Khrushchev-era secretary for party appointments
At the June 1957 showdown with the anti-party group, Kirichenko swatted aside every accusation with brute force, not troubling to pick his arguments. Without Khrushchev, he knew, he had no future either.
The first ethnic Ukrainian to serve as First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, he backed Khrushchev decisively against the anti-party group in 1957 and was brought to Moscow as a CC secretary. By 1958 he was de facto second secretary, chairing the Secretariat and controlling party cadres, but his abrasive manner and independent moves alienated colleagues and eventually cost him Khrushchev's confidence. Ousted in 1960, he was demoted to factory director and ultimately forced into pensioned oblivion.
Career Timeline
- 1953–57First Secretary of the Ukrainian party
- 1957–60CC secretary for party appointments
- 1960Removed inside the Khrushchev leadership
Related historical events
The Fall: From Second-in-Command to Oblivion
In January 1958 Khrushchev effectively made Kirichenko the CC's second secretary, chairing Secretariat meetings and overseeing industry. Kirichenko also controlled the crucial party organs department handling cadres nationwide, making him the de facto No. 2. But his arrogance and coarse manner alienated colleagues. Marshal Zhukov called him 'an Odessan in the worst sense of the word.' Mikoyan clashed with him repeatedly. The breaking point came during a winter 1959 hunt at Zavidovo, when Kirichenko openly disputed Khrushchev's claim to having shot a wild boar, arguing heatedly even after the gamekeeper confirmed Khrushchev's bullet was fatal.
By November 1959 Khrushchev stripped him of his second-secretary duties. The May 1960 CC Plenum formally removed him from the Presidium and Secretariat. He was demoted to First Secretary of the Rostov Oblast committee (January–June 1960) but local bosses, reading the signal from Moscow, ousted him within weeks. He ended up as director of a diesel plant in Penza, then of a research institute, before being forcibly pensioned at 54 in 1962. When he died in 1975, not a single central newspaper ran an obituary. Only the military paper Red Star noted the passing of 'retired Major-General of the Intendant Service Aleksey Illarionovich Kirichenko.' His party leadership was entirely erased.