Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseevich (1893-1991)

Soviet politician who was in charge of the enforced collectivization of agriculture (see collective farms) in 1929-34, and played a prominent role in the purges of the Communist Party carried out under Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. He was minister of transport 1935-44, and the Moscow metro underground system was built under his direction.

Before entering politics, Kaganovich was a leather-worker and union organizer. He joined the Bolshevik party in 1911, and during the October revolution, led the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Gomel, Belarus. In 1924 he became secretary of the Party's Central Committee and then headed the Party in the Ukraine 1925-28. He held the post of deputy prime minister 1938-39. After serving on the State Defence Committee during World War II, he resumed control in the Ukraine 1947-48. In this role, he became a political rival of Nikita Khrushchev, who later, as premier after Stalin's death, dismissed Kaganovich from all his government and party positions. In 1961, he was expelled from the Party, along with Vyacheslav Molotov, and thereafter lived in obscurity as manager of a cement factory in Siberia.