Khrushchev-era Leningrad party boss who proposed removing Stalin's body from the Mausoleum and stumbled over the apparatus's loyalty test
Into the silence after Khrushchev offered to resign, Spiridonov rose: 'Comrades, we must support Nikita Sergeyevich's wish.' Khrushchev's face went pale, and within days Spiridonov lost every major party post.
A Soviet party and state leader of peasant origin who rose from factory mechanic to enterprise director and then to the pinnacle of Leningrad's party apparatus. Succeeding Frol Kozlov as First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee in 1957, he drove a massive housing construction campaign, the so-called Khrushchevkas, while expanding Leningrad's scientific and defence-industrial base. At the 22nd Party Congress in 1961, as head of the Leningrad delegation, he formally proposed removing Stalin's body from the Lenin Mausoleum, giving Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation its most dramatic public moment. Briefly elevated to Secretary of the Central Committee, he committed a fatal political misstep at a Presidium meeting by earnestly supporting Khrushchev's feigned offer to resign, and was shunted aside to the ceremonial chairmanship of the Soviet of the Union from 1962 to 1970.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1939–1941Director, Oryol Textile Machinery Plant
- 1941–1944Director, Kuznetsk Textile Machinery Plant (wartime evacuation)
- 1944–1950Director, Leningrad Gosmetr Plant
- 1950–1952Secretary, Moscow District Committee, Leningrad
- 1952–1954Deputy Chairman, Leningrad Regional Executive Committee
- 1954–1956Secretary, Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU
- 1956–1957First Secretary, Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU
- 1957–1962First Secretary, Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU
- 1961–1962Secretary, Central Committee of the CPSU
- 1962–1970Chairman of the Soviet of the Union, Supreme Soviet of the USSR
Expanding Leningrad’s housing and scientific base
After becoming first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee in December 1957, Spiridonov made housing provision a major priority. During his tenure, inexpensive standard housing designs were developed, and large construction trusts were established to build whole residential districts as integrated projects. The program pursued mass construction in response to housing needs, though the standardized homes offered limited comfort. Through traffic also opened on the Moscow–Leningrad highway during this period.
Under his regional leadership, construction began on scientific towns in Pesochny, Krasnoye Selo, Gatchina, Kirovsk and other districts, expanding Leningrad’s scientific and technical base. The growth of fundamental research supported the defence industry, whose enterprises came to shape the region’s industrial structure and influence its economic development. Spiridonov left the post of first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee in May 1962.