, the USSR lost more than 250 thousand soldiers (See: A. Chudakov, Requiem of the Karelian Marshes // Komsomolskaya Pravda, 1989, Nov. 14). According to Western estimates, our country's losses were estimated at about 300 thousand soldiers.
The results of the Finnish campaign were considered in April 1940 at an enlarged meeting of the Main Military Council. At this meeting, he spoke a lot and rather sharply about the blunders of the People's Commissar of Defense L. Voroshilov. Z. Mekhlis. Some of the speakers argued with Mehlis, but it was clear that such a dispute itself became possible only with the approval of Stalin. Decisions were made aimed at strengthening the combat capability of the Red Army. Unofficially, Stalin gave instructions to rehabilitate and release some of the repressed commanders of the Red Army. At the same time, it was decided to release Voroshilov from the duties of the USSR People's Commissar of Defense. SK Timoshenko was appointed to this post. During the defense of Tsaritsyn, Timoshenko commanded a regiment; in the First Cavalry Army, he was a division commander. After the death of I.E. Yakir, Timoshenko headed the Kiev military district, and from January 1940 he commanded troops on the Soviet-Finnish front.
To somehow soften the blow to Voroshilov's prestige, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. In February 1941, the name of Voroshilov was given to the Academy of the General Staff. However, his real influence in the party and military hierarchy has clearly diminished.
Voroshilov during the Patriotic War
The Patriotic War began with heavy defeats for the Red Army. By the end of the first day, the Nazis had achieved tangible success, and the People's Commissariat of Defense and the General Staff began to lose the threads of command and control. Stalin retired for several days at his dacha and did not receive anyone. At the head of the Headquarters of the High Command, created on June 23, 1941, Timoshenko stood. Zhukov, who headed the General Staff, also played an important role. A particularly difficult situation was created on the main, Western Front. The headquarters sent Marshals Shaposhnikov, Kulik and Voroshilov there. But even they could not change anything or even master the command and control of the troops in order to streamline the retreat. Seeing the rout and indiscriminate withdrawal of many units, Voroshilov and Shaposhnikov proposed to create a new line of defense not along the Berezina River, but much farther east, along the middle course of the Dnieper. In fact, the advance of the Germans was temporarily halted even further east - in the battles for Smolensk.
The main responsibility for the defeats of the first period of the war lies, of course, with Stalin. But the demand from Voroshilov is also very high. He is guilty of allowing the beating of military personnel. He reassured the country with speeches that the Red Army allegedly had more powerful firepower than any other army, while the German army had the advantage in most types of weapons. Voroshilov, as People's Commissar of Defense, extremely exaggerated the role of cavalry in a future war, to the detriment of the development of tank formations and air defense forces.
On July 1, 1941, Voroshilov was recalled to Moscow. Stalin returned to the leadership of the country and the army. The State Defense Committee was created, which included Voroshilov. Stalin headed the Headquarters of the Supreme Command. Budyonny - South-West direction of defense, Tymoshenko - West, Voroshilov - North-West. On July 11, Voroshilov arrived in Leningrad with a small headquarters to take command of the retreating troops in the Northwest. It is interesting that already in July, not only young fighters, but even schoolchildren were learning a new song, in which there was such a chorus:
The call is heard; Forward to victory! The people are confident in their commanders. Lead, Voroshilov, Lead, Timoshenko, Lead us, Budyonny, On a holy march!
This chorus was apparently added to the song after the decision to create three defensive lines.
The arrival of Voroshilov and his headquarters in Leningrad did not arouse much enthusiasm in the battered and tired troops. Both commanders and party officials in the Northwest still remembered well the unsuccessful Finnish campaign. Nevertheless, the Leningrad press greeted Voroshilov. Rallies and meetings were held in many enterprises. The resolution adopted at a meeting of workers and employees of the Kirov Plant stated: “The appointment of Comrade Voroshilov to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Direction once again speaks of the tremendous attention the party and government devote to the cradle of the socialist revolution - the city of Lenin ... Long live the glorious commander Klim Voroshilov! Long live the banner of our victories - great Stalin! " (Leningradskaya Pravda. 1941, July 13.)
Leningrad poets hastily composed the Leningrad March:
Trumpets, sound the alarm, Line up, a detachment to the detachment. Boldly, comrades, in step, Into the battle for our native Leningrad! ...
The war made us all friends, the Duma soldered us one. Voroshilov is leading us into battle, Zhdanov is calling us to battle!
But Voroshilov's appointment did not change the unfavorable situation at the front. The retreat of the Red Army in the Baltics continued, and only in some areas did battles go on with varying degrees of success. Fortunately for the city, the Finnish army, weakened by the recent war, was not very active. Nevertheless, the front line gradually moved east, and the number of Soviet troops and their armament decreased. The situation was complicated by the need to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people and many enterprises from the Baltic States, mainly through Leningrad.
In August, the Nazis reached the distant approaches to Leningrad. Voroshilov acted bravely, but ineptly. He had enough courage, and he often went to the front line of the defense in the line of sight of the enemy. But he lacked firmness in the leadership of the troops. At the end of August, Leningrad was almost surrounded and lost its railway connection with the country.
On September 9-10, after the loss of Shlisselburg, Leningrad was completely surrounded. Voroshilov personally led the attack of the Marines on September 10, but it was rather an act of despair. Stalin decided to remove Voroshilov and appoint General of the Army Zhukov in his place. Zhukov immediately flew to Leningrad and went straight from the airfield to Smolny. He was carrying with him a short note from Stalin to Voroshilov: "Transfer command of the front to Zhukov, and you yourself immediately fly to Moscow."
The appearance of Zhukov interrupted a meeting of the Front Military Council, at which it was discussed what should be done if Leningrad could not be held. But this question disappeared by itself, since Zhukov also brought Stalin's order: not to surrender Leningrad, no matter what the cost.
There were no formalities in handing over command of the front, and Zhukov reported on a direct wire to Headquarters: "He entered command." Voroshilov gathered the generals of the headquarters to say goodbye. “The Supreme Commander is recalling me,” said the Marshal bitterly. “Today it’s not a civil war - we have to fight differently…” Voroshilov wanted to give Zhukov any advice before leaving for Moscow, but the latter rather abruptly refused to talk with him. A new assault on Leningrad by the Germans, which began a few days later, was repulsed under the command of Zhukov. As a representative of the General Headquarters, Voroshilov for some time helped his friend, the commander of the 54th Army, Kulik, who was trying to break through to help Leningrad from the east. However, Marshal Kulik was unable to skillfully lead the army and was defeated. He was also removed and severely punished.
Voroshilov was spared by Stalin. Appointed from the State Defense Committee to supervise the training of the Red Army reserves in the Moscow, Volga, Central Asian and Ural military districts. In September 1942, Voroshilov became the Commander-in-Chief of the partisan movement. He was subordinate to the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, created in the spring of 1942, headed by P.K.Ponomarenko, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus. It was he who was the main leader of the partisan movement, for Voroshilov's participation was only episodic and formal. Voroshilov's participation in the work of the rear was also purely formal. Former Deputy People's Commissar of Armaments in 1941-1948 V. N. Novikov recalled:
“In 1942, a member of the State Defense Committee KE Voroshilov came to Izhevsk, who was then engaged in the formation of new military units. He inspected the military units created in our region. The next morning, Kliment Efremovich expressed a desire to inspect the plant. We started with the workshops where rifles were produced. When he came to the assembly, the rifles flowed on two conveyors (the width of the conveyor belt was about a meter) literally like a river. The operations have been broken down into very small steps in order to train people to assemble faster. Voroshilov stood for a long time, looked, then he said to me: "Comrade Novikov, can rifles really be produced by the river?" I said that this is how production goes around the clock. He shook his head and offered to continue our acquaintance with other workshops. At 6 o'clock. In the evenings Kliment Efremovich unexpectedly asked me to return with him to the assembly shop again. They came - and again a river of rifles. He said: "Miracles!" (Novikov V.N. The army needs weapons // Questions of history. 1985. No. 12. P. 84.)
When the Red Army began to advance westward, Voroshilov headed the Trophy Committee. He also carried out other assignments: he negotiated with the British military delegation, participated in the Tehran conference, was the chairman of the armistice commissions with Finland, Hungary and Romania.
Sometimes, however, Voroshilov went to the front as a representative of the State Defense Committee. There is a known case when, during such a trip, he wished to arrive at the 9th Red Banner Plastun Division not by car, but on horseback, motivating this with his knowledge of the psychology of the Cossacks (See: B. Chistyakov Narkomvoenmor number three // Smena (Leningrad). 1989. Feb 19). The book by V. Karpov "The Commander" tells how Voroshilov arrived there in 1944 after a brilliant landing by the Separate Primorsky Army and the seizure of a bridgehead on the Kerch Peninsula to coordinate the actions of the ground forces and the fleet. He personally ordered the forces of the Azov flotilla to conduct another landing operation, which ended in complete failure. But the blame for it was laid by Stalin on General IE Petrov, and therefore he was temporarily removed from the command of the army and demoted (See: V. Karpov // Novy Mir. 1983. No. 12. P. 99-100 .).
