History of Russia

Historic Personalities

Bulganin N. A.
Nikolay Aleksandrovich Bulganin
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR
Nikolay Bulganin joined the Bolshevik party in 1917 and began his career as a secret police (Cheka) officer in 1918. After the civil war he was employed by the Supreme Council of National Economy (1922-1927). He continued to work as a director (1927-1931) of the Moscow Electrical-equipment Factory and earned a reputation as an outstanding manager. In 1931 Bulganin entered the high-level politics as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet (Jan. 1931 - Aug. 1937). The 17th party congress elected him a candidate member of the party Central Committee (Feb. 1934 - 1937). When a wave of political purges swept away the old guard of Bolshevik leaders including the head of the government of the Russian SFSR Daniil Sulimov, Bulganin was made Russian premier (July 22, 1937). In 1937 he was also promoted to a full membership on the Central Committee (1937 - Oct. 1961). Then he was made a deputy chairman of the USSR government (Sep. 16, 1938 - May 15, 1944) and was relieved of his duties in the RSFSR cabinet. Simultaneously, Bulganin was put in charge of the State Bank of the USSR as chairman of the Board (Sep. 1938 - Apr. 17, 1940 and Oct. 12, 1940 - May 23, 1945). During World War II, Bulganin participated in the work of war councils at various fronts and served on the State Defense Committee (Nov. 21, 1944 - Sep. 4, 1945). In 1944 he became Stalin's deputy in the commissariat for defense (deputy people's commissar: Nov. 1944 - Feb. 25, 1946), later transformed into commissariat/ministry of armed forces (deputy commissar: Feb. 25 - March 15, 1946; first deputy minister: March 19, 1946 - March 3, 1947) and then took over as minister of the armed forces (March 3, 1947 - March 24, 1949). In 1947 Bulganin was made Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Bulganin's influence in the party leadership grew up when he was approved as a candidate member (March 18, 1946 - Feb. 18, 1948) of the Politburo and a member of the Orgburo (March 18, 1946 - Oct. 5, 1952). Eventually, Bulganin became a deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers (March 5, 1947 - Apr. 7, 1950) and a full member of the Politburo (Feb. 18, 1948 - Oct. 5, 1952). His position in the government was strengthened when he was made First deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers (Apr. 7, 1950 - Feb. 8, 1955). Picked up by Stalin as one of the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee (Oct. 16, 1952 - Sep. 5, 1958) after the 19th party congress, Bulganin also joined the buro of the Presidium and was one of the main beneficiaries in the partition of power on March 5, 1953. He remained the first deputy chairman of the Soviet government and was appointed military minister (March 5-15, 1953) and then defense minister (March 15, 1953 - Feb. 9, 1955). During the struggle between premier Georgy Malenkov and party first secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Bulganin sided with the latter and replaced Malenkov as head of government on Feb. 8, 1955. He came to be closely identified with Khrushchev and accompanied him on numerous state visits, but in June 1957 he supported the "antiparty" group plotting against the first secretary. After the ousters failed to remove Khrushchev, Bulganin remained premier until March 27, 1958, when the Supreme Soviet approved a proposal made by Kliment Voroshilov to appoint Khrushchev a new head of government. Bulganin returned to his old job as chairman of the Board of the USSR State Bank (March 31 - Aug. 15, 1958), but his fall became inevitable. The Central Committee plenum expelled him from party Presidium (Sep. 5, 1958) and stripped of marshal's rank. He was given an obscure post of chairman of the council of people's economy in the Stavropol region (Aug. 1958 - Feb. 1960) and retired in 1960.