“POLITICALLY MATURE AND EXPERIENCED ONE...”: SOME MODELS OF ROTATION OF THE FIRST SECRETARIES OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY REGIONAL COMMITTEE IN THE 2ND HALF OF THE 1940S TO THE 50S (based on the materials of the Upper Volga regions)

Abstract

The article analyses the models of rotation of regional leadership in the Upper Volga regions at the end of Stalin’s period and in the beginning of Khrushchev’s one. The focus is on the 3 first secretaries of the Communist Party regional committee in the 1940–50s - Pavel Alfyorov, Vladimir Luk’yanov, Fyodor Titov, who at different times were Party leaders of Vladimir, Ivanovo, and Yaroslavl regions. Attention is paid to quantitative and institutional characteristics associated with personnel rotations of late Stalinism and Khrushchev Thaw. The methodological basis of the study was the principles of historicism and systematicity, the prosopographic method, a combination of analysis of archival documents and sources of personal origin. The theoretical basis of the article is based on the ideas of Yelena Zubkova, Aleksandr Konovalov, Aleksey Fyodorov, Oleg Khlevniuk, Yoram Gorlizki. The source base is represented by documents from the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, materials from documentary publications and reference publications, and personal sources (memoirs, interviews). The article concludes, that the biographies of the first secretaries of the regional committees of the Upper Volga regions (Pavel Alfyorov, Vladimir Luk’yanov, Fyodor Titov) demonstrate 3 different models of rotation of regional leadership personnel of Stalin and Khrushchev periods, but do not exhaust the diversity of personnel movements in the post-war USSR. It is noted that the first rotation model “From region to region”, inherent in Vladimir Luk’yanov, can be considered typical of the group of successful Stalinist promoters of the late 1930s. It is emphasised that the second model “Region-centre-region”, inherent in Pavel Alfyorov, reflects a move across the regions with a short-term return to the central apparatus of an experienced but not quite successful Party functionary. It is stated that the third model “Second-First-Second”, inherent in Fyodor Titov, was more rare, characterised by alternating the position of first secretary of the regional committee in the regions of the Russian Soviet Republic and second secretary in the republican communist parties of the USSR. The significance for career growth in the 1940-50s is noted considering the positions of second secretary of the regional committee, chairman of the regional executive committee, inspector of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, structures of the central apparatus. As the finishing point in the nomenclature career of Party functionaries of the 1950–60s, the Party Control Committee is indicated. The publication is an invitation to discussion for representatives of the scientific community regarding the typification and classification of regional Party leaders of the Soviet era.