The further the troops of the Red Army advanced westward, the less Voroshilov took part in military affairs. In 1943, for example, he was appointed one of the leaders of the commission for the creation of a new anthem of the USSR. Dozens of times he auditioned the performance of many of his versions before approving the final one. During the war, few new awards appeared on Voroshilov's chest. He was awarded the Order of Suvorov in 1944. Voroshilov received his first title of Hero of the Soviet Union eleven years after the end of the war, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. It was just a jubilee award. On the podium of the Mausoleum during the Victory Parade, Zhukov, Voroshilov and Budyonny stood next to Stalin. But for Voroshilov, this was one of the last episodes in his life, when he had to put on a military uniform.
The first years after the war
After the war, Voroshilov almost completely retired from military affairs. As a member of the Politburo and the Bureau of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, he received a new assignment - he headed various departments for culture. I must say that Voroshilov sometimes "supervised" culture before the war. For example, he corresponded with Repin. Stalin really wanted the great Russian artist to return to the USSR. Voroshilov had a long-standing friendship with the artist Nalbandyan. Voroshilov (together with Molotov) examined the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" before Stalin examined and approved it. The writer A. Rekemchuk tells about it this way:
“Molotov and Voroshilov stopped, not reaching the statue half a hundred paces.
Well, how? asked Molotov. - For a fresh look?
Voroshilov looked with his head thrown back.
Why are you keeping silent? Molotov was worried. - Don't you like it?
I like it ...
So what is it?
For the first time in my life I see a worker holding a hammer in his left hand.
The chairman of the Council of People's Commissars suddenly perked up, the glasses of his pince-nez flashed:
Or maybe he's left-handed? Have you read Leskov?
Okay, - Voroshilov nodded. But immediately, looking around, he sternly asked Mukhina: - Why does the girl have bags under her eyes? Can't you take it away?
Okay, I'll take it away, - Vera Ignatievna promised.
Kliment Efremovich, bending down to Molotov's ear, said something. Having given a sign that everyone should stay in place, the two of them walked around the statue, vigilantly peering into the folds of the scarf and the wind-swept skirt (there was a denunciation that a bearded face was visible in the folds - RM).
But with all the diligence, it was impossible to see what was not and could not be.
They are back.
What's good is good, - concluded the inspection procedure Molotov.
And Voroshilov smiled for the first time:
What's great is great!
They went to the cars that were waiting at the gates "(A. Rekemchuk, Gospriyemka 1937 // Soviet Culture. 1988. Aug. 6).
And now Voroshilov was put in charge of the Bureau of Culture under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. This Bureau was in charge of the activities of the country's theaters, the Committee for Cinematography, and book publishing. In Voroshilov's office in the Kremlin, one could now meet not generals, but directors, directors of large publishing houses, and some artists. Of course, the main issues of culture have been resolved even now, in addition to Voroshilov. So, for example, not a single film was released on the screens of the country without a preliminary preview by Stalin himself. Once the director M.I.Romm talked for a long time with Voroshilov about the creation of documentaries for the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow. At the same time, it was felt that Voroshilov was in culture, and not at the head of it, he was simply afraid to decide something on his own, although he was a member of the Politburo. “I feel that I am getting old and stupid,” Voroshilov said at the end of the conversation.
Most often, Voroshilov intervened in musical affairs, in the work of the Union of Composers, opera, musical theaters. He had some musical talent, he knew Ukrainian folk songs well and loved choral singing. Apparently, this was enough for him to think of himself as the same "specialist" in music, which AA Zhdanov considered himself to be. Voroshilov gave various instructions to many composers and interpreters with great diligence. One famous artist told D. Shostakovich how he once sang with Stalin, Voroshilov and Zhdanov. It was after one visit, when everyone was very tipsy. The soloists of the Bolshoi Theater accompanied the singing of the "leaders". Stalin conducted, because even here he could not allow anyone to command.
Stalin during these years not only did not reckon with Voroshilov, but often showed him disdain and mistrust. There is a legend that in 1949 an attempt was made to arrest Voroshilov's wife, who, like Molotov's wife, was Jewish. And it was as if Voroshilov grabbed either a sword or a pistol and drove the Chekists who had appeared there from his apartment. This legend is not true. No attempts were made to arrest Voroshilov's wife. But some of his relatives were arrested. In addition, Voroshilov himself increasingly fell into disgrace "at the court" of Stalin.
At one of the meetings of the Politburo after the war, the question of ways of developing the Soviet Navy was discussed. This was an extended meeting to which the commanders of the main fleets were invited. As usual, Stalin invited everyone present to speak out, leaving the last word for himself. Voroshilov's opinion did not coincide, however, with the opinion of the majority. Concluding the debate, Stalin not only rejected Voroshilov's proposals, but at the same time said: "I don't understand why Comrade Voroshilov wants to weaken the Soviet Navy." He repeated this ominous phrase two more times. After the meeting, all its participants went, at Stalin's invitation, to watch the movie "City Lights", which Stalin had already seen many times. There were tables with a snack in a small viewing room. None of those present had already sat down at the table with Voroshilov, he remained alone. When, after the end of the film, the lights came on, Stalin turned around and, seeing Voroshilov sitting alone, suddenly got up and, coming up, put his hand on his shoulder. “Lawrence,” Stalin turned to Beria. - We need to take better care of Voroshilov. We have few such old Bolsheviks as Klim Voroshilov. He needs to create good conditions. " Everyone was silent, because it was difficult to understand why Stalin turned to Beria with a proposal to "take care of Voroshilov." Deputy Commander of the USSR Navy IS Isakov, who was present at this meeting of the Politburo, wrote down his impressions immediately upon his arrival home.
Stalin not only alienated Voroshilov from himself, but repeatedly expressed his political distrust in the presence of other members of the Central Committee and sometimes even declared that Voroshilov was ... an English spy. Often he was not invited to meetings of the Politburo. There were cases when Voroshilov, having learned about the upcoming meeting, called Stalin's personal secretary A. Poskrebyshev and humbly asked: "Please find out if it is possible for me to come to the Politburo meeting?"
Nevertheless, in 1952 Voroshilov presided over the last meeting of the XIX Party Congress and closed this congress. Voroshilov was elected to the expanded Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and to the Bureau of the Presidium of nine people. Until the end of Stalin's life, only two members of the party's top leadership addressed him as "you" - Molotov and Voroshilov. At the same time, Voroshilov often called Stalin Kob.
Voroshilov - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
Immediately after Stalin's death, Voroshilov took part in meetings of the highest officials of the party and state, at which the distribution of power was discussed. At this time, the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was held by N.M.Shvernik. He did not enjoy much influence and was not even a full-fledged member of the Politburo after the war, but only his candidate. Before the war, Shvernik headed the Soviet trade unions. Now it was decided to reappoint him as Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. Voroshilov was elected to the post of head of the Soviet state, that is, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Soon after Stalin's death, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decided to declare a very broad amnesty, on the basis of which hundreds of thousands of convicts were released from prisons and camps, mainly criminals and the so-called “household workers”. Since the Decree of the Presidium was signed by Voroshilov, this amnesty was popularly called "Voroshilov". Many people still remember this amnesty. Undoubtedly, for many people it was a great blessing - in Stalin's times, many received long sentences for very minor offenses. People were often forced to various kinds of “everyday” crimes by hard life. A very small number of political prisoners also fell under the amnesty, but no more than one percent of their total number. Apparently, on the basis of Beria's secret instructions, malicious criminals, robbers, murderers, recidivists also fell under the amnesty, who, if strictly adhering to the text of the amnesty, had to remain in the camps. Beria wanted to complicate the situation in the cities and extend the stay of the special troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in them (especially in Moscow). Indeed, immediately after the "Voroshilov" amnesty in Moscow and in many large cities, crime sharply increased and insolent robberies of citizens, apartments, shops became more frequent. As a result, the police received special powers to combat crime. But all this did not save Beria from retribution. The Chekists did not have to sing for long their new hymn, written for their 35th anniversary, that is, by December 1952. In this hymn they were called "Stalin's favorites, Beria's pets."
Voroshilov supported Malenkov and Khrushchev in the removal of Beria. After a preliminary conversation with Malenkov about Beria, Voroshilov not only agreed to his arrest, but even burst into tears with excitement. For too long he was afraid that Beria would really take care of him.
After Beria's arrest, a ditty was popular among the people for some time:
Cherry plum blossoms in Tbilisi Not for Lavrenty Palych, but for Kliment Efremich And Vyacheslav Mikhalych.
