Kliment Voroshilov
Surname | Voroshilov |
Given Name | Kliment |
Born | 4 Feb 1881 |
Died | 2 Dec 1969 |
Country | Russia |
Category | Government |
Gender | Male |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseKliment Yefremovich Voroshilov was born in the settlement of Verkhnye in the Bakhmut district of Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire (now part of Lysychansk, Ukraine) to an ethnically Russian railway worker father. He joined the Bolshevik of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1905. In 1906, he married Ekaterina Davidovna, who was born Golda Gorbman, a Jewish Ukrainian who converted to Orthodox Christianity and adopted a new name. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Vproshilov became a member of the Ukrainian Council of People's Commissars and Commissar for Internal Affairs, and began to work alongside of Joseph Stalin. During the Russian Civil War, he was an officer of the Southern Front, and again served as a military officer during the Polish-Soviet War between 1919 and 1921. In 1921, he was elected to the Central Committee and would remain a committee member until 1961. In 1925, he was made the People's Commissar for Military and Navy Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Union. In the following year, he was made a full member of the powerful Soviet governing council Politburo; he would remain there until 1960. In 1934, he was appointed People's Commissar for Defense and was given the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in the following year. In 1935, the city of Stavropol in the Caucasus region of southern Russian was renamed Voroshilovsk in his honor. During the great purges conducted by Joseph Stalin to rid any potential political enemies, Voroshilov was a willing accomplice, signing 185 execution lists.
ww2dbaseIn WW2, Voroshilov oversaw the invasion of Finland in the winter of 1939 to 1940, which ended in victory but at an extremely high cost; he became a scapegoat for the failures and saw his military positions replaced by Semyon Timoshenko, although he would remain influential in Soviet politics. He returned to military leadership when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, overseeing several fronts as they fell back toward Russia. For the failure to prevent the siege of Leningrad in northern Russia, he was replaced by Georgy Zhukov on 8 Sep 1941. Although having been relieved of all military leadership roles, he remained a powerful political figure in Stalin's inner circle.
ww2dbaseImmediately after WW2, Voroshilov provided direction in the establishment of a Communist government in Hungary. In 1952, he was made a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. In Mar 1953, he became the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which was the ceremonial Head of State of the Soviet Union, shortly after Stalin's death. In this position, he purged the Soviet Union of Stalin's supporters such as Lavrentiy Beria and Vyacheslav Molotov. Feeling his support waning among the new Soviet leaders, he retired from the Supreme Soviet on 7 May 1960 and the Party Presidium (formerly the Politburo) on 16 Jul 1960. He failed to be elected to the Central Committee during the 22nd Party Congress in Oct 1961. He would remain outside of Soviet politics between 1961 and 1966. In 1966, with the support of General Secretary of the Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, Voroshilov was once again elected into the Central Committee. He passed away in Moscow in 1969 and was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia
Last Major Revision: Jan 2013
Kliment Voroshilov Interactive Map
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Kliment Voroshilov Timeline
4 Feb 1881 | Kliment Voroshilov was born in the settlement of Verkhnye in the Bakhmut district of Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire (now part of Lysychansk, Ukraine); his birth date was recorded as 23 Jan 1881 in the Russian Old Style. |
26 Jun 1919 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the first time. |
6 Nov 1925 | Kliment Voroshilov was named the People's Commissar for Defense of the Soviet Union. |
2 Dec 1925 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the third time. |
1 Jan 1926 | Kliment Voroshilov became a full member of the Soviet Politburo. |
17 Feb 1930 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. |
22 Feb 1930 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the fourth time. |
14 Jan 1933 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. |
25 Feb 1933 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. |
23 Feb 1935 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Lenin for the first time. |
22 Feb 1938 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Lenin for the second time and received the medal commemorating "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". |
7 May 1940 | Kliment Voroshilov stepped down as the People's Commissar for Defense of the Soviet Union. |
3 Feb 1941 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Lenin for the third time. |
22 Feb 1944 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Suvorov 1st Class. |
3 Nov 1944 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the fifth time. |
21 Feb 1945 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Lenin for the fourth time. |
21 Sep 1947 | Kliment Voroshilov was given the medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow". |
22 Feb 1948 | Kliment Voroshilov was given the medal commemorating "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy". |
24 Jun 1948 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the sixth time. |
3 Feb 1951 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Lenin for the fifth time. |
15 Mar 1953 | Kliment Voroshilov was named the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. |
3 Feb 1956 | Kliment Voroshilov was made a Hero of the Soviet Union for the first time and was awarded the Order of Lenin for the sixth time. |
29 May 1957 | Kliment Voroshilov was made a Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic. |
17 Feb 1958 | Kliment Voroshilov was given the medal commemorating "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR". |
7 May 1960 | Kliment Voroshilov retired from this position as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union; he was made a Hero of Socialist Labor for the occasion. |
16 Jul 1960 | Kliment Voroshilov retired from the Soviet Party Presidium, which was the successor of the Politburo. |
3 Feb 1961 | Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Lenin for the seventh time. |
22 Feb 1968 | Kliment Voroshilov was made a Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time and was awarded the Order of Lenin for the eighth time. |
2 Dec 1969 | Kliment Voroshilov passed away in Moscow, Russia. |
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George Patton, 31 May 1944
5 Oct 2014 07:49:04 AM
A former metalworker, Kliment Voroshilov joined the Communist party in 1903 and became part of Stalin's circle after fighting in the Civil War to save the city of Tsaritsyn (later renamed Stalingrad) under Stalin's political direction. In 1925 he was appointed Commissar for Defence, a post he held until his evident lack of military or administrative competence brought about his demise in 1940. He was universally regarded as irredeemably stupid. Stalin ridiculed him without mercy, exploiting him as a court jester. Voroshilov drank heavily. His mediocre personality and unsophisticated intellect, nevertheless, did not prevent him becoming a heroic military figure in the public eye. He was too little a threat for Stalin ever to get rid of, and after the dictator's death he became President of the Soviet Union.