Alexander Shelepin

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Alexander Shelepin Алекса́ндр Шеле́пин
Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions
In office 1967–1975
Premier	Alexei Kosygin
Preceded by	Viktor Grishin
Succeeded by	Alexey Shibaev
Chairman of the Committee for State Security
In office 25 December 1958 – 13 November 1961
Premier	Nikita Khrushchev
Preceded by	Ivan Serov
Succeeded by	Vladimir Semichastny
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers
In office 19 May 1972 – 7 May 1973
Premier	Alexei Kosygin
Preceded by	Mikhail Yefremov
Succeeded by	Zia Nureyev
First Secretary of the Komsomol
In office 30 October 1952 – 28 March 1958
CPSU leader	Joseph Stalin Nikita Khrushchev
Preceded by	Nikolai Mikhailov
Succeeded by	Vladimir Semichastny
Personal details
Born	18 August 1918(1918-08-18) Voronezh, Russian Empire
Died	24 October 1994(1994-10-24) (aged 76) Moscow, Russian Federation
Citizenship	Soviet (until 1991) and Russian
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Шеле́пин; 18 August 1918 - 24 October 1994) was a Soviet state security officer and party statesman. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its Politburo and was the head of the KGB from 25 December 1958 to 13 November 1961.

Biography

Shelepin was born in Voronezh. A history and literature major while studying at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy and Literature, Shelepin was a guerrilla leader during World War II, becoming a senior official of the Communist Youth League in 1943, and at the head of the successor organization, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, from 1952 to 1958. He accompanied Nikita Khrushchev on the Soviet leader's trip to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1954.

Shelepin then became the second head of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, which had been reorganized and reformed as the KGB after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Khrushchev appointed Shelepin in part because of several major KGB defections in the 1950s during the tenure of Ivan Serov as head of the KGB. Shelepin attempted to return state security to its position of importance during the Stalinist era. He demoted or fired many KGB officers, replacing them with officials from Communist Party organizations, and, especially, from the Communist Youth League.

He left the KGB and was promoted to the Central Committee secretariat in November 1961, where it is believed he still exercised control over the KGB, which was taken over by his protégé Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny. Shelepin became a First Deputy Prime Minister in 1962. He was a principal player in the coup against Khrushchev in October 1964, obviously influencing the KGB to support the conspirators.

Shelepin probably expected to become First Secretary and de facto head of government when Khrushchev was overthrown. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn suggested that Shelepin had been the choice of the surviving Stalinists in the government, who asked what "had been the point of overthrowing Khrushchev if not to revert to Stalinism?"^{[citation needed]}

Rather, Shelepin's reward was to be made a full member of the ruling Politburo in November 1964—by a significant margin its youngest member. But he still held ambitions of becoming the "first among equals". His colleagues on the Politburo watched him carefully, seeking to halt his ambitions. He survived in that body until 1975, when he rapidly fell from power.

Honours and awards

• Four Orders of Lenin
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour
• Order of the Patriotic War 2nd class
• Order of the Red Star
• Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"
• Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
• Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st class

v t e Era of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko Political events 1964–1982: Collectivity of leadership · Glassboro Summit Conference · Prague Spring · Invasion of Czechoslovakia · 1968 Red Square demonstration · Brezhnev Doctrine · Brezhnev assassination attempt · Sino–Soviet border conflict · Détente  · Helsinki Accords · 1977 Moscow bombings · 1977 Soviet Constitution · 1978 Georgian demonstrations · Soviet war in Afghanistan · 1980 Summer Olympics · Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis · Exercise Zapad · Death and funeral of Leonid Brezhnev · Legacy of Leonid Brezhnev 1982–1985: RYAN · Korean Air Lines Flight 007 · 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident · Able Archer 83 · 1984 Summer Olympics boycott and the Friendship Games Politburo members 1960s · 1970s · 1980s Aliyev · Andropov · Brezhnev · Chebrikov · Chernenko · Demichev · Dolgikh · Efremov · Gorbachev · Grechko · Grishin · Gromyko · Kirilenko · Kiselyov · Konayev · Kosygin · Kulakov · Kuznetsov · Masherov · Mazurov · Mikoyan · Mzhavanadze · Pelše · Podgorny · Polyansky · Ponomarev · Rashidov · Romanov · Shcherbytsky · Shelepin · Shelest · Shevardnadze · Shvernik · Solomentsev · Suslov · Tikhonov  · Ustinov · Voronov · Vorotnikov Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev (Troika: Brezhnev · Kosygin · Podgorny) · Yuri Andropov · Konstantin Chernenko · Collective leadership National Economy Era of Stagnation: 1965 reform · 1973 reform · 1979 reform · Food Programme · 1984 reform Five-Year Plans: 8th Plan · 9th Plan · 10th Plan · 11th Plan Government Cabinets: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Brezhnev's family Churbanov (son-in-law) · Galina (daughter) · Lyubov (niece) · Viktoria (wife) · Yakov (brother)  · Yuri (son) Soviet Union