The RSFSR premier who turned wartime Gorky into an arsenal
On 13 August 1949, Rodionov was arrested as he left Georgy Malenkov's office. He never saw freedom again.
A hands-on party official who rose from teaching and Komsomol work in the Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) region. As First Secretary of the Gorky Oblast Party Committee from 1940, he oversaw the region's war production throughout the Great Patriotic War. Serving simultaneously as chairman of the Gorky City Defense Committee and State Defense Committee (GKO) commissioner for munitions and combat vehicles, he helped turn Gorky into one of the USSR's principal arsenals. Appointed Chairman of the RSFSR Council of Ministers in 1946, he led the Russian republic's postwar reconstruction until he was caught in the Leningrad Affair: arrested in Georgy Malenkov's office in August 1949 and executed the following year on fabricated charges of a 'Russian separatist conspiracy.' He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1954.
Career Timeline
- 1946–1949Chairman, RSFSR Council of Ministers
- 1946–1949Member, Orgburo of the CC VKP(b)
- 1941–1949Candidate member, CC VKP(b)
- 1941–1943Chairman, Gorky City Defense Committee; GKO commissioner for war production
- 1940–19461st Secretary, Gorky Obkom & Gorkom VKP(b)
- 1939–1940Chairman, Gorky Oblast Executive Committee
- 1938–19393rd Secretary, Gorky Obkom VKP(b)