The beginning of the rehabilitation of "enemies of the people" and especially the report of NS Khrushchev at a closed meeting of the XX Congress of the CPSU on February 25, 1956 "On the personality cult and its consequences" raised the question of the responsibility of those who, besides Stalin, were part of the power structure and more or less successfully survived these years. But neither Voroshilov, nor many others to whom this question was addressed, did not want to give an exhaustive and frank answer to it, but tried to get off with little intelligible explanations. The immorality of such excuses became even more obvious after the suicide of A. A. Fadeev. Therefore, rumors immediately began to spread that it was caused by some kind of personal tragedy, and in an official message published a day later, it was said that it was due to alcoholism. The memoirs of the writer M. Shkerin testify to Voroshilov's involvement in this disinformation:
“Sholokhov was still in Moscow, and I (Shkerin - RM) went to see him. Shaking the newspaper, he raged:
Well, just think, what a vile reason they have put forward! I've read it, I'm calling the Presidium of the Central Committee. I talked with Voroshilov. Why, I ask, was this version published, posthumously humiliated a talented writer, hero of the Civil War, together with the delegates of the Tenth Party Congress who stormed the rebellious Kronstadt in the twenty-first year, seriously wounded in that battle - why ?! And do you know what Voroshilov said in response in a whining voice? He, hey, left us a terrible letter, passed on to the personalities of the members of the Politburo! (Voroshilov, out of habit, still spoke "Politburo") "(Manuscript from the author's archives.).
Voroshilov did not succeed in working together with Khrushchev. Voroshilov supported Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich when they opposed Khrushchev in June 1957. Khrushchev's line of exposing Stalin's crimes worried Voroshilov very much, and he was against his intention to speak out about the dangers of the personality cult at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Voroshilov, however, was not a very loyal ally of Molotov and Malenkov. When he was convinced that the Plenum of the Central Committee would not support the decision of his Presidium, he again sided with Khrushchev and in his speech at the Plenum strongly condemned his recent allies. Therefore, the name of Voroshilov was not mentioned in the decisions of the Plenum on the anti-party group. Voroshilov himself already in early July, speaking in Leningrad, once again condemned the "heinous attempt" of Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich to oppose the "Leninist leadership" of the CPSU Central Committee in the person of Comrade Khrushchev. As a result, Voroshilov retained the post of head of state for several years. But this activity of his was not marked by any glimpses of the state mind, or manifestations of any initiative. But people close to him at work were sometimes surprised by signs of stinginess, unusual for Voroshilov. For example, he really did not want to give to the state fund those very valuable gifts that he often received as the head of state during his visits to other countries or during the visits of heads of other states to the USSR. Voroshilov tried to keep as many of these gifts as possible.
The disloyalty shown by Voroshilov in June 1957 was not forgotten. The city of Lugansk, which was renamed Voroshilovgrad in 1935, became Lugansk again in 1958. In 1960, when Voroshilov was already 79 years old, he was relieved of his duties as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Voroshilov's departure from the post of head of state was marked by a solemn procedure. He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Speeches befitting the occasion were delivered. Kliment Efremovich remained a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council. LI Brezhnev, 53, was elected Chairman of the Presidium.
At the XXII Congress of the CPSU
Neither Molotov, nor Kaganovich, nor Malenkov attended the XXII Congress of the CPSU. Voroshilov was not only elected a delegate to this congress, but also as a member of the party leadership was in its Presidium. He had to listen to many accusations here, directed not only against his recent political associates, but also against himself.
Already Khrushchev in his report, speaking about the factional anti-party group, named among its active participants and Voroshilov. At the same time, Khrushchev said that his position was not accidental, because he too bears personal responsibility "for many massive repressions against party, Soviet, economic, military and Komsomol personnel and for other phenomena of this kind that took place during the period of the personality cult" ( XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 17-31 October 1961. Verbatim report. M., 1962. T. 1. P. 105.). Almost all other speakers also mentioned Voroshilov among the members of the anti-party group. The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR D.S.Polyansky spoke out especially sharply and reasonably against Voroshilov:
“It should also be said about the behavior of Comrade. Voroshilov as a member of an anti-party group. Everyone knows his previous services to the Motherland. Therefore, the Party Central Committee was very lenient towards him. But you, Comrade Voroshilov, played an active role in this group, although you say that you were "beguiled by the devil." We don't think the devil has anything to do with it. You wanted to cover up the traces of your participation in repressions against innocent people, especially against cadres of military leaders known throughout the country. As a member of the anti-party group, being its active participant, Comrade. Voroshilov behaved insolently, rudely, defiantly. At critical moments, he even refused to meet with members of the Central Committee of the party, who demanded the convocation of a Plenum of the Central Committee. He forgot that he was elected to the Presidium of the Central Committee and, therefore, could be deprived of this high confidence. And how did he behave at the Plenum of the Central Committee? Let me just remind you of one point. When Kaganovich was charged with mass repressions in the Kuban, carried out on his orders and with his personal participation, Voroshilov defended Kaganovich; He jumped up and, waving his fists, shouted: "You are still young, and we will fix your brains." We then replied to his remark: "Calm down, the Central Committee will figure out who should set their brains!" So you, comrade Voroshilov, do not pretend to be Ivan, who does not remember kinship. For anti-party affairs, you must bear full responsibility, like the entire anti-party group "(XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. October 17 - 31, 1961. Verbatim report. M., 1962. T. 2. S. 43-44.).
During Polyansky's speech, Voroshilov behaved very nervous. He got up, sat down, then angrily dropped some kind of notebook and left the presidium of the congress and out of the hall. But the next day he again sat at the congress and listened to speeches, in which his name was often mentioned. So, for example, A.N.Shelepin, who held the post of chairman of the State Security Committee in 1961, said, in particular, about Voroshilov:
“On the eve of the execution, Yakir addressed Voroshilov with the following letter:“ K. E. Voroshilov. In memory of my many years of honest work in the Red Army in the past, I ask you to instruct you to look after my family and help her, helpless and innocent ... "
And on the letter of a person with whom he worked for many years, he knew very well that he had repeatedly looked death in the eyes, defending Soviet power, Voroshilov imposed a resolution: “I doubt the honesty of a dishonest person in general. K. Voroshilov. June 10, 1937 " (XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. T. 2. S. 403.)
Many of the delegates demanded the expulsion of the leaders of the anti-party group from the party. At the 19th meeting of the Congress on October 27, 1961, however, Voroshilov's statement to the 22nd Congress of the CPSU was read out. In it, Voroshilov argued that, although he supported the "erroneous, harmful actions" of the members of the anti-party group, he "had no idea about its factional actions." Voroshilov wrote:
“Having deeply realized the enormous harm that the anti-party group of Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov and others could have inflicted on our party and the country, I strongly condemn its factional activities aimed at turning the party off the Leninist path. I fully understand the seriousness of the mistake I made when I supported the harmful actions of the members of the anti-party group. "
As for his participation in the Stalinist repressions, Voroshilov declared: "I fully agree with the great work carried out by the party to restore Leninist norms of party life and eliminate violations of the revolutionary legality of the period of the personality cult, and I deeply regret that in that situation, I made mistakes" ( Ibid., Pp. 589-590.).
At the next session of the congress, Khrushchev, summing up the debate, although he condemned Voroshilov, urged to show generosity to him. Khrushchev said:
“I would like to especially say about Comrade Voroshilov. He came up to me, talked about his experiences ... But we - politicians - cannot be guided by feelings alone. Feelings are different, they can be deceiving. Here, at the congress, Voroshilov listens to criticism and walks around like a beaten one. But one should have seen him at a time when the anti-Party group raised its hand against the Party. Then Voroshilov showed activity, performed, as they say, with all his regalia and in armor, almost on horseback.
... It is no coincidence that the factionalists singled out him for a meeting with the members of the Central Committee, who were seeking the convocation of the Plenum of the Central Committee. The anti-party group hoped that Voroshilov, with his authority, would be able to influence the members of the Central Committee, shake their resolve in the fight against the anti-party group ...
Comrade Voroshilov made grave mistakes. But I, comrades, think that one should approach him differently than other active members of the anti-Party group, for example, Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov.
... The name of Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov is widely known among the people. Therefore, his participation in the anti-party group, together with Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov and others, seemed to strengthen this group, made some impression on people who were inexperienced in politics. Coming out of this group, Comrade Voroshilov helped the Central Committee in its struggle against the factionalists. Let us, too, respond in kind for this good deed and make his situation easier.
Comrade Voroshilov was sharply criticized, this criticism was correct because he made big mistakes, and the communists cannot forget them. But I believe that we should approach Comrade Voroshilov carefully, show generosity. I believe that he sincerely condemns his actions and repents of them "(XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. T. 2. S. 589, 590.). These words drew applause.
