"All-Union elder" MI Kalinin. Protector of the common people
The future head of the Soviet state was born on November 20 of 1875 in the village of Verkhnyaya Troitsa of the Korchevsky district of the Tver province, in the very poor peasant family. Father Ivan Kalinovich, a retired soldier, returned from the royal service to the sick, and taking care of the family fell on his wife Marya Vasilyevna. The eldest son Michael from six years old helped his parents around the house and in the field. True, the neighbor, brother soldier of the father, taught the boy literacy.
Mikhail, one might say, was lucky. He was noticed in the family of the landowner Mordukhai-Boltovsky and was taken into service. In 1889, the Mordukhai-Boltovskys left for Petersburg and took Mikhail with them. He was a "home service boy." The duties were ordinary: to wake the children of the owners to school, feed them breakfast, run away to the shop, etc. At the same time, Michael got access to the library, where he read voraciously everything that turns up at hand. True, I never fell in love with fiction, but for the rest of my life I was addicted to cognitive literature, especially historical. And later, more than once, he surprised his comrades in the party with knowledge of the history of Russia.
When Michael turned 18 years, he had to choose a profession. In 1893, he enrolled at the St. Petersburg Cartridge Factory. A diligent and well-educated young man quickly became a professional in his field and in 1895, he turned to the Putilov factory as a turner. They paid more there. Mikhail became a “labor aristocrat,” but most of the money was diligently sent to the family. An educated young worker quickly attracted the attention of revolutionary agitators and was "turned" into Marxism. Kalinin became an active Marxist. He spent the first May day at the factory, created a Marxist circle, and established the issue of leaflets.
A typical professional revolutionary life began: illegal activities, arrests, jail and exile. Kalinin was the standard of the Bolshevik biography: “in the afternoon a mechanic, in the evening an underground worker”. This further helped him enter the "Leninist Guard". For two decades, revolutionary activity was the main pivot of his life. In July, 1899 was arrested along with other members of the Marxist circle organized by him and, after a small prison sentence, was sent to Tiflis. It is worth noting that the royal prisons and exile were relatively humane repressive instruments. Revolutionaries in them could replenish knowledge in good libraries, get medical treatment, listen to lectures of more experienced and knowledgeable party comrades, and establish contacts. For two decades, Kalinin 14 was arrested once, but most often they were immediately released.
In Tiflis, Kalinin continued his revolutionary activities as part of the Tiflis Social Democratic organization, for which he was again arrested and expelled in March 1901 to Revel. There he worked as a mechanic at the Volta plant and organized an underground printing press. At the beginning of 1903, Mr. Kalinin was arrested and sent to the St. Petersburg prison “Kresty”. In July, 1903 of the year was sent back to Revel. From 1904 to 1905 years was serving a link in Olonets province. Participated in the revolution 1905, enrolling in St. Petersburg in the working fighting squad.
In 1906, he married an Estonian Ekaterina Ivanovna (Johannovna) Lorberg, a weaver from Revel. Spouses were not close, the marriage was considered a party. Catherine had a son, Valerian, caught up with someone, then the couple had a daughter, Yulia, and then two more children, Alexander and Lydia. All of Kalinin’s children grew up as intelligent and hardworking as he: sons became engineers, daughters became doctors.
In 1916, he was arrested again and sentenced to exile in Eastern Siberia. But he fled and moved to an illegal position, continued revolutionary activities in Petrograd. In the February Revolution was one of the leaders of the disarmament of the protection and seizure of the Finland Station. In August, 1917 was elected a member of the Petrograd City Council.
Kalinin actively participated in the preparation and conduct of the October Revolution. After the revolution, he instantly became popular, fell in love with the simple and understandable speeches of Kalinich. In November, 1917 was re-elected as a member of the Petrograd City Council and, by decision of the Duma, became the head of the city. After the dissolution of the Petrograd City Council in August 1918, he headed the Commissariat of Urban Farms of the Union of Communes of the Northern Region and the Petrograd Labor Commune. It was a difficult time: the old police were dispersed, the new police only gained experience, crime multiplied; urban economy and industry collapsed during the Civil War; the workers, in order not to die of starvation, went to the villages, the wastelands in Petrograd were plowed under gardens.
In 1919, Kalinin was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, after the death of Y. Sverdlov he was elected chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. V. I. Lenin, recommending Kalinin for this post, said: “This is a comrade, for whom there are about twenty years of party work; he himself is a peasant in the Tver province, who has a close relationship with the peasant economy ... Petrograd workers managed to make sure that he possesses the ability to approach a wide section of the working masses ... ” Almost immediately after the election, Kalinin was put on the campaign train "October Revolution" and sent to the Eastern Front to campaign for Soviet power. In such trips Kalinin spent almost five years. All this time, Soviet Russia did without a formal head, but on the other hand, many people were brought to the side of the Reds by a simple, understandable and friendly Kalinich.
So, during the Kronstadt uprising, Kalinin went to the sea fortress to persuade the sailors to surrender. At first they wanted to shoot him, but then they let him go, Kalinin was very harmless. He looked like a simple rural teacher or librarian. His image - a beard, tarpaulin boots, a crumpled jacket, a stick, which he absolutely did not need, and glasses. The image of a walker from the village who got to the Kremlin made Kalinin popular with the people and ensured him security during the struggle for power of various inner-party groups.
