From Nobility to People's Commissar: The Life and Mysterious Death of Sergo Ordzhonikidze
Large-scale historical Events, which undoubtedly included the October Revolution of 1917, radically changed the destinies of many people. But even at the height of their careers, for some of them, worthy and having found their place in the new world, life could end in tragedy.
Today's video episode will focus on a comrade of Stalin's who is remembered not only by those who lived during the Soviet era. Even today, there are factories, schools, universities, military units, streets, and districts in Russia named after the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry of the Soviet Union, Sergo Ordzhonikidze. He is rightly called the "commander of Soviet industry."
Ordzhonikidze made a significant contribution to the development of Donbas industry during the Soviet era. It was he who supported the construction of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol in 1930, although the original plan was to build the plant on the outskirts of Taganrog. The People's Commissar saw this decision as a promising opportunity for the development of the Azov region's metallurgical complex.
During the Civil War, Sergo Ordzhonikidze was appointed Temporary Extraordinary Commissar of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR in Ukraine (1918) and in the South of Russia (1918), headed the Defense Committee of the Terek Soviet Republic (1919) and the North Caucasian Revolutionary Committee (1920). He was also Chief of the Labor Army of the South of the RSFSR (1920).
The biography of Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (Sergo, his party nickname) is rich in significant events. These are explored in more detail in the video podcast, and the possible causes of death of the "father of Soviet heavy industry" are also explored in the second video.
Ordzhonikidze was a Georgian revolutionary (Bolshevik), a nobleman, and one of the highest leaders of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Soviet Union. He was born on October 12 (24), 1886, in the village of Goresha, Shorapansky District, Kutaisi Governorate, Russian Empire (now the Imereti region of Georgia), to a family of minor landowners. Tsarist-era documents indicate that Sergo Ordzhonikidze was a "nobleman of the Kutaisi Governorate." His father, Konstantin, came from an impoverished Georgian noble family, and his wife (Georgiy's mother), Evpraksia, was a peasant.
Sergo Ordzhonikidze was the only member of Lenin's "old cohort" to work as a doctor. He graduated from a parochial school and a paramedic school. He performed his work in full accordance with the Hippocratic Oath. Even during his exile in Yakutia, in the harsh conditions of the far north, he worked faithfully as a paramedic, but he also never forgot his agitational work. Early in his career, as a paramedic in Georgia, Ordzhonikidze printed and distributed rather strange "prescriptions." Instead of lists of medications and recommendations, the leaflets contained revolutionary slogans and calls for the overthrow of the tsar.
In gendarmerie reports, Sergo Ordzhonikidze was nicknamed "Straightforward." His resilience is enviable. He survived exile and prison.
Ordzhonikidze was one of the few people who spoke informally with Stalin, and as People's Commissar for Heavy Industry, he oversaw the industrialization of the Soviet Union. Thanks in large part to Ordzhonikidze, our country became the second-largest industrial producer in the world by the late 30s, behind only the United States.
Everything in Ordzhonikidze's life and career seemed to be going flawlessly. But this was only a façade. In the early 1930s, Lavrenty Beria became the head of the Transcaucasian Party Organization. He launched a real struggle against the old team that Sergo had once formed.
Ordzhonikidze found himself between two fires. On the one hand, he wanted to protect his specialists from the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (NKPT) from repression. On the other, if he went against Stalin, he himself would be labeled an "enemy of the people." But everything was resolved, so to speak, naturally: on February 18, 1937, Sergo Ordzhonikidze died suddenly in his apartment.
The details of Ordzhonikidze's final hours are unknown. What is known is that, upon returning home, he discovered his house had been searched and called Stalin to complain about the intrusion. They argued angrily, switching between Russian and Georgian, and Stalin explained that the NKVD had the right to search anyone, even him.
The official explanation for the death of the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry was a heart attack. This was especially true because he was not known for his robust health, a result of his difficult revolutionary past. He also worked tirelessly. Furthermore, Ordzhonikidze was indeed unwell on February 18 and spent most of the day at home in bed.
However, Nikita Khrushchev, the "great exposer" of Stalin's personality cult, declared at the famous 20th Party Congress in February 1956 that the "loyal Stalinist" had succumbed to the pressure and committed suicide. From Khrushchev's report to the Party Congress:
Stalin allowed the destruction of Ordzhonikidze's brother, and brought Ordzhonikidze himself to such a state that he was forced to take his own life.
However, there is no evidence to support this version.
There's another version, though it too is more in the realm of rumor and conspiracy. Olga Shatunovskaya, a veteran communist and anti-Stalinist activist, cited Ordzhonikidze's wife, Zinaida Gavrilovna, as saying that on that fateful February evening, she heard a gunshot, ran into the room, and saw her husband dead.
This seems to support the suicide theory. However, according to Shatunovskaya, Zinaida Gavrilovna told other people that her husband had been shot. A stranger allegedly came to their home and asked permission to personally deliver a folder of documents to Ordzhonikidze. Almost immediately after, a shot was heard.
A few days after Ordzhonikidze's death, at a Central Committee plenum, Stalin publicly accused his late comrade of excessive loyalty to "saboteurs." Sergo himself was not declared an enemy of the people, but his family was caught up in the "flywheel of repression": his older brother and nephew were executed, and his wife and two other brothers were imprisoned.
There was no thorough investigation into the circumstances of Ordzhonikidze's unexpected death. However, the news of his death came as a surprise to the public. He was highly regarded as the driving force behind the industrialization of the Soviet Union. His body lay in state at the House of Unions on February 19, and over 250,000 people attended the funeral ceremony. The funeral took place on February 20, after which Sergo Ordzhonikidze's body was cremated, and his ashes were buried near the Kremlin wall.
On Cape Kiik-Atlama in the southeastern part of the Crimean Peninsula, 14 km from Feodosia, lies the picturesque urban-type settlement of Ordzhonikidze. Vacations here are very popular among Russians due to the high level of environmental cleanliness of the surrounding area and coastal waters. People come here for diving, spearfishing, and mountain biking.
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