Voroshilov's forgiveness was that he was not expelled from the party. But he was not already elected to the new composition of the Central Committee of the CPSU and was not included in other leading organs of the party. Articles about Voroshilov and his own articles ceased to appear in the press. He almost completely retired from social and political activities. He was far from always present at the meetings of the Supreme Soviet and its Presidium, although he was elected to the Supreme Soviet both in 1962 and in 1966.
last years of life
Voroshilov was not deprived of the privileges that he enjoyed in the past. Therefore, he calmly lived out his last years at a large dacha-estate in the suburbs. His family was small. Voroshilov's wife, Ekaterina Davydovna, has died. They had no children of their own. Voroshilov raised a son and daughter Frunze and adopted son Peter, from whom he had two grandchildren - Klim and Volodya. In the mid-60s, Voroshilov began working on his memoirs. Apparently, in this regard, he began to visit the State Library named after Lenin, where his daughter-in-law, Peter's wife, worked.
Voroshilov was often seen in the dining room of the Prague restaurant, a favorite dining place for many privileged pensioners. Old age greatly changed his appearance. The pensioners around him here almost did not react to his presence. But in other places it was different. Nevertheless, the legend of Voroshilov still existed in the minds and consciousness of people, despite the revelations of the 22nd Congress. Therefore, the public received Voroshilov differently than Molotov or Kaganovich.
Once, when I was working in the Lenin Library, applause was heard somewhere behind my back. I turned around. Voroshilov descended the steps leading to the reading room. Almost all the readers, and there were at least a thousand people, rose from their seats and gave Voroshilov a standing ovation. To thunderous applause, he walked slowly between the tables to the exit from the hall. Only five or six people remained silently to sit in their seats, among whom I saw Yakir's son Peter, who could hardly refrain from shouting something offensive both for Voroshilov and for the scientists who greeted him.
However, sympathy for Voroshilov after the removal of Khrushchev began to manifest itself at a higher level. This completely fit into the framework of the policy of partial rehabilitation of Stalin, which very influential circles tried to pursue after the October (1964) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU. At the 23rd Congress of the CPSU in 1966, Voroshilov, after a five-year hiatus, was re-elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee. Newspapers and magazines began to publish articles about him, excerpts from his memoirs. This aroused protest among some of the military and the intelligentsia. Military historian Lieutenant Colonel V. A. Anfilov, speaking in the spring of 1966 at a meeting at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism when discussing A. Nekrich's book “1941. June 22 ", said:" ... My heart bleeds when he (Voroshilov. - RM) stands on the podium of Lenin's Mausoleum. " In 1967, the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution was celebrated with particular solemnity. Naturally, people like Voroshilov and Mikoyan were invited to the joint meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. But the presidium of the meeting also included the oldest members of the party, such as Fedor Nikolaevich Petrov, a member of the CPSU since 1896, and Anna Lvovna Ryazanova, a member of the CPSU since 1899, wife of the famous historian and theoretician of Marxism D. B. Ryazanov, who died during the years of Stalinist terror. She herself spent more than fifteen years in the camps. Having received an invitation to a meeting in the Kremlin, A. L. Ryazanova demonstratively refused to participate in it, declaring that she did not want to sit next to people like Voroshilov and Mikoyan, who were guilty of the deaths of many thousands of old Bolsheviks. Her protest, as one would expect, went unheeded, like many other similar protests. February 1968 marked another anniversary - the 50th anniversary of the Red Army. On this occasion, Voroshilov was awarded high honors. He received the second Gold Star medal and an honorary weapon with the gold emblem of the USSR. The authorities of Rostov-on-Don awarded Voroshilov the title of an honorary citizen of this city. In 1968, the first book of his memoirs, Stories of Life, was published, dedicated mainly to the Luhansk period of his activity. Talking about his first meeting with Stalin, Voroshilov considered it necessary to express a general judgment about this man:
“We became friends, and soon I learned that my new friend is a Georgian and his name is Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili ... So, by chance, many decades ago I had the opportunity to meet for the first time with a man who later, under the name of Stalin, entered the history of our party and country. ... He lived a long and difficult life, and although his work was overshadowed by the major mistakes known to all, I cannot speak of him without respect and consider it my duty in the subsequent presentation of my memories ... to truthfully tell about him everything that I know and that has forever been preserved by in my memory "(Voroshilov KE Stories about life. M., 1968. Book. 1. S. 247-248.).
After such an introduction, it was difficult to count on Voroshilov to truly tell the truth about the events of his life. My friends told me that at one of the receptions Mikoyan, who had just read Voroshilov's book, approached his former associate in the Politburo and publicly asked him: "How can you, Klim, after everything that happened, write about Stalin like that?" Voroshilov got angry: "I wrote and will write as I see fit." But Kliment Efremovich did not manage to write the second book. He died on December 2, 1969, and was buried with honors at the Kremlin wall. The 90th anniversary of Stalin's birth was approaching, and Brezhnev and Suslov were seriously preparing his rehabilitation, which did not take place only because of the active protest of the Polish, Hungarian and Italian communist and workers' parties. Meanwhile, the city of Lugansk was renamed Voroshilovgrad again, and the Academy of the General Staff began to bear the name of Voroshilov, a commander who did not win a single battle during the Patriotic War, but suffered many defeats, killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army and surrendering dozens of cities to the enemy. ...
Since the time of Voroshilov's death, a lot has been done to revive the legend of the "red marshal". Several albums dedicated to Voroshilov were published, new biographies were written, and two memorial museums were organized. But the renewed legend was no longer able to establish itself in the minds of the Soviet people. Many unflattering words about Voroshilov are contained in V. Karpov's book "The Leader". In excerpts from the memoirs of G.K. Zhukov (not included in the "years of stagnation" in his book) it is said that both in the role of the people's commissar of defense and in the role of the military leader Voroshilov was always an incompetent person, that he, in essence, was an amateur in the military questions (See: Itskov I., Babak M. Marshal Zhukov // Ogonek. 1986. No. 48. S. 7.). The press again recalls the role of Voroshilov in the defeat of Soviet military personnel before the war, of his groveling before Stalin. It is not surprising that many military men demand that Voroshilov's name be removed from the Academy of the General Staff: “... It is not clear whether there is any logic in the fact that the Military Academy of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, designed to train the army's brain cadres, is named after not outstanding domestic or Soviet theoreticians and practitioners military affairs, and K. E. Voroshilov? An incompetent military leader in the problems of strategy "(Quoted from: Danilov V. Klim Voroshilov: a portrait in the light of truth // Komsomolskaya Pravda. 1989. Feb. 12). Many residents of Voroshilovgrad want again and this time to finally return the city to its historical name. More recently, the 9th session of the Council of People's Deputies of the Voroshilovsky District of Moscow decided to rename the district to Khoroshevsky. According to a public opinion poll, this corresponds to the mood of 70% of its residents (See: N. Izyumova Should the Voroshilovsky District Become a District? // Moscow News. 1989. March 26.).
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR |
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Predecessor: |
Nikolay Mikhailovich Shvernik |
Successor: |
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev |
People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the USSR |
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Prime Minister: |
Alexey Ivanovich Rykov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov |
Predecessor: |
Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze |
Successor: |
The post is abolished, he is the same as the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR |
People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR |
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Prime Minister: |
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov |
Predecessor: |
Position established. |
Successor: |
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko |
Date of Birth: |
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Place of Birth: |
Verkhnee village, Bakhmutsky district, Yekaterinoslav province |
Date of death: |
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A place of death: |
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Russian empire |
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KPSS (since 1905) |
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Buried: |
Necropolis at the Kremlin wall |
Years of service: |
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Marshal of the Soviet Union |
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Commanded: |
People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR |
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Honorary Revolutionary Weapon (twice) Foreign awards: |
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early years
Revolutionary activity
Civil War
People's Commissar of Defense
The Great Patriotic War
Post-war activities
Party positions
Estimates of contemporaries
Perpetuation of memory
Bibliography
In art
(January 23 (February 4) 1881, the village of Verkhnee, Bakhmutsky district, Yekaterinoslav province, Russian Empire - December 2, 1969, Moscow) - Soviet military leader, statesman and party leader, participant in the Civil War, one of the first Marshals of the Soviet Union.
Since 1925 he was the people's commissar for military and naval affairs, in 1934-1940 the people's commissar of defense of the USSR. In 1953-1960, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor. Voroshilov holds the record for the length of stay in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) (Central Committee of the CPSU), the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (34.5 years, 1926-1960).
