Nikolai Patolichev

Nikolai Patolichev Николай Патоличев
Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR
In office 26 August 1958 – 18 October 1985
Premier	Nikita Khrushchev Alexei Kosygin Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Ryzhkov
Deputy	Yuri Brezhnev M. R. Kuzmin[1] Boris Aristov
Preceded by	Ivan Kabanov
Succeeded by	Boris Aristov
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia
In office 25 June 1953 – 28 July 1956
First Secretary	Nikita Khrushchev
Preceded by	Mikhail Zimyanin
Succeeded by	Kirill Mazurov
In office 31 May 1950 – 8 March 1953
General Secretary	Joseph Stalin
Preceded by	Nikolai Gusarov
Succeeded by	Ivan Klimov
Personal details
Born	10 September 1908(1908-09-10) Vladimir Oblast, Imperial Russia
Died	1 December 1989(1989-12-01) (aged 81) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Soviet
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Profession	Civil servant
Religion	Atheist

Nikolai Semyonovich Patolichev (Russian: Николай Семёнович Патоличев; 10 September 1908 – 1 December 1989) was Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR from 1958 to 1985. Prior to that, he was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia from 1950 to 1956.

Early Life

From an early age, Joseph Stalin had taken an interest in Patolichev.^[2] Nikolai's father, Semyon Patolichev, had been a good friend of Stalin's before he was killed in the Polish-Soviet War in 1920.^[3] Nikolai Patolichev joined the Communist Party in 1928 in the city of Dzerzhinsk as a Komsomol.^[4]

Early Career

Preparations for War Economy

Nikolai Patolichev first arrived in Yaroslavl in August 1938, as a "special representative of the Central Committee of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)," and was tasked with "strengthening defense-related production of synthetic rubber at the largest industrial plant in the Soviet Union, located in the city of Yaroslavl."^[5] Patolichev was promoted to first secretary of the Yaroslavl Oblast Party Committee in January 1939.^[6] The following March, at the 18th Party Congress, he was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In February 1941, at the 18th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Patolichev was promoted to full membership on the Central Committee. On 28 December 1941, Patolichev was relieved from duties in Yaroslavl and transferred to Chelyabinsk.

Chelyabinsk, known as Tankograd during the Great Patriotic War, was a major industrial center that contributed greatly to the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. Patolichev served as First Secretary of the Chelyabinsk Oblast and City Party Committees from 4 January 1942 to 21 March 1946, and took a hands-on approach with industrial war production, even intervening when factories missed their production targets.^[7]

A Busy Year in Moscow

In February 1946 Patolichev was recalled to Moscow to head the Organization and Instruction Department of the Central Committee, and was elected to the Orgburo on 18 March 1946. His role was expanded on 6 May 1946, when he was made a secretary of the Central Committee, taking the place of Georgy Malenkov, who was temporarily demoted.^[8] In August, Patolichev became chief of the reorganized Organizational-Instructional department, now called the Directorate for the Checking of Party Organs.^[9] In September-October 1946, he became first deputy chairman of the Council for Collective Farm Affairs under his mentor, chairman Andrey Andreyevich Andreyev.^[10] His responsibilities in Moscow now included the incongruously combined affairs of agriculture and cadres, which led him to his next assignment in Ukraine.

Temporary Eclipse and Demotion

On 3 March 1947, Patolichev and Lazar Kaganovich were sent by Stalin to Ukraine to "help" Nikita Khrushchev, who had fallen into disfavor. Kaganovich took over Khrushchev's post of First Secretary, with Patolichev becoming Central Committee secretary for agriculture, de facto Second Secretary.^[11] The two did not work well together, and Patolichev requested that Stalin reassign him.^[12] He was removed from his posts on the Orgburo and Secretariat on 24 May 1947; his post in the latter body was taken by Mikhail Suslov.

Patolichev next became first secretary of the Rostov Oblast and City Party Committees, serving from August 1947 to June 1950.

