1. Kliment Voroshilov was one of the original five Marshals of the Soviet Union, the second highest military rank of the Soviet Union, and served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Soviet head of state, from 1953 to 1960.
Kliment Voroshilov served with distinction at the Battle of Tsaritsyn, during which he became a close friend of Stalin.
Kliment Voroshilov was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1921, and in 1925 Stalin appointed him People's Commissar for Military and Navy Affairs.
In 1935, Kliment Voroshilov was named a Marshal of the Soviet Union.
At the outbreak of World War II, Kliment Voroshilov was held responsible for Soviet failures in Finland during the Winter War and was replaced as Defense Commissar by Semyon Timoshenko.
Kliment Voroshilov failed to stop the German encirclement of Leningrad and was again relieved from his command in September 1941.
Kliment Voroshilov's fortunes declined during the rise of Nikita Khrushchev and the Supreme Soviet turned against him.
Kliment Voroshilov peacefully resigned in 1960, although he came out of retirement in 1966 and re-joined the party.
Kliment Voroshilov was born in the settlement of Verkhnyeye, Bakhmut uyezd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire.
Kliment Voroshilov grew up illiterate, until he was able to enroll in a newly opened school in a nearby village, at the age of 12, and received two years' schooling.
Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov led the Red Army's 1918 defense of Tsaritsyn.
In Tsaritsyn, Kliment Voroshilov clashed with Leon Trotsky, the People's Commissar for War, who considered him undisciplined and unfit to command an army, and in October 1918 threatened him with court martial.
Kliment Voroshilov was transferred to Ukraine, as commander of the Kharkiv military district, and later People's Commissar for War in the Ukraine soviet republic.
Kliment Voroshilov served as a member of the Central Committee from his election in 1921 until 1961.
In 1925, after the death of Mikhail Frunze, Kliment Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar for Military and Navy Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, a post he held until 1934.
In November 1930, the chairman of the Russian government, Sergey Syrtsov alleged that a "tiny group", which excluded Kliment Voroshilov but included nominally much less senior figures such as Pavel Postyshev, was making decisions "behind the back of the Politburo".
Kliment Voroshilov died on the operating table of a massive overdose of chloroform, an anaesthetic.
Kliment Voroshilov became a full member of the newly formed Politburo in 1926, remaining a member until 1960.
Kliment Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar for Defence in 1934 and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935.
Kliment Voroshilov was of the main speakers at the March 1937 plenum of the Central Committee, which ended with the arrests of Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei Rykov, whom Voroshilov denounced as "renegades".
Kliment Voroshilov openly declared that the saboteurs in the Red Army were few in number and tried to save the lives of officers like Lukin, who would serve with distinction during the Second World War, and Sokolov-Strakhov, and he was sometimes successful.
Kliment Voroshilov wrote personal letters to exiled former Soviet officers and diplomats such as commissar Mikhail Ostrovsky, asking them to return voluntarily to the Soviet Union and falsely reassuring them that they would not face retribution from authorities.
Kliment Voroshilov personally signed 185 documented execution lists, fourth among the Soviet leadership after Molotov, Stalin and Kaganovich.
Kliment Voroshilov had no problem denouncing officers he disliked such as Tukhachevsky.
Marshal Budyonny tried to recruit him to his cause of protecting the status of cavalry in the Red Army but Kliment Voroshilov openly declared his intention to do the opposite.
Kliment Voroshilov praised the army's combined arms warfare capabilities as well as the high quality and ability to take initiative of the officers during the 1936 summer manoeuvers.
When territorial units were abolished Kliment Voroshilov noted that among the reasons for disbanding them was inability to train conscripts in the use of modern technology.
Kliment Voroshilov had openly proclaimed that the system was inadequate in an era in which imperialist powers were expanding the capabilities of their armies.
Kliment Voroshilov commanded Soviet troops during the Winter War from November 1939 to January 1940 but, due to poor Soviet planning and Kliment Voroshilov's incompetence as a general, the Red Army suffered about 320,000 casualties compared to 70,000 Finnish casualties.
Kliment Voroshilov followed this retort by smashing a platter of food on the table.
Kliment Voroshilov was nonetheless made the scapegoat for the initial failures in Finland.
Kliment Voroshilov was later replaced as Defense Commissar by Semyon Timoshenko.
Kliment Voroshilov was then made Deputy Premier responsible for cultural matters.
Kliment Voroshilov initially argued that thousands of Polish army officers captured in September 1939 should be released, but he later signed the order for their execution in the Katyn massacre of 1940.
Between 1941 and 1944, Kliment Voroshilov was a member of the State Defense Committee.
Stalin had a political need for popular wartime leaders and Kliment Voroshilov remained as an important figurehead.
Between 1945 and 1947, Kliment Voroshilov supervised the establishment of the socialist republic in postwar Hungary.
Kliment Voroshilov attributed the poor showing of the Hungarian Communist Party in the October 1945 Budapest municipal elections to the number of minorities in leadership positions, arguing that it was "detrimental to the party that its leaders are not of Hungarian origin".
In 1952, Kliment Voroshilov was appointed a member of the Presidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Hardy and Skorobogatov indicate that Kliment Voroshilov frequently exerted his influence on the committee toward leniency, especially in the case of those who expressed repentance in their appeal documents and those convicted of crimes of passion or under the influence of alcohol; he judged those convicted of political crimes or acts with financial motives more harshly.
Kliment Voroshilov was again re-elected to the Central Committee in 1966.
Kliment Voroshilov was awarded a second medal of Hero of the Soviet Union 1968.
Kliment Voroshilov's family proposed to call an ambulance immediately, but he adamantly refused.
Kliment Voroshilov changed her name when she converted to Orthodox Christianity in order to be allowed to marry Voroshilov.
Kliment Voroshilov always stood for the political line of the party, because he was from a working class, a common man, very good orator.