Biography
early years
Kliment Voroshilov was born on February 4, 1881 in the village of Verkhnee, Bakhmutskiy district, Yekaterinoslavskaya province, Russian Empire (now the city of Lisichansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine), in the family of a railway worker Voroshilov Efrem Andreevich (1844-1907) and a day-laborer Voroshilova (nee Agafonova) Maria (1857-1919). Russian. From the age of 7 he worked as a shepherd, a miner. In 1893-1895 he studied at the zemstvo school in the village of Vasilyevka (now part of the city of Alchevsk). From 1896 he worked at the Yuryevsky metallurgical plant, from 1903 in the city of Lugansk at the Hartmann steam locomotive plant.
Revolutionary activity
Member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) / VKP (b) / KPSS since 1903. Since 1904 - a member of the Lugansk Bolshevik Committee. In 1905, he was chairman of the Luhansk Soviet, led the workers' strike, the creation of military squads. Delegate to the Fourth (1906) and Fifth (1907) Congresses of the RSDLP (b). In 1908-1917, he conducted underground party work in Baku, Petrograd, Tsaritsyn. Was repeatedly arrested, served exile.
After the February Revolution of 1917 - a member of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, a delegate to the Seventh (April) All-Russian Conference and the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP (b). From March 1917 - Chairman of the Lugansk Committee of the Bolsheviks, from August - the Lugansk Council and the City Duma (until September 1917).
In November 1917, during the days of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Voroshilov was the commissar of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (for the city leadership). Together with F.E.Dzerzhinsky, he worked on the organization of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK). In early March 1918, Voroshilov organized the First Lugansk Socialist Detachment, which defended the city of Kharkov from the German-Austrian troops.
Civil War
During the Civil War - Commander of the Tsaritsyn Group of Forces, Deputy Commander and Member of the Military Council of the Southern Front, Commander of the 10th Army, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Commander of the Kharkiv Military District, Commander of the 14th Army and the Internal Ukrainian Front. One of the organizers and member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 1st Cavalry Army, commanded by S.M.Budyonny.
For military services in 1920 Voroshilov was awarded an honorary revolutionary weapon. At the VIII Congress of the RCP (b), held in March 1919, he joined the "military opposition".
In 1921, at the head of a group of delegates to the X Congress of the RCP (b), he participated in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. In 1921-1924 he was a member of the South-Eastern Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), commander of the troops of the North Caucasus Military District. In 1924-1925 he was the commander of the troops of the Moscow Military District and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.
People's Commissar of Defense
After the death of MV Frunze, Voroshilov headed the USSR military department: from November 6, 1925 to June 20, 1934 - People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the USSR Revolutionary Military Council; in 1934-1940 the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. In total, Voroshilov spent almost 15 years at the head of the military department, longer than anyone else during the Soviet period. He had a reputation as a devoted supporter of Stalin, supporting him in the struggle against Trotsky and then in the establishment of Stalin's absolute power in the late 1920s. Author of the book "Stalin and the Red Army", which exalts the role of Stalin in the Civil War.
In October 1933, at the head of the government delegation in Turkey, together with Ataturk, he hosted a military parade in Ankara.
On September 22, 1935, the "Regulations on the passage of service by the command and command personnel of the Red Army" introduced personal military ranks. In November 1935, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR awarded the five largest Soviet commanders a new military rank "Marshal of the Soviet Union." Among them was Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov.
In 1940, after the Soviet-Finnish war, Voroshilov lost the post of people's commissar of defense: Stalin appointed S.K. Timoshenko, who had proved himself better in the war, to this post. Voroshilov received the posts of deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and chairman of the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
Participation in Stalinist repressions
During the Great Terror, Voroshilov, along with other close associates of Stalin, participated in the consideration of the so-called "lists" - lists of persons repressed with Stalin's personal sanction. Signatures on the lists signified a conviction. Voroshilov's signature is present on 185 lists, according to which more than 18,000 people were convicted and shot.
As a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), he approved a large number of so-called. "Limits" (quotas for the number of repressed according to the order of the NKVD No. 00447 "On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements"). So, on April 26, 1938, Voroshilov, together with Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich and Yezhov, endorsed an affirmative resolution at the request of and. O. Secretary of the Irkutsk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the allocation of an additional limit for the first category for 4,000 people.
As People's Commissar of Defense, Voroshilov took an active part in the repressions against the command staff of the Red Army. On the list of 26 commanders of the Red Army, sent from the NKVD to the NKO on May 28, 1937, he put the resolution “ Comrade Yezhov. Take all the scoundrels. 28 May 1937. K. Voroshilov"; a shorter resolution by Voroshilov - “ To arrest. K. V."- stands on a similar list of 142 commanders.
The Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War, Marshal of the Soviet Union K.E. Voroshilov was a member of the State Defense Committee, Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Direction (until September 5, 1941), Commander of the Leningrad Front (September 5-14, 1941), Headquarters representative for formation of troops (September 1941 - February 1942), representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters on the Volkhov Front (February-September 1942), commander-in-chief of the partisan movement (from September 1942 to May 1943), chairman of the Trophy Committee at the State Defense Committee (May-September 1943), Chairman of the Armistice Commission (September 1943 - June 1944). In 1943 he took part in the work of the Tehran Conference.
Post-war activities
1945-1947 - Chairman of the Allied Control Commission in Hungary.
In 1946-1953 - Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
From March 1953 to May 1960 - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
In 1957 he was a member of the "anti-party group". Unlike the leaders of the group, he was not expelled from the party, but only criticized at the XXII Congress of the CPSU.
He died at the age of 89 on December 2, 1969. He was buried on Red Square in Moscow near the Kremlin wall: “On the night of December 2–3, 1969, Marshal Voroshilov died. His funeral was given an unprecedented state dimension. For the first time in twenty years after Zhdanov's funeral, the grave was dug behind the Lenin Mausoleum. (Except for the night reburial of Stalin in 1961). "
Party positions
Since May 1960, a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
From 1921 to October 1961 and from 1966 - a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
From 1926 to 1952 - member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
From 1952 to July 1960 - Member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Delegate of the 10-23rd Party Congresses. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st-7th convocations (1937-1969).
Family
Voroshilov's wife - Golda Davidovna Gorbman (1887-1959), a Jew by nationality. Before marrying Voroshilov, she was baptized and changed her name and became Ekaterina Davidovna. For this she was cursed by her Jewish relatives. Golda Davidovna Gorbman has been a member of the RSDLP (b) since 1917, worked as deputy director of the V.I.Lenin Museum. They did not have children of their own, they raised the son and daughter of M.V. Frunze - Timur (1923-1942) and Tatiana (b. 1920), as well as their adopted son Peter (1914-1969), from whom they had two grandchildren - Klim and Vladimir.
Estimates of contemporaries
- Stalin, 1942: "Marshal Voroshilov is one of the main organizers of the Red Army."
- Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich 1972: “Voroshilov was just good at a certain time. He always stood for the political line of the party, because of the workers, an accessible person, knows how to act. Unsaturated, yes. And loyalty to Stalin personally. His devotion was not very strong. But at that time he was very active in favor of Stalin, fully supported in everything, although he was not sure of everything. This also affected. That's a very difficult question. This must be taken into account, why Stalin was a little critical and did not invite him to all of our conversations. In any case, I did not invite to private ones. Didn't invite to secret meetings, he tumbled in himself. Stalin winced. Under Khrushchev, Voroshilov showed himself badly. "
Awards
Chevalier of the highest awards of the USSR. In particular, one out of 154 twice Heroes of the Soviet Union and one out of ten people who have been awarded both the highest degrees of distinction of the Soviet Union - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labor.
Perpetuation of memory
In honor of K. E. Voroshilov during his lifetime (in 1931), and after the title of Marshal (in 1935), a number of cities were named:
- Voroshilovgrad- so from 1935 to 1958, Luhansk was called, but after Voroshilov's death it was again named in his honor, so that in 1990 the historical name was restored once again completely.
- Voroshilovsk- the name of the city of Alchevsk from 1931 to 1961, bearing the name of K. E. Voroshilov, who worked at the DYUMO plant, where he began his labor and revolutionary activities;
- Voroshilovsk from 1935 - to 1943 the name of the city of Stavropol.
- Voroshilov- in 1935 - 1957 the name of the city of Ussuriisk, Primorsky Territory.
- Voroshilovsky district- in 1970 - 1989 the name of the Horoshevsky district of the city of Moscow, the central district in Donetsk (Ukraine).
Voroshilov's name is given to streets in the cities of Brest, Voronezh, Goryachy Klyuch, Ershov, Kemerovo, Klintsy, Korosten, Lipetsk, Nikolaev, Orenburg, Penza, Rybinsk, St. Petersburg, Serpukhov (central street), Simferopol, Tolyatti, Khabarovsk, Chelyabinsk, Angarsk , Izhevsk, as well as Voroshilovsky prospect in Rostov-on-Don
On December 29, 1932, the Voroshilov shooter Osoaviakhim's badge was approved for rewarding well-aimed shooters. In honor of Voroshilov, a series of heavy tanks KV (official decoding - Klim Voroshilov) of the Putilov factory was named. In 1941-1992, the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR bore the name of Voroshilov.
