Kirill Trofimovich Mazurov (Belarusian :Кіры́лаТрафі́мавічМа́зураў, romanized: Kiryła TrafimavičMazuraw,Russian :Кири́ллТрофи́мовичМа́зуров;25 March 1914 –19 December 1989) was a Soviet partisan,politician,and one of the leaders of the Belarusian resistance during World War II who governed the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia from 1956 until 1965,when he became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU.
Kirill Mazurov was born in 1914 in the Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire in a peasant family of Belarusian ethnicity. [1] He was originally a construction technician,and graduated from the Gomel highway technical school in 1933. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1940 and the Red Army in 1941. During the Great Patriotic War,he participated in military actions as a political instructor,a battalion commander and an instructor of the army's political department.[ citation needed ]
Mazurov left the army in 1942 to become secretary of the central committee of the Belarusian Komsomol. Mazurov then moved to a Soviet partisan unit where he became president of the central staff.[ citation needed ]
After the war,Mazurov returned to his position as secretary of the Belarusian Komsomol. In 1947 he joined the apparatus of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. From 1949 to 1950 he was the First Secretary of the Minsk city committee and from 1950 to 1953 first secretary of the Minsk regional committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. From 1950 to 1979,he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. After Joseph Stalin's death,he actively supported Nikita Khrushchev. He was chairman of the council of ministers of BSSR (1953–1965),then First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (1956–1965). In 1964 he was appointed candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and was then a full member from 26 March 1965 to 27 November 1978. He was also the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (1965–1976).[ citation needed ]
Mazurov retired in 1978.
In the 1980s,he gave an interview to Izvestia in which he said he was the envoy of Brezhnev who commanded the Warsaw Pact invasion force in Czechoslovakia in 1968 under the code name "General Trofymov". He said he regretted his action,added "today I would not accept to guide one similar operation" and asked the Czechs to forgive the Soviets.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin five times,the Order of the Red Banner,the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class and was a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1971. He received other military medals as well.[ citation needed ]
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),at some points known as the Russian Communist Party,All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party,and sometimes referred to as the Soviet Communist Party (SCP),was the founding and ruling political party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU was the sole governing party of the Soviet Union until 1990 when the Congress of People's Deputies modified Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution,which had previously granted the CPSU a monopoly over the political system. The party's main ideology was Marxism–Leninism. The party was outlawed under Russian President Boris Yeltsin's decree on 6 November 1991,citing the 1991 Soviet coup attempt as a reason.
The organization of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was based on the principles of democratic centralism.
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic,also known as Byelorussia,was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state,and afterwards as one of fifteen constituent republics of the USSR from 1922 to 1991,with its own legislation from 1990 to 1991. The republic was ruled by the Communist Party of Byelorussia. It was also known as the White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965,and as unofficial chief ideologue of the party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and power separation within the Communist Party. His hardline attitude resisting change made him one of the foremost orthodox communist Soviet leaders.
The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,while the Politburo was charged with the policy-making aspects of the party. The Secretariat was a component agency of the party's Central Committee.
Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin was a Soviet politician and intelligence officer. A long-time member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,he served as First Deputy Prime Minister,as a full member of the Politburo and as the chairman of the KGB from December 1958 to November 1961. He continued to maintain decisive influence in the KGB until 1967;his successor as chairman of the KGB,Vladimir Semichastny,was his client and protégé.
Pyotr Mironovich Masherov was a Soviet partisan,statesman,and one of the leaders of the Belarusian resistance during World War II who governed the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia from 1965 until his death in 1980. Under Masherov's rule,Belarus was transformed from an agrarian,undeveloped nation which had not yet recovered from the Second World War into an industrial powerhouse;Minsk,the capital and largest city of Belarus,became one of the fastest-growing cities on the planet. Masherov ruled until his sudden death in 1980,after his vehicle was hit by a potato truck.
Yan Gamarnik,sometimes known as Yakov Gamarnik,was the Chief of the Political Department of the Red Army from 1930 to 1937,Deputy Commissar of Defense 1930—1934 and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia 1928–1930.
Panteleimon Kondratyevich Ponomarenko was a Soviet statesman and politician and one of the leaders of Soviet partisan resistance in Belarus. He served as an administrator at various positions within the Soviet government,including the leadership positions in Byelorussian and Kazakh SSRs.
The Communist Party of Byelorussia was the ruling communist party of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic,a constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1922,that existed from 1917 to 1991.
Alexei Alexeyevich Yepishev,also spelled Epishev was a Soviet Army General,politician and diplomat. He served as the Chief of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy from 1962 to 1985.
Ivan Frolovich Klimov was a Soviet politician. He was the First Secretary of the Baranavichy Voblast Committee of the Communist Party from 1952 to 1953.
Nikolai Semyonovich Patolichev was a Soviet statesman who served as Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1958 to 1985. Prior to that,he was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia from 1950 to 1956.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Zimyanin was a Belarusian Soviet partisan,politician,and diplomat who served as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Pravda,the official publication of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,from 1965 to 1976. Afterwards,he was appointed to the party's secretariat. He retired on 28 January 1987 for "health reasons".
Nadezhda Grigoryevna Grekova was a Soviet Belarusian politician. She was Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Belorussian SSR 1938–1949. At some point she was known as the "Iron Lady".
Vladimir Nikolaevich Druzhinin was a Soviet state and party leader,a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II and an active participant in the partisan movement in Ukraine through the Chernihiv Commissioner-Volyn. In February 1940,Druzhinin was elected second secretary of the Communist Party's Ternopil oblast committee,a post in which he served until July 1941. By a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 4 January 1944,for organizing a guerrilla movement behind enemy lines against the Nazis,Druzhinin was named a Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star number 2884.
Mykhailo Oleksiyovych Burmystenko was a Soviet politician who served as the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR from 1938 to 1941. Burmystenko died during the Battle of Kiev in 1941 and a memorial remains there in his memory.
Aleksey Yefimovich Kleshchev was a Belarusian general and politician. He served as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic from 17 March 1948 to 24 July 1953. Kleschchov led partisans in Pinsk as a major general during World War II,for which he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He was a member of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan from 1955 until 1960. He was deputy member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. From 1927 to 1929,he served in the Red Army. He was born in Minsk Governorate and died in Moscow on 13 December 1968,aged 63. He was decorated as the Order of the Red Banner.
Leonid Ignatyevich Lubennikov was a Soviet politician who served as the last First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic from late 1955 to 1956. He was also the father of Russian painter Ivan Lubennikov.
The Belarusian economic miracle was a period of significant economic growth,urbanisation,and social change in Belarus during the late 20th century and early 21st century. Beginning under Kirill Mazurov,the Belarusian economy began a process of industrialisation which greatly accelerated under Pyotr Masherov. It continued until the 2007–2008 financial crisis,as Belarus endured the dissolution of the Soviet Union and subsequent economic problems within the region without wide-reaching privatisation. The economic model of Belarus during this time period has since been referred to the Belarusian model,and has since been attributed to the government of Alexander Lukashenko by Western analysts.
Political office-holders in Belarus since 1918 | |||
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* acting † contested |