Nikolai Shvernik | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Николай Шверник | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Shvernik in 1938 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 19 March 1946 – 15 March 1953 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Joseph Stalin Georgy Malenkov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Premier | Joseph Stalin Georgy Malenkov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Mikhail Kalinin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Kliment Voroshilov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 4 March 1944 – 25 June 1946 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Mikhail Kalinin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Office established | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Office abolished;Vasily Kuznetsov (1977) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman of thePresidium of theSupreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 4 March 1944 – 25 June 1946 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Aleksei Badayev Ivan Vlasov (Acting) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ivan Vlasov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1888-05-07)7 May 1888 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 24 December 1970(1970-12-24) (aged 82) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | RSDLP (Bolsheviks) (1905–1918) Russian Communist Party (1918–1966) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Mariya Fedorovna Ulazovskaya | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nikolai Mikhailovich Shvernik (Russian:Николай Михайлович Шверник, 19 May [O.S. 7 May] 1888 – 24 December 1970) was a Soviet politician who served as the secondchairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1946 until 1953. Though he was thehead of state, Shvernik had very little power asJoseph Stalin, thepremier at the time, had most of the power due to his position asgeneral secretary of the CPSU, thede factoleader.
Shvernik was born in 1888 inSt. Petersburg in a working-class family ofRussian ethnicity.[1] His father was a retired sergeant major, who worked in factories inSt Petersburg. Reputedly, he was descended fromOld Believers.[2] Shvernik's mother was a weaver. He worked in factories as a turner, and joined theBolsheviks in 1905. After theFebruary Revolution in 1917, he was elected chairman of the soviet in a pipe factory inSamara, and chairman of the Samara city soviet.[3] During theRussian Civil War, he was a political commissar in the Red Army. In 1921–23, he worked in the trade unions.
In 1923, he was appointed to the staff ofRabkrin, which was headed byJoseph Stalin, whom Shvernik loyally supported during the power struggles of the 1920s. During 1923, he was in charge of combatting the sale of moonshine vodka and cocaine, and gambling.[2] In November 1925, at the height of the conflict between Stalin andGrigory Zinoviev, he was appointed by theCentral Committee to take over as Secretary of theLeningrad provincial committee, which was Zinoviev's power base.[4][3]
Shvernik was a full member of the Central Committee from December 1925 until he died 45 years later. In April 1926, he was appointed to theSecretariat, one of a team of four secretaries led by Stalin, in place ofGrigory Yevdokimov, a Zinoviev supporter.
While the Central Committee andCentral Control Commission were in joint session, in October 1927, debating whether to expel the leading oppositionists, includingLeon Trotsky and Zinoviev, Shvernik displayed his loyalty to Stalin.[5]
In December 1927, when there were sudden food shortages in the cities because the peasants were holding back their produce in anticipation of rising prices, Shvernik was dispatched to the Urals, as regional party secretary.[6] He continued to support Stalin loyally through the rapid industrialisation of the soviet economy, which was opposed by almost the entire leadership of the trade unions. He was recalled to Moscow in 1929, and imposed as chairman of the Metallurgist Trade Union. From July 1930 to March 1944, he was first secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and a member of theOrgburo.
Shvernik presided over the1931 Menshevik Trial,[7] in which fourteen Russian economists came up for trial on charges of treason. In February 1937, he was a member of the commission that investigatedNikolai Bukharin andAlexei Rykov, the two most prominent former oppositionists still living in the USSR, and voted that they should be expelled from the Central Committee, arrested, and shot.[8]
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During theSecond World War, Shvernik was responsible for evacuating Soviet industry away from the advancingWehrmacht. He wasChairman of the Soviet of Nationalities from 1938 to 1946.[9] After creating Extraordinary State Commission for Ascertaining and Investigating Crimes Perpetrated by the German-Fascist Invaders and their Accomplices in 1942, he became chairman of it. He wasChairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR from 1944 to 1946. In 1946 he became Chairman of the Presidium of theSupreme Soviet of the USSR, succeedingMikhail Kalinin. He only became a member of thePolitburo of the CPSU Central Committee (then named the Presidium of the Party's Central Committee) in 1952 but was demoted in 1953 when the body was reduced in size.
Reputedly, Shvernik was so distressed by Stalin's death, in March 1953, that he was the only prominent party leader seen crying at the dictator's funeral.[2] Within days, he had been demoted back to his old status as a 'candidate' member of the Presidium, and Shvernik was removed as the Chairman of thePresidium of the Supreme Soviet and replaced byKliment Voroshilov on 15 March 1953. He returned to his work as the chairman of theAll-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. In December 1953, he was named as a member of the panel of judges who sentenced the former chief of police,Lavrentiy Beria and six others to death.
Despite his years of loyalty to Stalin, Shvernik was one of the most senior Old Bolsheviks to backNikita Khrushchev after he had delivered the "Secret Speech" which denounced Stalin's crimes. Appointed Chairman of the Central Control Commission in 1956, he oversaw the 'rehabilitation' of scores of people wrongly convicted during the Stalin years.[3] In July 1957, Shvernik again became a full member of the Presidium, after a stretch of more than 16 years as a 'candidate' member.[10] He remained on the body until he retired in 1966.
Shvernik died on 24 December 1970 atMoscow at the age 82 and his ashes were placed in an urn in theKremlin Wall Necropolis.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None | Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities January 12, 1938 – February 10, 1946 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet 1946–1953 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of theParty Control Committee 1956–1966 | Succeeded by |