There is a monument on Voroshilov's grave. A memorial plaque has been installed in Moscow at house number 3 on Romanov Lane, where KE Voroshilov lived.
Voroshilovsky district of Volgograd
Bibliography
- Voroshilov K.E. 15 years of the Red Army: Report at the jubilee meeting on February 23, 1933 at the Bolshoi Theater / Voroshilov K.E. - M .: Party ed., 1933. - 45 p.
- Voroshilov K.E. Articles and speeches from the XVI to the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Part. ed., 1934 .-- 208 p .: portr.
- Voroshilov K.E. About youth / Voroshilov K.E., Frunze M.V. - M .: Partyizdat, 1936. - 158 p.: Ill.
- Voroshilov K.E. About youth / Voroshilov K.E. - M .: Mol. guard, 1936 .-- 198 p .: portr.
- Voroshilov K.E. Articles and speeches / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Partizdat, 1936 .-- 666 p .: portr.
- Voroshilov K.E. Speeches at meetings of voters in Minsk / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Partizdat, 1937 .-- 13 p.
- Voroshilov K.E. XX years of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and the Navy: Report on the celebrations. meeting Moscow Council of the Republic of Kazakhstan and CD with participation. total organizations and warrior. parts dedicated. XXth anniversary of the Workers and Peasants. Red Army and Military. - The Navy. With app. Nar order. Com. Defense of the USSR N 49, 23 Feb. 1938, Moscow / Voroshilov K.E. - M .: State Publishing House. polit. Literature, 1938 .-- 29 p.
- The great campaign of the army of K. E. Voroshilov from Lugansk to Tsaritsyn and heroic defense Tsaritsyna: A Guide to the Traces of the Civil War. - M .: Military Publishing, 1938 .-- 298 p .: ill., Schemes.
- Voroshilov K.E. Speech on Red Square on the day of the XXI anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in the USSR (November 7, 1938) / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1938 .-- 14 p .: portr.
- Voroshilov K.E. On the draft law on universal conscription: Report of the USSR People's Commissar of Defense, Comrade K.E. Voroshilov at the extraordinary fourth session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st convocation on August 31, 1939 / Voroshilov K.E. - M .: Politgiz, 1939. - 30 p .: portr.
- Voroshilov K.E. Preface to the "Manual for the command and command staff of the Red Army. Individual gymnastics for every day "/ Voroshilov KE // Theory and practice of physical. culture. - 1939 .-- T. IV. - N 5. - S. 1-3.
- History of the Civil War in the USSR / Ed .: M. Gorky, V. Molotov, K. Voroshilov [and others]. T. 2: The Great Proletarian Revolution. (Oct. - November 1917). - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1942. - 367 p .: ill., Portra., Maps.
- Great Soviet Encyclopedia: In 65 volumes / Ch. ed. O. Yu. Schmidt, deputy. ch. ed. F. N. Petrov, P. M. Kerzhentsev, F. A. Rotshtein, P. S. Zaslavsky. / Ed. K. E. Voroshilov, A. Ya. Vyshinsky. P.I. Lebedev-Polyansky and others - M .: Sov. encyclopedia, 1944-1947.
- Voroshilov K.E. Speech at the pre-election meeting of voters of the Minsk city constituency on February 7, 1946 / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1946 .-- 13 p .: portr.
- Great Soviet Encyclopedia / Ed. SI Vavilov, KE Voroshilov, A. Ya. Vyshinsky [and others]. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. - M .: Sov. encyclopedia, 1947. - 1946 p .: ill., maps., portr.
- Voroshilov K.E. Speech at the meeting of voters of the Minsk city constituency on March 7, 1950 / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1950 .-- 24 p .: portr. Also. - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1951. - 23 p.
- A. E. Skvortsov KE Voroshilov on physical culture / Skvortsov AE // Theory and practice of physical culture. culture. - 1951. - T. XIV. - Issue. 2. - S. 96-103.
- Voroshilov K.E. 36th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution: Report on the Celebrations. meeting of Moscow. Council on November 6, 1953 / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Goslitizdat, 1953 .-- 24 p .: portr.
- Voroshilov K.E. Speech at a meeting of voters of the Kirov constituency of the city of Leningrad on March 10, 1954 / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1954 .-- 15 p.
- Voroshilov K.E. Along the glorious path of socialism / Voroshilov K.E. - Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1955 .-- 15 p.
- Voroshilov K.E. Speech at the XX Congress of the CPSU on February 20, 1956 / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Gospolitizdat, 1956 .-- 23 p.
- Voroshilov K.E. Life Stories: (Memories). Book. 1 / Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich. - M .: Politizdat, 1968 .-- 368 p .: ill.
- Soviet Army / Preface. K. E. Voroshilov. - M .: Politizdat, 1969 .-- 446 p .: ill., Portr.
- About the Komsomol and youth: Collection / V. I. Lenin. M. I. Kalinin. S. M. Kirov. N.K. Krupskaya. V.V. Kuibyshev. A. V. Lunacharsky. G.K. Ordzhonikidze. M. V. Frunze. K. E. Voroshilov. - M .: Mol. guard, 1970 .-- 447 p.
- Akshinsky V.S. Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov: Biogr. sketch / Akshinsky V.S. - M .: Politizdat, 1974. - 287 p.: ill.
- V. I. Kardashov Voroshilov / Kardashov V.I. - M .: Mol. guard, 1976. - 368 p .: ill., photo.
- K. E. Voroshilov. Life stories. Book 1
In art
Prior to his resignation from the post of People's Commissar of Defense, Voroshilov, as the most influential military figure, was a living symbol of the Red Army and the growing military power of the Soviet Union. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was glorified as a man who would lead to victory ("After all, Voroshilov is with us, the first red officer - we will be able to stand up for the USSR!"). Voroshilov is the hero of numerous films where he was played:
- Alexey Gribov ("The Oath", 1946, "The Fall of Berlin", 1949, "Donetsk Miners", 1951)
- Nikolai Bogolyubov (Lenin in 1918, 1938, The First Horse, 1941, Parkhomenko, 1942, Defense of Tsaritsyn, 1942, The Third Strike, Liberation, 1968-1972))
- Yuri Tolubeev ("The Fall of Berlin", option 1)
- Daniel Sagal ("Blockade", 1972)
- Victor Lazarev ("Duma about Kovpak", 1973-1976; "The Underground Regional Committee is acting", 1978)
- Igor Pushkarev (December 20, 1981)
- Wensley Pithy (Red Monarch (England, 1983)
- Vladimir Troshin (Oleko Dundich, 1958; "Battle for Moscow", 1985, "Stalingrad", Dark Nights in Sochi, 1989)
- Evgeny Zharikov ("The First Horse", 1984, "The War in the West", 1990)
- Anatoly Grachev ("Enemy of the People - Bukharin", 1990)
- Sergei Nikonenko (Belshazzar's Feasts, or Night with Stalin, 1989)
- Mikhail Kononov ("Inner Circle", 1991)
- John Bowie (Stalin, 1992)
- Viktor Yeltsov (Trotsky, 1993)
- Sergey Shekhovtsov ("Stalin: Inside the Terror", England, 2003)
- Yuri Oleinikov ("Stalin. Live", 2007)
- Alexander Mokhov (Burnt by the Sun 2, 2010)
- Valery Filonov ("Furtseva (TV series)", 2011)
And also "The Unforgettable 1919", "Lenin in the Ring of Fire" (1993), "The Moscow Saga" (2004), etc.
Voroshilov is mentioned in the song March of Soviet Tankmen as First Marshal:
In some versions, before 1956 in the song "Polyushko-Pole" there was a verse about Voroshilov:
Voroshilov's name also sounds in the song "If tomorrow is war" (1939):
And also on the march * of the red cavalry *
Set to music is L. Kvitko's poem "Letter to Voroshilov" (translated by S. Marshak, Music by P. Akulenko).
Kliment Efremovich was born in the village of Verkhnee (now Lisichansk) in Ukraine on February 4, 1881. From 1903 he worked in Lugansk at a steam locomotive plant, where he joined the RSDLP. He soon became a professional revolutionary: he smuggled weapons, made bombs, spent time in prisons, served exile. The rapid career rise of the "Luhansk locksmith", as Voroshilov was called by high-browed intellectuals from the Bolshevik elite, began after the Civil War. His main achievement during this time was not command of the army and even the front (some red commanders argued that it was dangerous to trust Voroshilov and the regiment), but participation in the defense of Tsaritsyn from the troops General Krasnov. The defense was led by Stalin.
