Stalin's first secretary, keeper of his archive and author of his first biography
Bazhanov recalled Tovstukha matching ballot handwriting against registration forms: who crossed out Stalin's name? "He had only half a lung, but Stalin had complete confidence in him."
Stalin's first personal secretary (1918–1935) and head of the CC Secret Department (1926–1930), Tovstukha ran Stalin's private secretariat and controlled access to the Lenin Institute archive. He authored the first official biography of Stalin for the Granat Encyclopedia (1922) and directed the first edition of Lenin's Collected Works. As an émigré he joined the French Socialist Party and worked as a labourer; after returning he became secretary at the People's Commissariat for Nationalities, where his lifelong attachment to Stalin began. His management of the documentary record, above all selective access to Lenin's and Trotsky's papers, was a decisive ideological tool for the Stalin faction.
Career Timeline
- 1905–09Revolutionary activity in Chernigov Social-Democratic organisation
- 1909–11Arrested for possession of banned books; exiled to Siberia
- 1912–17Fled abroad; labourer in Austria and France; joined French Socialist Party and Paris RSDLP(b) section
- 1917–18Secretary, Inspectorate Department, Central Staff of the Red Guard
- 1918–21Secretary and collegium member, People's Commissariat for Nationalities; attached to Stalin
- 1921–24Responsible worker in CC apparatus; organized and ran Stalin's personal secretariat
- 1922Wrote the first official biography of Stalin for the Granat Encyclopedia
- 1924–26Assistant director, Lenin Institute; prepared the first edition of Lenin's Collected Works
- 1926–30Head of the CC Secret Department and First Assistant to the General Secretary
- 1930–31Deputy director, Lenin Institute; editorial board of Proletarian Revolution
- 1931–35Deputy director and head of archives, Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute
- 1934–35Candidate member, CC VKP(b); member, Central Executive Committee of the USSR