Six Years in Byelorussia

According to historian Evan Mawdsley, Patolichev "...recovered from this 'exile' in 1950, with another surprise appointment. In one of the intervals of a Supreme Soviet meeting Stalin called him in and asked him if he wanted to be first secretary of the Belorussian SSR; Patolichev agreed ('Gotov, tovarishch Stalin - otvetil ia'). In the late Stalin years it was not unusual to appoint ethnic Russians to leading posts in the non-Russian republics; Patolichev's task was to raise local agricultural production." ^[13] Patolichev succeeded Nikolai Gusarov as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia on 31 May 1950. In October 1952, Patolichev delivered one of the main speeches at the 19th Party Congress and was re-elected to the Central Committee as a full member. At the Central Committee plenum that followed the 19th Congress, he was also elected candidate member of the enlarged Presidium of the Central Committee, which replaced the old Politburo.^[13] On 5 March 1953, Patolichev was removed from the Central Committee Presidium in the reorganization that followed Stalin's death. At Lavrenty Beria's instigation, in June 1953 the Presidium attempted to remove Patolichev as first secretary in Byelorussia and replace him with an ethnic Belarusian, Mikhail Zimyanin.^[14] At the contentious plenum of the Byelorussian Central Committee that followed, the delegates rallied behind Patolichev and rejected the Presidium's decree, which was later dropped.^[15] During the discussion of his dismissal at the plenum, Patolichev made an impassioned speech before the assembled delegates:^[13]

"I came to Byelorussia by the will of the party, and I am leaving by the will of the party. For the past three years I have spared no effort and have worked as a Communist should. So will I remain to the end of my life, so will I act wherever our great Communist Party sends me."

— Patolichev, Plenum of the Byelorussian Central Committee, June 1953

Patolichev managed to fend off Beria's attempt to remove him, but at the January 1955 Central Committee plenum in Moscow he clashed with Khrushchev over agricultural policy.^[13] He was later replaced as first secretary in Byelorussia by ethnic Belarusian Kirill Mazurov, and in July 1956 became first deputy minister of Foreign Affairs. ^[13]

Later Career

In 1956 Patolichev was reassigned from Byelorussia once more to Moscow, this time as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He served in that position from 1956 to 1958, when he was elevated to the honorable post of Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR.^[16] Though he had a seat on the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Patolichev never returned to the Politburo and thus his influence was less than that of his contemporaries Mikhail Suslov and Yuri Andropov. Patolichev served as Minister of Foreign Trade for twenty-seven years, until Mikhail Gorbachev replaced him.^[17]

Honors and Awards

Patolichev is the only person to have received twelve Order of Lenin medals; these can be seen in the picture at right. He is a recipient of the following Soviet awards:

• Hero of Socialist Labour, twice (1975, 1978)
• Twelve Orders of Lenin (incl. 1939, 1944, 1945, 1975, 1978)
• Order of the October Revolution (1983)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1943)
• Honorary citizen of Chelyabinsk (1978)

Works

• "USSR Foreign Trade: Past, Present and Future", Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, 1967 ASIN B0006CMICA
• "USSR Foreign Trade: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow", Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, 1971 ASIN B0006C67RC
• "Measures of Maturity, My Early Life", Pergamon Press, 1983 ISBN 978-0080245454