In Voroshilov, he appreciated personal loyalty, - says historian, writer Roy Medvedev... - Stalin forgave Voroshilov for such mistakes that would cost any other life. Leading Military establishment from 1925 to 1940, he was never able to prepare them for the war with Finland. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Voroshilov was appointed commander-in-chief of the North-West direction. The case ended with the blockade of Leningrad. Everyone in Stalin's entourage knew about Voroshilov: this man could easily fail any task entrusted to him. Nevertheless, he went for a promotion - he became the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, that is, the deputy prime minister of the government! The reason is that dictators need more than just smart performers such as Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Ustinov or Kosygin who can do business. They also need decorative figures that, with their insignificance, would set off the majestic figure of the leader.
Voroshilov was always ready to support any initiative of Stalin. Stalin and Voroshilov, 1935 Photo: Public Domain
Nothing personal
In addition, Voroshilov was always ready to support any initiative of Stalin. In 1937, he conscientiously endorsed all the execution lists, including those people whom he had known for a long time, with whom he was friends with families. Possibly like Kalinin, he even cried, seeing off his employees to the execution, but he never did anything and did not ask for his patron for anyone. However, Voroshilov was not a cannibal either. After the Finnish war, when it became possible to release and rehabilitate one of the previously imprisoned generals, he made a list, which included, for example, the future "Marshal of Victory" Konstantin Rokossovsky... Voroshilov felt no grudge against the "former enemies of the people" - nothing personal.
Moreover, he was popular among the people. Songs were composed and sung about him (and obviously at the behest of the heart, and not because the party ordered). Both the official type "Listen to the battle song, look through the darkness and smoke at night, take care of your native country, like the Luhansk locksmith Klim", and folk: "Comrade Voroshilov, the war is already on the nose, and Budyonny's cavalry went for the sausage."Amazingly, even after the death of Stalin, Voroshilov remained a figure that suits many. From 1953 to 1960 he was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, formally the head of state. Voroshilov never was where it was not necessary, and did not participate in what should not be. In his entire life he made only one mistake in the apparatus - he joined the "anti-party group", which in 1957 tried to displace Khrushchev... However, the times were already more or less vegetarian. Voroshilov was the first to repent - they say, the demon beguiled him - and did not even lose his position.
When at the end of his life he was reproached for conformism, he replied that he was not going to quarrel with anyone in his old age, because he wanted to be buried in Red Square. This is what happened in December 1969.
BY THE WAY
In 1980 in Voroshilovgrad (now Lugansk again) it was decided to organize the Marshal's Museum. There were no exhibits. We turned to the adopted son of Voroshilov - Petr Klimentievich... He invited the director of the museum to a dacha near Moscow. There, in the empty pool at the bathhouse, gifts from all over the world were piled up, which in different years presented to Kliment Efremovich. Rhinestone Pagoda - from Jawaharlal Nehru, elephant tusk with inlay - from Ho Chi Minh, a dish of the finest golden threads - from Mao Zedong, cigarette case - from Marshal Tito, Bukhara robes, silver sets, carpets, paintings, horse saddles and stirrups ... In addition, Voroshilov's personal belongings were kept at the dacha, from his socks to marshal's uniforms. “Choose. If you want, take everything, ”said the owner. So this wealth migrated to Ukraine. Who knew that in 10 years she would become independent?
On February 4, 1881, Kliment Voroshilov was born - one of the most legendary People's Commissars of the Soviet Union
“I don’t believe in predestination, but I am grateful to my fate for the fact that I fell out on exactly the path that I happened to pass,” with these words, Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov began in 1968 the first book of memoirs, “Stories of Life” of the most legendary military leaders of the USSR. This book was published a little over a year before the death of the "first red officer" (he died on December 2, 1969) and 20 years before the moment when a turbid wave of "revelations" and "research" fell upon Voroshilov.
Meanwhile, among the leaders of the USSR from the end to the end of the 1950s, Kliment Voroshilov was one of the most living and humane figures. It is no coincidence that it was he who got the sincere love and respect of the common people, including the rank and file of the Red Army, to whose appeals the Marshal was always attentive. It is no coincidence that his family can be safely called an exemplary Soviet family with devoted and sincere love, with the ability to take responsibility for other people's children. And even the fact that many posthumous researchers blamed Voroshilov for enduring devotion (which, however, did not interfere with eye and eye criticism of his actions and decisions), also deserves respect against the background of the ease of changing landmarks, which was demonstrated by many of the Marshal's contemporaries.
Clement Voroshilov and Joseph Stalin, 1935.
Source: http://imagesait.ru
Farm laborer, son of a farm laborer
Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was born on February 4 (January 23, old style), 1881 in the village of Verkhnee, Bakhmutskiy district, Yekaterinoslavskaya province, in the family of farm laborers Ephraim and Maria Voroshilov. In “Tales of Life,” he writes: “This is a volost village, and the adjoining farmsteads have never been in serfdom. They were inhabited by state peasants. It was very difficult to engage in agriculture on the sands, but nevertheless rye was sown in some places, although the harvest was low. Potatoes and various vegetables were grown more. To somehow make ends meet, Russian peasants were engaged in various crafts. " And many more left to work as laborers, because large peasant families could not feed themselves on the meager lands of the left bank of the Northern Donets.
Such a fate awaited Efrem Voroshilov, who returned after ten years of service as a soldier. While he was pulling the army strap, he was put on it was divided among the rest of the family, and he had no other future, except for the farm laborer. And if you take into account the heavy hand and hot temper of the former soldier, who responded with fists to the injustice that often waited for the farm laborers in the calculations, it is not surprising that the family of the future marshal almost constantly wandered from place to place. “At the age of 6-7, I had already seen a lot and felt a lot like a child. Of course, I could not yet understand why this is happening, but these and other impressions were deposited somewhere in the subconscious. This was facilitated by the family's frequent travel from place to place, ”says Klim Voroshilov about his childhood.
Young Social Democrat Kliment Voroshilov during the 1905 revolution.
Source: memoirs of K.E. Voroshilov «
Life stories »
Knowing all this, is it any wonder that Voroshilov looked little like a proletarian, whom he spent less time than a peasant's son. Rather, one should be surprised how a boy who grew up in such inhuman conditions retained his trust in people and the ability to see the good in them. This skill distinguished Kliment Voroshilov until his last days, and it was this ability that attracted to him ordinary people... She helped him in the pre-revolutionary years, when, after joining the Social Democratic Party in 1904, he completely switched to party work and became one of the most famous Bolshevik agitators and propagandists.
"These years are the most dear to me ..."
For Voroshilov, this success cost dearly: in the 13 years that separated the beginning of his political activity from, he managed to repeatedly visit prison and exile, which seriously undermined his health. Already being the people's commissar of defense, Kliment Efremovich amazed people unfamiliar with him by the fact that in his free time he could practice on uneven bars or a horizontal bar for several hours. And few people knew that in this way the People's Commissar gets rid of the problems that were provided for him in one of the police stations, when, during the next arrest, a young Bolshevik was seriously beaten. The severe trauma left its mark forever - serious auditory hallucinations: Voroshilov heard now conversations, now a dog barking, now the noise of a passing train ... And only physical activity made it possible to distract himself from the obsessive sound.
"Comrade Volodin" - Kliment Voroshilov - in the pre-revolutionary years. 1911 year
Source: memoirs of K.E. Voroshilov "Stories about life"
But among the sad events that filled the days of the exiled Voroshilov (or Comrade Volodin, as they called him in the RSDLP, following the strict rule of secrecy), there were also bright moments. One of them was a meeting with his future wife Ekaterina Davidovna. Then her name was Golda Grobman, and she was the same exile: a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, a young woman also ended up in the Arkhangelsk village of Kholmogory for her political activities. And she ended up not in the best physical condition: shortly before exile, while in prison, Golda ended up on the operating table with an unwanted pregnancy (as a result of an affair with one of her party comrades) and forever lost the opportunity to have children.
“Perhaps it is the lot of every person in old age to remember youth, the best time in his life. But, honestly, these years are the most dear to me. Years of struggle, successes and failures, maturation and accumulation of revolutionary experience. For their sake it was worth sacrificing everything: youth and life itself, ”Kliment Voroshilov will write in his memoirs half a century later. And this will not be an exclusively political statement: those who knew the red marshal closely said that for him the time of meeting a young Socialist-Revolutionary woman was indeed one of the happiest episodes in his life. And changed her forever. Voroshilov returned from exile married. Moreover, the spouse took a very serious step in order to link her fate with the future People's Commissar of Defense: a Jew by blood and faith, she was baptized, became Orthodox, changed her name (became Catherine), having lost the opportunity to maintain relations with her family.
Clement Voroshilov with his wife Ekaterina Davidovna. Source: https://24smi.org/
Petya, Timur and Tatiana
Ekaterina Davidovna told her young husband about everything, hiding nothing. “Golda never deceived me, and during our first dates she honestly told me that she would never be able to have children,” Voroshilov recalled much later. - But I was firmly convinced that I love this woman and want to link my fate with her ... ”.
