Nikolai Bulganin

Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Булга́нин; 30 May [O.S. 17 May] 1895 – 24 February 1975)[1] was a Soviet politician who served as Minister of Defense (1953–1955) and Premier of the Soviet Union (1955–1958) under Nikita Khrushchev, following service in the Red Army and as defence minister under Joseph Stalin.

Nikolai Bulganin
Николай Булганин
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union
In office 8 February 1955 – 27 March 1958
First Deputies	Anastas Mikoyan Mikhail Pervukhin Maksim Saburov Joseph Kuzmin Lazar Kaganovich
Preceded by	Georgy Malenkov
Succeeded by	Nikita Khrushchev
Minister of Defence Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
In office 15 March 1953 – 9 February 1955
Premier	Georgy Malenkov
Preceded by	Aleksandr Vasilevsky Nikolai Kuznetsov
Succeeded by	Georgy Zhukov
Additional positions First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Union of Soviet Socialist Republics In office 7 April 1950 – 8 February 1955 Premier Joseph Stalin Georgy Malenkov Preceded by Vyacheslav Molotov Succeeded by Anastas Mikoyan Minister of the Armed Forces Union of Soviet Socialist Republics In office 3 March 1947 – 24 March 1949 Premier Joseph Stalin Preceded by Joseph Stalin Succeeded by Aleksandr Vasilevsky Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR In office 22 July 1937 – 17 September 1938 Premier Vyacheslav Molotov Preceded by Daniil Sulimov Succeeded by Vasiliy Vakhrushev Full member of the 18th, 19th & 20th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union In office 18 February 1948 – 5 September 1958 Candidate member of the 18th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union In office 18 March 1946 – 18 February 1948 Member of the Orgburo of the CPSU In office 18 March 1946 – 14 October 1952
Personal details
Born	Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin (Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Булга́нин) (1895-05-30)30 May 1895 Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire
Died	24 February 1975(1975-02-24) (aged 79) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
Citizenship	Soviet
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Russian Communist Party (1917-1960)
Awards
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Branch/service	Red Army
Years of service	1941–1958
Rank	Marshal of the Soviet Union (1947-1958)
Commands	Soviet Armed Forces
Battles/wars	World War II

Early career

Bulganin was born in 1895 in Nizhny Novgorod, the son of an office worker. The family was of Russian ethnicity.[2] He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917 and was recruited in 1918 into the Cheka, the Bolshevik regime's political police, where he served until 1922. After the Russian Civil War, he became an industrial manager and worked in the electricity administration until 1927. He was director of the Moscow electricity supply in 1927–1931. In 1931–1937, Bulganin was chairman of the executive committee of the Moscow City Soviet.

In 1934, the 17th Congress of the Communist Party elected Bulganin a candidate member of the Central Committee. A loyal Stalinist, he was promoted rapidly as other leaders fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–38. In July 1937, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Russian Republic (RSFSR). He became a full member of the Central Committee later that year and, in September 1938, became Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and head of the State Bank of the USSR.

World War II

During World War II, Bulganin played a leading role in the government and Red Army, although he was never a front-line commander. He was given the rank of Colonel-General and was a member of the State Defense Committee. He was appointed Deputy Commissar for Defence in 1944 and served as Stalin's principal agent in the High Command of the Red Army. In 1947, he became Minister for the Armed Forces and was promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. He also became a candidate member of the Politburo of the Communist Party. He was again Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, under Stalin, from 1947 to 1950. In 1948, he became a full member of the Politburo.

