Lazar Kaganovich

Soviet politician

Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, also Kahanovich (Russian: Ла́зарь Моисе́евич Кагано́вич, romanized: Lázar' Moiséyevich Kaganóvich; 22 November [O.S. 10 November] 1893 – 25 July 1991), was a Soviet politician and administrator, and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.

He was one of several associates who helped Stalin to seize power, demonstrating exceptional brutality towards those deemed threats to Stalin's regime and facilitating the executions of thousands of people.

Born to Jewish parents in modern Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) in 1893, Kaganovich was the son of Moisei Benovich Kaganovich (1863-1923) and Genya Iosifovna Dubinskaya (1860-1933).

Of the 13 children born to the family, 6 died in infancy.Lazar had four elder brothers, all of whom became members of the Bolshevik party.

Several of Lazar's brothers ended up occupying positions of varying significance in the Soviet government.Mikhail Kaganovich (1888–1941) 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 Kaganovich (1892–1962) became the 3rd First Secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the CPSU.

Israel Kaganovich (1884–1973) was made the head of the Main Directorate for Cattle Harvesting of the Ministry of Meat and Dairy Industry.

However, Aron Moiseevich Kaganovich (1888-1960s) apparently decided against follow his siblings into government, and did not pursue a career in politics.

Lazar also had a sister, Rachel Moiseevna Kaganovich (1883-1926), who married Mordechai Ber Lantzman; they lived together in Chernobyl for a period, but she subsequently died in the 1920s and was interred in Kiev.

Kaganovich worked as a shoemaker and became a member of the Bolsheviks, joining the party around 1911.As an organizer, Kaganovich was active in Yuzovka (Donetsk), Saratov and Belarus throughout the 1910s, and led a revolt in Belarus during the 1917 October Revolution.

In the early 1920s, he helped consolidate Soviet rule in Turkestan.In 1922, Stalin placed Kaganovich in charge of organizational work within the Communist Party, through which he helped Stalin consolidate his grip of the party bureaucracy.

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.

Kaganovich played a central role during the Great Purge, personally signing over 180 lists that sent tens of thousands of people to their deaths.

For his ruthlessness, he received the nickname "Iron Lazar".From the mid-1930s onwards, Kaganovich served as people's commissar for Railways, Heavy Industry and Oil Industry.

During the Second World War, Kaganovich was commissar of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian Fronts.After the war, apart from serving in various industrial posts, Kaganovich was also made deputy head of the Soviet government.

After Stalin's death in 1953 he quickly lost influence.Following an unsuccessful coup attempt against Nikita Khrushchev in 1957, Kaganovich was forced to retire from the Presidium and the Central Committee.

In 1961 he was expelled from the party, and lived out his life as a pensioner in Moscow.At his death in 1991, he was the last surviving Old Bolshevik.

The Soviet Union itself outlasted him by only five months, dissolving on 26 December 1991.

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