Worker-Bolshevik premier of the Russian Republic destroyed by the state he helped industrialize
Arrested on 27 June 1937 while still performing his duties — seized during a session of the very Central Committee plenum that had just expelled him.
An Old Bolshevik who joined the party at fourteen as a factory worker, Sulimov rose through the Ural party apparatus to become Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (1930–1937), overseeing the republic's industrialization during the first two five-year plans. A member of the Central Committee (1923–1937) and the OrgBuro (1927–1930), he was among the highest-ranking Bolsheviks of worker origin to lead a Soviet government. Arrested during the June 1937 Central Committee Plenum immediately after Vyacheslav Molotov accused him of political disloyalty, he was tried for wrecking, espionage, and participation in an anti-Soviet terrorist organization of the Right, and executed on 27 November 1937. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956, and the city of Cherkessk bore his name, Sulimov, from 1934 to 1937.
Career Timeline
- 1905Joined RSDLP(b), began factory work
- 1918–1919Chairman of Perm City Soviet Executive Committee; Collegium member, Mining-Metallurgical Dept., VSNKh
- 1919–1920Chairman of Chelyabinsk Gubernia Committee, RKP(b)
- 1923–1926Chairman of Ural Oblast Executive Committee
- 1926–1927First Secretary, Ural Oblast Committee, VKP(b)
- 1927–1930First Deputy People's Commissar of Railways, USSR
- 1930–1937Chairman, Council of People's Commissars, RSFSR
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905joined Bolsheviks, factory labor
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationHead of Government of RSFSR
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeRepublican government head targetedThe chairman of the Russian republic's government was arrested after the June 1937 Central Committee plenum and executed.