Leningrad Affair

Categories / Social Life/Political Repressions
LENINGRAD AFFAIR, the term for a series of political processes that arose over the course of an internal party fight for power between G.M. Malenkov and L.P. Beria, and between A.A. Zhdanov and A.A. Kuznetsov. The Leningrad Affair was started by a decree from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) "Concerning the 14 August 1946 Issues of the Journals Zvezda and Leningrad", which, upon publication, caused many Leningrad chief party members and Soviet Staff to be reprimanded and disciplined. Formally, a decree was issued by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party on 15 February 1949 for "Anti-Party Activity on the Part of A.A. Kuznetsov, M.I. Rodionov, and P.S. Popkov". First arrests connected by the Leningrad Affair started in July 1949. In August 1949, the Museum of the Defence of Leningrad was closed to visitors; in October 1949, a local lore museum in the town Luga, whose exhibition did not reflect "the leading role of the party and of Comrade Stalin" in the Defence of Leningrad, was also closed. On the Out Session of the Military Collegium of the Highest Court of the USSR, held on 29-30 September 1950 in the House of Officers, nine of the highest party workers were accused of "placing themselves in opposition to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party" and for harbouring the idea of establishing a Communist Party of Russia (the so-called Leningrad Separatism); six people, including A. A. Kuznetsov and N. A. Voznesensky, were shot immediately following the trial. This was followed by a series of trials and a "purge" of Leningrad's Party organization. All in all, 214 people were condemned throughout the Leningrad Affair; of those, 23 people were shot, and others were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment or exile. Over 2.000 people were either excluded from the structure of All-Union Communist Party or transferred from Lenin grad to other districts of the country. From July 1950 until June 1952, 18 rectors and 29 heads of departments, particularly those with a socioeconomic concentration, were dismissed from higher education institutions; over 300 lecturers were dismissed from Leningrad State University. From the end of 1951, repression linked to the Leningrad Affair assumed the character of an "economic affair"; just in August 1952, over 50 former secretaries of district committees of the All-Union Communist Party, as well as heads of district executive committees, were arrested on various charges. In April 1954, those charged in connection with the Leningrad Affair were rehabilitated. In December 1954, an action by a group of high officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs sat on a hearing at the House of Officers, accusing the Ministry for State Security of the USSR of fabricating the Leningrad Affair.

References: "Ленинградское дело" : [С б.]. Л., 1990.

I. A. Flige. Beriya Lavrenty Pavlovich
Kuznetsov Alexey Alexandrovich
Lazutin Peter Georgievich
Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich
Popkov Peter Sergeevich
Rodionov Mikhail Ivanovich
Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili) Iosif Vissarionovich
Voznesensky Nikolay Alexeevich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Zhdanov Andrey Alexandrovich
Liteiny Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 20
"Ленинградское дело". Л., 1990 Zvezda (The Star), journal
Leningrad, journal
Leningrad Defence and Blockade Museum
Leningrad Affair
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