Premiership

After Stalin's death in March 1953, Bulganin moved into the first rank of the Soviet leadership, being appointed to the key post of Defense Minister. He was an ally of Nikita Khrushchev during his power struggle with Georgy Malenkov, and in February 1955 he succeeded Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union.[3] He was generally seen as a supporter of Khrushchev's reforms and destalinisation. He and Khrushchev travelled together to India, Yugoslavia and Britain, where they were known in the press as "the B and K show."[4] In his memoirs, however, Khrushchev recounted that he believed that he "couldn't rely on [Bulganin] fully."[5]

Bulganin and Khrushchev in India

During the Suez Crisis of October–November 1956, Bulganin sent letters to the governments of the United Kingdom, France, and Israel threatening rocket attacks on London, Paris, and Tel Aviv if they did not withdraw their forces from Egypt. In a letter to Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion, Bulganin wrote, "Israel is playing with the fate of peace, with the fate of its own people, in a criminal and irresponsible manner; [...] which will place a question [mark] upon the very existence of Israel as a State."[6] Khrushchev, in his memoirs, admitted the threat was designed simply to divide Western opinion, especially since at the time he did not have enough ICBMs to launch the rockets, and in any case he had no intention of going to war in 1956.

Bulganin with Khrushchev, Peng Dehuai, and Ye Jianying

By 1957, however, Bulganin had come to share the doubts held about Khrushchev's policies by the opposition group (which Khrushchev and his supporters labelled the "Anti-Party Group") led by Vyacheslav Molotov. In June, when the dissenters tried to remove Khrushchev from power at a meeting of the Politburo, Bulganin vacillated between the two camps. When the dissenters were defeated and removed from power, Bulganin held on to his position for a while, but in March 1958, at a session of the Supreme Soviet, Khrushchev forced his resignation.[3] He was appointed Chairman of the Soviet State Bank, a job he had held two decades before, but in September Bulganin was removed from the Central Committee and deprived of the title of Marshal. He was dispatched to Stavropol as Chairman of the Regional Economic Council, a token position, and in February 1960 he was retired on a pension.

Personal life

His wife was Elena Mikhailovna Korovina, an English teacher from a Moscow school. The couple had two children: son Leo and daughter Vera. Vera married the son of Admiral Kuznetsov.

Honours and awards

	Hero of Socialist Labour (10 June 1955)
	Orders of Lenin, twice (1931, 1955)
	Order of the Red Banner (1943)
	Order of Suvorov, 1st class (1945) and 2nd class (1943)
	Order of Kutuzov, 1st class, twice (1943, 1944)
	Order of the Red Star, twice (1935, 1953)
	Order of the Republic (Tuvan People's Republic, 3 March 1942)
	Grand Cross of the Virtuti Militari (Poland)

References

1. Nikolay Aleksandrovich Bulganin (premier of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) -- Encyclopædia Britannica:. Britannica.com. Retrieved on 2014-6-11.
2. XPOHOC
3. Powaski, Ronald E. (1997). The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195078500.
4. Pratt, Julius William (1965). A History of United States Foreign Policy. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 470. ISBN 978-0-13-392282-0.
5. Khrushchev, Nikita (2006). Memoirs of Nikita Khruschev, Volume 2: Reformer (1945–1964). University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 238. ISBN 0271028610.
6. "7 Exchange of Letters- Bulganin- Ben-Gurion- 5 and 8 November 1956". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel).

External links

Nikolai Bulganin at Find a Grave

• Newspaper clippings about Nikolai Bulganin in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Political offices
Preceded by Joseph Stalin	Minister of the Armed Forces 3 March 1947 – 24 March 1949	Succeeded by Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Preceded by Nikolai Kuznetsov	Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union 15 March 1953 – 9 February 1955	Succeeded by Georgy Zhukov
Preceded by Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Preceded by Georgy Malenkov	Premier of the Soviet Union 8 February 1955 – 27 March 1958	Succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev
Preceded by A. P. Grichmanov	Chairman of Board of the Soviet State Bank 1938–1940	Succeeded by N. K. Sokolov
Preceded by N. K. Sokolov	Chairman of Board of the Soviet State Bank 1940	Succeeded by Ya. I. Golev
Preceded by Vasili Popov	Chairman of Board of the Soviet State Bank 1958	Succeeded by A. K. Korovushkin