Since the Voroshilovs could not have children of their own, they, sincerely and truly loving each other, had adopted foster children. True, this happened already during the Civil War, when Ekaterina Davidovna lived in Moscow, where Voroshilov also visited from time to time from the front. The first was four-year-old Petya, whom Clement Efremovich took from the Tsaritsyn orphanage in 1918. In 1925, the orphaned children of Mikhail Frunze, Timur and Tatiana, came to the family. In some places, there are references to two more adopted children: Ekaterina Davidovna's niece named Gertrude and Clement Efremovich's nephew named Nikolai, but no information about them was found in official sources.
Clement Voroshilov with his first adopted child - his son Peter, 1920s. Source: http://www.polarpost.ru
Everyone who knew the Voroshilov family unanimously noted that true love reigned in the relationship between adoptive parents and children - the same as between Clement and Catherine themselves. Suffice it to say that once, in the late 1930s, Kliment Efremovich took up a saber to prevent his wife, who was suspected of state crimes, from being taken out of the house. And he got his way! And the story of Ekaterina Davidovna's last days could have looked like a melodrama if it weren't real. She hid from her husband to the last that she was sick with cancer, and he learned about the disease only when it was no longer possible to cope with it. And it was on the eve of the Voroshilovs' golden wedding. The legendary People's Commissar, as eyewitnesses recall, spent the day and slept at his wife's bedside, sang her songs of their common youth and held her hand until the last minute. They were no longer destined to celebrate the 50th anniversary of family life ...
« Master of the Red Army
In the post-Soviet era, it has become fashionable to blame Kliment Voroshilov, if not all, then almost all the failures of the Red Army in wars and military conflicts during his leadership of the People's Commissariat of Defense. In fact, thanks to Voroshilov, the Red Army in the pre-war period received many samples of equipment, making it one of the strongest armies in Europe.
He had two classes of education and compensated for the lack of knowledge by constant reading ("Books and life itself became my universities, my academy. And everything that I happened to know and what I managed to achieve, I owed mainly books, reading," Voroshilov wrote later) , the People's Commissar well understood the limits of his competence. He was not fond of, unlike some of his subordinates, deliberately failed ideas in the field of weapons, preferred more realistic proposals. So, when Voroshilov was the People's Commissar of Defense, the Red Army received one of the best in its class light tank T-26 (adopted for service in 1931), high-speed tanks of the BT series (adopted from 1931 to 1935), and in December 1939 of the year - the legendary T-34. In the same period, the legendary three-line rifle was modernized, the Simonov and Tokarev self-loading rifles, the DP-27 light machine gun and its tank and aviation versions were adopted. Then the I-16 fighter and the SB high-speed bomber took to the skies, and the creation of airborne units began. And the Soviet submarine fleet under the leadership of Voroshilov grew at such a pace that it became the largest in number among the fleets of all the powers that entered the Second World War!
People's Commissar for Defense Kliment Voroshilov at a meeting with members of the Komsomol. Source: http://rushist.com
When Voroshilov already held the post of People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, L.D. Trotsky, gave him a biting characterization: they say, "although Voroshilov was from the Luhansk workers, from the privileged elite, but in all his habits he always looked more like a proprietor than a proletarian." But those who knew Kliment Voroshilov well, considered him not the owner - the owner. It was this trait that allowed him to saturate the Red Army with modern technology and weapons. Not knowing how to command, Voroshilov knew how to see what his farm needed.
People's Commissar, but not a commander
As for the military leadership talents of Kliment Voroshilov, it is still not known about cases when he himself insisted on giving him command of large formations. Yes, in 1918 he was one of the members of the military council of the First Cavalry Army under the command of Semyon Budyonny. And at that moment he, an experienced and much past underground agitator, was in his place. During the Civil War, the ability to promote the Red Army often played a more important role than the ability to think tactically. And then Voroshilov's career went along political rails: it was important for the country's leadership to have a sincere and completely devoted person in the post of People's Commissar of Defense, just like Kliment Efremovich was.
Kliment Voroshilov among the commanders of the First Cavalry Army. Source: https://redsearch.org
By the way, you can't call him overly loyal either: sometimes the interests of his subordinates outweighed the interests of the party in him. There is a known case when, while discussing the course of collectivization, Voroshilov put on the table in front of Stalin a stack of letters received by him from the Red Army men worried about news from the house, with the words: "You want to restore all peasant Russia against us!" And - nothing, the execution article did not threaten him. He was the only one allowed not only to call Stalin by name and "you", but also to publicly argue with him. The price was personal loyalty, but Voroshilov simply could not do otherwise.
Apparently, this same personal loyalty, along with the awareness of his inability to command, did not allow Voroshilov to interfere in the preparation of hostilities against Finland, and as a result, he was made responsible for the failures of the first period of this war. Meanwhile, the red marshal was not directly involved in planning military operations, was not responsible for analyzing and receiving information about the degree of preparedness of the Finns (in particular, the "action plan for the destruction of the land and naval forces of the Finnish army" was presented on October 29, 1939 to the People's Commissar of the Leningrad military district). And the People's Commissar did not command the troops directly during this period either. Nevertheless, he was nevertheless removed from his post. And during the Great Patriotic War, questions of personal loyalty faded into the background: the country needed talented military leaders, to whom Voroshilov did not attribute himself ...
Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, 1960s.
Source: https://ruspekh.ru
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3 Comments
Golovanov Boris
Voroshilov was not particularly famous at the beginning of the war, but the troops led by him did not fall into the grandiose encirclement. And at that time it was also a great merit. The entire army retreated in front of a strong enemy and there were not so many generals who corresponded to the situation. And Voroshilov was not the worst, despite the lack of military education.
Belova Elena
Almost everything that was good in the Red Army was done either under Frunze, the most talented military leader who died so conveniently for Stalin. Or under Tukhachevsky. Voroshilov was not only an absolute mediocrity, having no military education or military experience (in the Civil, he was only a commissar under Budyon), but he also signed warrants for the arrest of senior commanders. It was impossible to arrest senior commanders without the signature of the People's Commissar of Defense. And although Voroshilov initially resisted this, but then resignedly signed everything, not forgetting to pour tons of oil to the address of his patron Stalin. And then the arrested, who were tortured, humiliated, beaten in prison, wrote pleas to Voroshilov, whole bags of letters. And he was silent. It is well written about this in Souvenirov's book "The Tragedy of the Red Army" and in Vadim Rogovin's book "The Party of the Executed." One of the reasons for our defeat in the first months of the war was Voroshilov. It was Voroshilov, with his complete stupidity, handed Tukhachevsky's note to Shaposhnikov so that he would make the calculations, and Shaposhnikov did everything wrong, which discredited Tukhachevsky and now the Stalinists are running around with this note and waving, they say, Tukhachevsky was a fool, he wanted us to build 100 thousand tanks ... Only Tukhachevsky was not going to impose these 100 thousand tanks. It was only about preliminary calculations and only at the time of the full mobilization of the army. And Voroshilov did not understand anything. It is good that Stalin finally understood this. And he returned Tukhachevsky, who at least managed to do something for our army. True, after the war game in 1936, Voroshilov still finished off Tukhachevsky. Who criticized everyone, trying to push through at least some kind of modernization for our army.
During the war, Voroshilov failed everything he could. Stalin's patience ran out and he removed the "horsemen" Voroshilov and Budyonny from the command.
Regarding the love of the common people, this is ridiculous. A wide PR campaign was launched. Poems, ballads were composed about Voroshilov. But in the army they openly laughed at him. Watch the film "Countdown. Maneuvers of 1936. Generals Are Accused", how Voroshilov makes his final speech, how he cannot connect two words.
"It was this trait that allowed him to saturate the Red Army with modern technology and weapons."
"In reality, thanks to Voroshilov, the Red Army in the pre-war period received many samples of equipment, which made it one of the strongest armies in Europe."
Thanks to Voroshilov ?! Are you kidding me?! Thanks to Tukhachevsky! Not Voroshilov. Voroshilov knew nothing about modern weapons. He was dumb as a cork. It was Tukhachevsky who studied modern models of technology and tried to introduce them. It was he who tried to conclude an agreement with France so that we could receive modern aircraft engines.
"the creation of airborne units has begun."
Voroshilov has nothing to do with the development of the Airborne Forces. This is Tukhachevsky, when he was the commander of the Leningrad Military District, he conducted exercises. And that was reflected in the 1936 game. Unique footage of the paratroopers' performance can be seen in the film "Countdown. Maneuvers of 1936". And Tukhachevsky sent reports to Stalin, trying to prove the need for this kind of troops. You can read about this in the book by Shilo and Glushko "Mosaic of the Broken Mirror". But after the execution of Tukhachevsky, work with the Airborne Forces began to decline. Because Voroshilov was just against it.