Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, 1893–1991
Born near Kiev, Ukraine, Kaganovich went to work in a tannery at the age of 14. He became a member of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (communists) in 1911 and was arrested for illegal communist activity on several occasions. After the revolution of February 1917, he began to work for the party in various places, joining the party apparatus in 1922. From 1925 to 1928, he was first secretary of the party in Ukraine. From 1930 to 1934, he was on the Moscow City Party Committee and first secretary of the Moscow District Party Committee. In 1935, he became people’s commissar (minister) of roads and transport and of heavy industry, fuel and the oil industry. He was appointed to be a deputy prime minister in December 1944. Kaganovich served on the Presidium of the CPSU from 1930 to 1957. In 1956–7, he was first deputy prime minister and concurrently minister of the construction materials industry. In June 1957, he was implicated in an attempt to oust Nikita Khrushchev and expelled from the party leadership. He was then appointed manager of a chemical combine in the Urals.
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