The ideology bureaucrat who co-wrote Stalin's biography, enforced the Zhdanov line, and fell in a sex scandal
Khrushchev at the Gladiators hearing: 'Alexandrov is young, I get it. But you, at your age — what were you doing there?' With that, Kruzhkov and the ideology bosses all vanished from their posts.
Soviet philosopher and party ideology official. A specialist in classical Russian philosophy and aesthetics, he served as director of the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute (1944–1949), where he co-authored Stalin's official short biography (1947) and supervised the compilation of Marxist canonical editions. As head of the CC Literature and Arts Department (1950–1953) and the CC Agitprop Department (1953–1955), he enforced the Zhdanovshchina cultural line and late Stalinist ideological control. In 1955 he was implicated in the 'Gladiators Case' sex scandal, stripped of all party posts, and exiled to the Urals; he later returned to academia as director of the USSR Institute of Art History (1961–1973).
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1931Graduated from Krupskaya Academy of Communist Education
- 1933Completed postgraduate studies, Philosophy Faculty, Communist University for Social Science Teachers
- 1940Awarded professorship
- 1941–1942Member, Bureau of Foreign Policy Propaganda
- 1942–1943Member, Soviet Information Bureau
- 1943–1944Deputy editor, War and the Working Class journal
- 1944–1949Director, Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute
- 1947Co-author of Stalin's official short biography (2nd ed.)
- 1949–1950Deputy then 1st Deputy Head, CC Propaganda and Agitation Department
- 1950–1953Head, CC Literature and Arts Department
- 1950Defended doctoral dissertation in philosophy
- 1952–1956Member, CPSU Central Auditing Commission
- 1953–1955Head, CC Propaganda and Agitation Department
- 1953Corresponding Member, USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1955–1961Professor, Ural State University; editor, Uralsky Rabochy newspaper
- 1961–1973Director, Institute of Art History, USSR Ministry of Culture
Philosophical scholarship and return to academia in the Urals
Kruzhkov researched Russian philosophy, the history of social thought, and aesthetics while teaching and publishing. In 1942 he published a study of Dmitry Pisarev's philosophical and socio-political views, followed in 1944 by a book on the main features of classical Russian philosophy. His 1945 book treated Belinsky, Herzen, Chernyshevsky, and Dobrolyubov; he also edited collections of philosophical writings by Pisarev and Mikhail Antonovich. He defended his doctoral dissertation in 1950 and published that year a study of Nikolay Dobrolyubov's worldview, for which he received the Stalin Prize in 1952. After leaving his Central Committee post in 1955, he was sent to Sverdlovsk and taught at Ural State University until 1961, while also editing the newspaper Uralsky Rabochy. He then returned to Moscow and directed the Institute of Art History under the USSR Ministry of Culture from 1961 to 1973. His career thus carried his philosophical research and editorial work from party ideological institutions into university and Ministry of Culture research posts.