Mikhail Kalinin

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Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (Russian: Михаи́л Ив́анович Кали́нин) (November 19 [O.S. November 7] 1875 – June 3, 1946) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician.

Born to a peasant family in Verkhnyaya Troitsa village (Верхняя Троица), Tverskaya Gubernia, Russia, he moved to St. Petersburg in 1889 and became a metal worker. In 1898 he joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (РС-ДРП). From March 1919 to 1938 he was Chairman of the All-Union Executive Committee i.e., titular head of state, informally known as "the all-Union Chieftain" (всесоюзный староста). The title was then changed to Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which he assumed. He would remain head of state until 1946. Kalinin was a candidate member of the Politburo from 1919 until 1925 when he became a full member. He remained on the body until 1946.

During the Great Purge, many wrote letters to Kalinin with petitions to reconsider the fates of the convicts, and indeed, Kalinin's intervention often helped, thus giving him the reputation of "kind grandfather Kalinin" (recall that Stalin was "dear father" to all Soviet people then). However, at the same time, Kalinin routinely signed execution lists together with other members of the Politburo, such as the authorization of the Katyn massacre.

Kalinin's wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna Kalinina, was arrested in October 1938. When petitioners asked the President's help he replied "My dear chap, I'm in the same position! I can't even help my own wife - there's no way I can help yours!" (Montefiore Stalin 282). Only when he was close to death did Stalin finally grant his plea for the release of his wife. Later on, when Kalinin died, his wife was in exile at GULAG, and she was brought to Moscow to see her husband only for funerals - she was washed, weared in proper garment and stayed near the tomb.^{[citation needed]}

He retired in 1946 and died shortly afterward in Moscow. Kalinin was honoured with a major state funeral and was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

[edit] Trivia

• In 1932 along with Vyacheslav Molotov and Avel Enukidze he co-signed the infamous "Law of Spikelets", which ultimately led to Holodomor.
• The city of Tver bore the name Kalinin from 1931 to 1990 in his honor
• The former German city of Königsberg (East Prussia), conquered in 1945 by the Red Army and incorporated into the Soviet Union, was renamed Kaliningrad in his honor.

[edit] References