42 Facts About Lazar Kaganovich

Lazar Kaganovich was one of several associates who helped Stalin to seize power.

Lazar Kaganovich had four elder brothers, all of whom became members of the Bolshevik party.

Several of Lazar Kaganovich's brothers ended up occupying positions of varying significance in the Soviet government.

Mikhail Lazar Kaganovich served as People's Commissar of Defence Industry before being appointed Head of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry of the USSR, while Yuli Lazar Kaganovich became the 3rd First Secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the CPSU.

Israel Lazar Kaganovich was made the head of the Main Directorate for Cattle Harvesting of the Ministry of Meat and Dairy Industry.

However, Aron Moiseevich Lazar Kaganovich apparently decided against following his siblings into government, and did not pursue a career in politics.

Lazar Kaganovich worked as a shoemaker and became a member of the Bolsheviks, joining the party around 1911.

Lazar Kaganovich rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a full member of the Central Committee in 1924, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1925, and Secretary of the Central Committee as well as a member of the Politburo in 1930.

Lazar Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire.

Early in his political career, in 1915, Lazar Kaganovich became a Communist organizer at a shoe factory where he worked.

In 1918 Lazar Kaganovich acted as Commissar of the propaganda department of the Red Army.

Lazar Kaganovich stated publicly that he would execute absolutely any order from Stalin, which at that time was a novelty.

In 1924, Lazar Kaganovich became a full member of the Central Committee, after having first been elected as a candidate one year earlier.

From 1925 to 1928, Lazar Kaganovich was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR.

Lazar Kaganovich had the duty of implementing collectivization and the policy of economic suppression of the kulaks.

In 1934, at the XVII Congress of the Communist Party, Lazar Kaganovich chaired the Counting Committee.

Lazar Kaganovich falsified voting for positions in the Central Committee, deleting 290 votes opposing the Stalin candidacy.

Lazar Kaganovich's actions resulted in Stalin's being re-elected as the General Secretary instead of Sergey Kirov.

In 1930, Lazar Kaganovich became a member of the Soviet Politburo and the First Secretary of the Moscow Obkom of the Communist Party.

Lazar Kaganovich later headed the Moscow Gorkom of the Communist Party.

Lazar Kaganovich supervised implementation of many of Stalin's economic policies, including the collectivization of agriculture and rapid industrialization.

Lazar Kaganovich received an order to close the Moscow Metro, and within three hours to prepare proposals for its destruction, as a strategically important object.

From 1935 to 1937, Lazar Kaganovich worked as Narkom for the railways.

From 1937 to 1939, Lazar Kaganovich served as Narkom for Heavy Industry.

Lazar Kaganovich had exterminated so many railwaymen that one official called to warn that one line was entirely unmanned.

From 1944 to 1947, Lazar Kaganovich was the Minister for Building Materials.

Lazar Kaganovich was the first Chairman of Goskomtrud.

Until 1957, Lazar Kaganovich was a voting member of the Politburo as well as the Presidium.

Lazar Kaganovich was an early mentor of the eventual First Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev, who first became important as Kaganovich's Moscow City deputy during the 1930s.

In 1947, when Khrushchev was dismissed as the Party secretary of Ukraine, Stalin dispatched Lazar Kaganovich to replace him until Khrushchev was reinstated later that year.

Lazar Kaganovich was a doctrinaire Stalinist, and though he remained a member of the Presidium, he quickly lost influence after Stalin's death in March 1953.

In 1961, Lazar Kaganovich was completely expelled from the Party and became a pensioner living in Moscow.

Lazar Kaganovich's grandchildren reported that after his dismissal from the Central Committee, Kaganovich never again shouted and became a devoted grandfather.

Lazar Kaganovich died on July 25,1991, at the age of 97, just before the events that resulted in the end of the USSR.

Lazar Kaganovich is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Lazar Kaganovich claimed to have interviewed Kaganovich personally and stated that Kaganovich admitted to being partially responsible for the death of Stalin in 1953.

Rosa Lazar Kaganovich, who said that the Statement of the Lazar Kaganovich Family was fabricated, was referred to as Stalin's wife in the 1940s and 1950s by Western media including The New York Times, Time and Life.

Lazar Kaganovich entered the workforce at the age of 13, an event which would shape his aesthetics and preferences through adulthood.

Lazar Kaganovich was married to Maria Markovna Lazar Kaganovich, a fellow assimilated Kievan Jew who was part of the revolutionary effort since 1909.

Mrs Lazar Kaganovich spent many years as a powerful municipal official, directly ordering the demolition of the Iberian Gate and Chapel and Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Lazar Kaganovich frequently found it necessary to allow great cruelties to occur to his family to preserve Stalin's trust in him, such as allowing his brother to be coerced into suicide.

Lazar Kaganovich's apartment consisted of two floors, a private access garage, and a designated space for butlers, security, and drivers.