Sergei Kirov
1886 – 1934 Russian Bolshevik leader of Leningrad
The popular Leningrad boss whose murder launched the Great Purge.
- Religion
- Russian Orthodox background; a militant atheist.
- Affiliations
- Bolshevik Party; head of the Leningrad party organization and a Politburo member; assassinated in 1934.
Kirov was a rising Bolshevik and popular party chief of Leningrad, seen by some as a possible rival to Stalin. His assassination in 1934 remains debated, with many suspecting Stalin's hand. Stalin used the killing as the pretext to unleash the mass terror of the Great Purge.
Connections
- associate of Joseph Stalin — A Stalin ally whose murder Stalin turned into the trigger for the purges.
- associate of Joseph Stalin — Kirov's 1934 murder became Stalin's pretext for the Great Purge.