The commissar who ran agriculture through the second Five-Year Plan, from grain procurement to VDNKh
On February 17, 1935, at the Congress of Collective-Farm Shock Workers, Chernov proposed 'an All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow in 1937.' Stalin and Molotov signed the decree organizing it that same day — the birth of what would become VDNKh.
Born to a weaver's family, he began as a Menshevik in 1909 and joined the Bolsheviks in 1920. Rising through the grain procurement apparatus, he succeeded Yakov Yakovlev as People's Commissar for Agriculture in 1934 and guided the second Five-Year Plan's agricultural policy, strengthening the kolkhoz system's technical base. In 1935 he proposed the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VDNKh) and chaired its organizing committee, while also leading the drafting of the Model Charter of the Agricultural Artel. Arrested in 1937, he was tried with the Twenty-One, sentenced to death, and executed in 1938. Rehabilitated in 1988.
Career Timeline
- 1921–1922Executive Secretary, Ivanovo-Voznesensk Governorate Party Cttee
- 1923–1925Chairman, Donetsk Governorate Executive Committee
- 1925–1928People's Commissar of Internal Trade, Ukrainian SSR
- 1930–1932Deputy People's Commissar of Supply, USSR
- 1933–1934Chairman, Agricultural Procurement Cttee (KomzagotSTO)
- 1934–1937People's Commissar for Agriculture, USSR · CC member
Related historical events
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationPeople's Commissar of Agriculture
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeDefendant at the third Moscow Trial (Trial of the Twenty-One)Arrested in November 1937, he was tried as a defendant in the 'Anti-Soviet Right-Trotskyist Bloc' case. Sentenced to death on 13 March 1938 alongside Bukharin and Rykov, he was shot at Kommunarka on 15 March 1938. Rehabilitated in 1988.
The All-Union Agricultural Exhibition and the Birth of VDNKh
Chernov's most enduring legacy is the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV), the seed of today's VDNKh. On 17 February 1935, the closing day of the Second All-Union Congress of Collective-Farm Shock Workers, Chernov presented the draft Model Charter of the Agricultural Artel and, in the same session, proposed "an All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow in 1937." The congress supported the idea unanimously, and that same day the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the VKP(b) issued a resolution, signed by Stalin and Molotov, ordering its organization.
On 17 August 1935, an Exhibition Committee was created to manage construction and planning, with Chernov confirmed as its chairman. He oversaw the initial design of a 136-hectare site near Ostankino on Moscow's northern edge. On 21 April 1936, the Council of People's Commissars set the opening date for 6 July 1937, but repeated redesigns and construction delays pushed the schedule back. In the summer of 1937, the exhibition's concept was upgraded from a one-time event to an annual permanent show, forcing a rebuild of the wooden temporary pavilions to last at least five years.
By autumn 1937, as the hunt for 'saboteurs' blamed for construction delays escalated, Chernov himself was arrested. Fellow Exhibition Committee members Aron Gaister, Yakov Zbarsky, and Moisei Kalmanovich were arrested in quick succession. The exhibition opened without Chernov on 1 August 1939 and was later renamed VDNKh (Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy), becoming a defining showcase of the Soviet era. Official Russian state sources today trace VDNKh's origin point to 17 February 1935: Chernov's proposal and the Stalin-Molotov resolution of that same day.