References

Notes

1. ^ Wayne G. Broehl (1998). "Cargill: Going Global". http://books.google.com/books?id=p1WjYOltEOoC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Nikolai+Patolichev+Deputy+Foreign+Minister&source=bl&ots=v--Qzvwx3H&sig=h71kKqzPjqGLA0x8SZFccNtoqm0&hl=en&ei=hy6uTrG6NJHMiQL0v-GYAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCkQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=Nikolai%20Patolichev%20Deputy%20Foreign%20Minister&f=false. Retrieved 3 November 2011. 
2. ^ Robert Service (2005). "Stalin: a biography". http://books.google.com/books?id=hSWK6Dh4wRgC&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=Nikolai+Patolichev&source=bl&ots=UV2Nl6_w-q&sig=H7XwK-RyXn-KLa7t2D6QrexUZ00&hl=en&ei=6idvToPYDdPTiALasb3pBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBzgo#v=onepage&q=Nikolai%20Patolichev&f=false. Retrieved 13 September 2011. 
3. ^ Beichman 1983, p. 44.
4. ^ Kees Boterbloem (2004). "The Life and Times of Andrei Zhdanov, 1896-1948". http://books.google.com/books?id=Ch7lBy7O4GQC&pg=PA284&lpg=PA284&dq=Patolichev&source=bl&ots=LKaflu4hCm&sig=UJ9A8rlb01MMnFQ55L65ishfeII&hl=en&ei=Qa5yTuShN_DUiAKI8vzVBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBDgK#v=snippet&q=Patolichev&f=false. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
5. ^ Beichman 1983, p. 38.
6. ^ Jeffrey W. Hahn (2001). "Regional Russia in Transition: Studies from Yaroslavl'". http://books.google.com/books?id=RsmZuNJACoIC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=Patolichev+Central+Committee+member&source=bl&ots=EhluaTaYgX&sig=qzF8WCxoSNYZeptLMhP6vLhwYEc&hl=en&ei=VLZxTsDFCeXXiAL2i7mBCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Patolichev%20Central%20Committee%20member&f=false. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
7. ^ Robert Service (2005). "A History of Modern Russia from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin". http://books.google.com/books?id=eseDgCQK9UkC&pg=PA278&lpg=PA278&dq=Chelyabinsk+Patolichev&source=bl&ots=Z7eZld88dB&sig=8VLV6pswkgixLSjBlUW7R6ee2MI&hl=en&ei=-JdyTrbGE-PXiALBn4zSBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Chelyabinsk%20Patolichev&f=false. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
8. ^ Michael Parrish (1996). "The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939-1953". http://books.google.com/books?id=NDgv5ognePgC&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&dq=Patolichev+Central+Committee+member&source=bl&ots=nuvtkqD5Us&sig=smiP4oGK3IDcStE-KQ7503xJJZI&hl=en&ei=BqlxTs_YGM_YiALLsNXzCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Patolichev%20Central%20Committee%20member&f=false. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
9. ^ Kees Boterbloem (2004). "The Life and Times of Andrei Zhdanov, 1896-1948". http://books.google.com/books?id=Ch7lBy7O4GQC&pg=PA284&lpg=PA284&dq=Patolichev&source=bl&ots=LKaflu4hCm&sig=UJ9A8rlb01MMnFQ55L65ishfeII&hl=en&ei=Qa5yTuShN_DUiAKI8vzVBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBDgK#v=snippet&q=Patolichev&f=false. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
10. ^ "A Survey of Internal Developments in the USSR from the 19th Party Congress to Our Day". Documents on Canadian External Relations. October 19, 1953. http://www.international.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/dcer/details-en.asp?intRefid=2636. Retrieved 13 September 2011. 
11. ^ George Paloczi-Horvath (1960). "Khrushchev: The Making of a Dictator". http://www.archive.org/stream/khrushchevthemak007214mbp/khrushchevthemak007214mbp_djvu.txt. Retrieved 13 September 2011. 
12. ^ Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Sergei Khrushchev (2006). "Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev". http://books.google.com/books?id=uv1zv4FZhFUC&pg=PT26&lpg=PT26&dq=Patolichev+Central+Committee+member&source=bl&ots=wpHI7X7Xee&sig=MW4xSK2xYvDoT5yqGvUqxw-RpT0&hl=en&ei=BqlxTs_YGM_YiALLsNXzCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Patolichev&f=false. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
13. ^ ^{a b c d e} Mawdsley 2000, p. 124.
14. ^ Grigory Ioffe (2003). "Understanding Belarus: Questions of Language". Europe-Asia Studies. http://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/site/socsci/area/rees/transitions/regions/Belarus%20language.pdf. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
15. ^ "Soviet Union: Political Affairs". JPRS Report. 19 May 1989. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA336186. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
16. ^ Hope M. Harrison (May 1993). "Ulbricht and the Concrete 'Rose': New Archival Evidence on the Dynamics of Soviet-East German Relations and the Berlin Crisis, 1958-61". Cold War International History Project. http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACFB81.pdf. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 
17. ^ "The World". The Los Angeles Times. October 20, 1985. http://articles.latimes.com/1985-10-20/news/mn-13920_1_minister. Retrieved 15 September 2011. 

Bibliography

• Beichman, Arnold and Mikhail S. Bernstam (1983). Andropov: New Challenge to the West. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 0-8128-2921-2. 
• Mawdsley, Evan and Stephen White (2000). The Soviet elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: the Central Committee and its members, 1917-1991. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198297383. 

External links

• Russian Foreign Trade Minister Receives Delegation of Swedish Businessmen

Persondata
Name	Patolichev, Nikolai
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	10 September 1908
Place of birth	Vladimir Oblast, Russian Empire
Date of death	1 December 1989
Place of death	Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union