Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (Russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Кали́нин) (November 19 O.S. November 7] 1875 – June 3, 1946) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and the titular head of state of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946. Though only four years older than Joseph Stalin, Kalinin was celebrated as Dedushka ("Grandpa") by the Young Pioneers.[1] Two large cities, Tver and Königsberg, were renamed in his honor; the latter has retained the name Kaliningrad after the fall of the USSR.
Biography
Born to a peasant family in the village of Verkhnyaya Troitsa (Верхняя Троица), Tverskaya Gubernia, Russia, he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1889 as a servant of a rich neighbour and became a metal worker in 1895. In 1898 he joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (РС-ДРП). In 1906 he married the ethnic Estonian Ekaterina Ivanovna Lorberg (1882–1960).
From March 1919 to 1938 he was Chairman of the All-Union Executive Committee, i.e. titular Soviet head of state, informally known as "the all-Union Elder" (всесоюзный староста). The title was then changed to Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which he assumed and held 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.
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.
Gallery
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Monument to Kalinin in Minsk
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References
- ^ Current Biography 1942, pp. 435-37
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Heads of state of the Soviet Union |
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Central Executive Committee Chairmen,
1922-38* |
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Supreme Soviet Presidium Chairmen,
1938-90 |
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President,
1990-91 |
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| Italics indicates Acting Chairman *Position held jointly by four, not consecutively. |
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