Kalinin took an active part in overcoming the effects of famine in the Volga region 1921-1922. At the 1 Congress of Soviets of the USSR 30 in December 1922, M. I. Kalinin was elected Chairmen of the USSR Central Executive Committee from the RSFSR. He remained in this position until January 1938. From 1926 year to 1946 year - a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). 17 January 1938 at the 1st session of the USSR Supreme Council of the first convocation Mikhail Kalinin was elected Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council.
The main thing in the life of Kalinin was to make happy for the unjustly humiliated and insulted. Soviet citizens in 1920 — 1940. it was decided to write letters to Mikhail Kalinin with a variety of requests for help - with dispossession, unjust arrest, enrollment in a military school or difficulties in finding employment. Often Kalinin, personally or through his secretariat, provided such assistance to those who wrote to him. In March and early May, 1932, when deciding on the Politburo about the expulsion of fists excluded from collective farms, expressed his dissenting opinion. 4 May on a voting sheet polling the order for the expulsion of 38 000 peasant families wrote: "I consider such an operation unreasonable." Two weeks later, the Politburo reversed its decision, stopping the operation that had already begun.
Kalinin wrote for a variety of reasons. Here is the story about Anatoly Ivanovich Uspensky: “Uspensky Sr. was a unique person. Hereditary nobleman, until 1917, he served in the royal army, then his whole corps went over to the Reds. After the Civil War, Anatoly Ivanovich graduated from the red professorship courses and until 1936, he quietly worked as an accountant. And then the persecution began. For more than two months he was not kept anywhere, and soon they began to completely abandon the services of a former nobleman. Then the wife recommended Anatoly Ivanovich to write a letter to Kalinin, which he did. He set out his entire history and waited for him to be "taken away with things." But instead of the KGB, a messenger came to Ouspensky with an invitation to appear at the "All-Union Warden." What was surprising Anatoly Ivanovich, when Kalinin invited him to take the place of chief bookkeeper of the Moscow Art Theater.
Another example of the repression period of the 1937 of the year: “The family of Pavel Ruzhitsky had a bitter fate. He himself, a simple furrier artisan, was repressed in the 1937 year as a "petty-bourgeois element." Most likely, the denunciation was written by someone from the neighbors, out of envy. Relatives of the “enemies of the people” had a hard time at that time: the grandmother was immediately dismissed from work, there was nothing to live for. They lived from hand to mouth. But the most offensive was the silent contempt and gloating of people who yesterday called themselves "friends." Many of them chose to forget their comrades, so as not to be accused of having links with a disgraced family. In order to survive somehow, the grandmother was advised to write a letter to Kalinin - after all, three children, now not to die to everyone! Only after the personal intervention of Mikhail Ivanovich, the grandmother managed to get a job, and life began to somehow improve. ”
And such examples can be found a lot. It is clear that Kalinin did not help everyone who addressed him. Obviously, there were a lot of letters, and it was simply impossible to help everyone, and this was not always possible for political reasons. In particular, Kalinin was unable to help his wife, Catherine Lorberg. She was sharp on the tongue, criticized the course of Stalin. In 1938, she was arrested and sentenced to ten years for “terrorism”. Kalinin then did not intercede for his wife and did not save her from arrest. She was convicted on 15 years. He was able to provide some help to her when she was already in the camp. Thanks to his requests, the medical commission assigned her a “weak category”, thanks to which she got a job in the bath. She lived right there in the underwear, the conditions in which, of course, were not the same as in the cell. Soon she was allowed to meet with the children.
Only in 1944, on the eve of a dangerous medical operation, did he write such a letter to Stalin: “T. Stalin, I calmly look to the future of the Soviet people and wish only one thing so that your strength can be preserved for as long as possible - the best guarantee for the success of the Soviet state. Personally, I appeal to you with 2-mi requests: to pardon Ekaterina Ivanovna and assign a pension to my sister, to whom I entrusted the obligation to raise 2-boys, full orphans living with me. My last regards, M. Kalinin. ” However, then Kalinin’s wife was not pardoned. This happened only in May 1945. On Victory Day in World War II, 9 of May 1945, Ekaterina Ivanovna addressed to Stalin in writing for pardon, where she acknowledged the crimes imputed to her and repented (this is a prerequisite for a pardon). Stalin put the resolution on the letter: "It is necessary to pardon and immediately release, by ensuring pardoned passage to Moscow."
Mikhail Kalinin died 3 June 1946 of the year. He was buried in Red Square in Moscow, near the Kremlin wall. The city of Tver was renamed in honor of Kalinin’s name in 1931, and on July 6, the city of Königsberg and the eponymous region were renamed in honor of the “All-Union Headman” in 1946.
The activities of Mikhail Kalinin for the intercession of ordinary people are reflected in a song written by the poet M. Isakovsky in 1940 and set to music by the composer V. Zakharov:
Fly, welcome letter,
Fly to a distant land.
We bow to Kalinin
In the capital, tell -
From all big and small,
From wives and old men
From the current collective farmers,
From the former men.
Say a letter to Kalinin
What we love him -
Mentor, Comrade
And his friend.
To him both day and night
From all over the world
For Lenin's truth
We drove and walked.
And joys and sorrows
The people handed him:
Kalinich supposedly ponders,
Kalinich will make out.
He talked to us
Till the morning dawn -
Simple working St. Petersburg,
A peasant from Tver.
Good for everyone
He found the word
From the straight Lenin road
Nowhere has it twisted.
Fly well, welcome letter,
Fly over the whole country.
Take Kalinin to Moscow
We bow to the earth, -
From all big and small,
From wives and old men
From the current collective farmers,
From the former men.
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