The apparatchik who ran three oblasts under Khrushchev and rose to People's Control
As Voronezh first secretary, ahead of Khrushchev's visit, he ordered state farms and kolkhozes to tear rails from reserve tracks, hitch them to tractors, and drag them across the fields to make it look as if the harvest had been fully gathered.
After ten years as an engineer in Perm factories, he entered the party apparatus during the war. Under Khrushchev he served as first secretary of three oblasts: Tambov, Voronezh, and Volgograd (Stalingrad), overseeing regional industry and agriculture; in Voronezh he became known for ordering rails dragged across fields by tractors to simulate a vigorous harvest for Khrushchev's inspection. At the October 1964 CC Plenum he sharply criticized Khrushchev's agricultural policies and the bifurcation of party organs, helping pave the way for his removal. He later served as First Deputy Chairman of the RSFSR Council of Ministers (1965–1974) and then chaired the USSR People's Control Committee (1974–1987), running the state oversight apparatus for thirteen years under Brezhnev.
Career Timeline
- 1933–1943Shift supervisor, shop chief, and chief power engineer at Perm factories
- 1943–1945Department head, Molotov (Perm) Oblast Party Committee
- 1945–1947Plenipotentiary of the Party Control Committee for Vladimir and Voronezh oblasts
- 1947–1949Second Secretary, Kaluga Oblast Party Committee
- 1952Inspector and deputy department head, CC VKP(b)
- 1952–1955First Secretary, Tambov Oblast Party Committee
- 1955–1960First Secretary, Voronezh Oblast Party Committee
- 1960–1965First Secretary, Stalingrad/Volgograd Oblast Party Committee
- 1965–1974First Deputy Chairman, RSFSR Council of Ministers
- 1974–1987Chairman, USSR People's Control Committee
The October 1964 CC Plenum and Khrushchev's Removal
The October 1964 Central Committee plenum was the stage that ended Khrushchev's political career. The removal plan, orchestrated from the summer onward by Brezhnev, Podgorny, and Shelepin, hinged on securing the support of CC members: above all the regional first secretaries. Shkolnikov, as first secretary of the Volgograd agricultural oblast party committee, was one of the consequential voices at that plenum.
His speech focused on two central grievances. First, the 1962 bifurcation of party organs into separate 'industrial' and 'agricultural' committees for each oblast (a Khrushchev innovation) had produced administrative chaos and dual chains of command, which Shkolnikov had experienced firsthand. Second, Khrushchev's agricultural policies (the obsessive focus on the virgin lands, the unrealistic harvest targets) had driven local cadres into impossible corners. The 'rails affair' in Voronezh was a bizarre byproduct of precisely that pressure.
Shkolnikov's intervention resonated powerfully among CC members and lent crucial support to the Brezhnev camp. Immediately after the plenum, Khrushchev resigned, and Shkolnikov was restored as first secretary of the re-unified Volgograd oblast party committee. His performance at this plenum, a Khrushchev protégé who switched sides at the decisive moment, captures the political survival instincts of the archetypal thaw-era apparatchik.