Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (9 March 1890 – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet communist and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s onward.
Life
A supporter of Joseph Stalin, Molotov oversaw the catastrophic collectivisation of the Soviet Union's agriculture (see Holodomor). He also played a central role during the Great Purge in the 1930s by signing 373 execution lists, more than any other Soviet official including Stalin. However, he may be most known in the West for being Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956.
His nephew Vasily Vasilyevich Kokorin, Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force, was shot down by the Luftwaffe and had been a POW since April 1942 and later special prisoner of the SS. He was liberated by the Wehrmacht in Niederdorf on 30 April 1945.
See also
- Extraordinary State Commission - Involved in various controversies, notably the Soviet Holocaust version. Published texts were approved of by Molotov (and finally Stalin).
- German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
