Soviet "Gray Cardinal". The story of Mikhail Suslov

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Mikhail Suslov was called the “Pobedonostsev of the Soviet Union” and the second person after Brezhnev in the country.

He became the main ideologist of the USSR, possessed incredible power, he often had the last word in solving important issues, but despite all this, Suslov was unusually modest and led an almost ascetic lifestyle.

Mikhail Suslov was born on November 21, 1902 into a peasant family. He studied diligently and rather quickly managed to make himself a career in the party ranks.

Already in 1931, he was transferred to the apparatus of the Central Control Commission of the CPSU (b) and the People's Commissariat of the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspection. And three years later he transferred to the Soviet Control Commission under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

Suslov was an ardent Marxist, unshakably stood on the positions of the orthodox interpretation of Marxism.

He was always occupied with questions of ideology. Even in his youth, speaking at a meeting of the Khvalynsk city organization of the Communist Youth Union with a report "On the personal life of a Komsomol member," he read out his moral precepts that Soviet youth should follow. The theses of the young Suslov were published and distributed to other cells.

Suslov was the second person in the Brezhnev Politburo

During the war years he was the first secretary of the Stavropol regional party committee. During the occupation, he was involved in organizing the partisan movement, was a member of the Military Council.

In 1944 he was sent to liberated Lithuania and given emergency powers. Suslov's tasks included the elimination of the consequences of the war and the fight against the "forest brothers".

In 1947, the functionary became the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), and then there were only six secretaries, including Suslov himself and Stalin.

In the same year, he took part in an all-Union philosophical discussion, after which he was appointed head of the Propaganda and Agitation Directorate of the Central Committee of the CPSU instead of Aleksandrov.

Suslov organized the fight against cosmopolitanism, for two years he worked as the editor-in-chief of the party's mouthpiece - the newspaper Pravda.

Suslov and Stalin

The peak of his career as an apparatchik under Stalin was his election in 1952 as a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, but after the death of the leader, Suslov, was removed from its membership. True, it did not last long. Already on April 16, he was returned and made head of the foreign policy department of the Central Committee of the party.

During the first attempt to remove Nikita Khrushchev in the summer of 1957, Mikhail Suslov was one of the few who voted against dismissing the general secretary from office. But already in 1964, he was chairman of the Plenum, which relieved Khrushchev of all his posts.

Suslov gained full power during the reign of Leonid Brezhnev. He became a "gray cardinal", could cancel any decision, convince the general secretary, and sometimes Brezhnev himself left the last word with Mikhail Andreevich.

Contemporaries recall that Suslov, who followed all the canons of Marxism and loved order, was a very tough leader.

For example, he gave 5-7 minutes for all speeches, and if someone was ranting for a long time, then he would just cut him off and say “Thank you”. The speaker had no choice but to retire in embarrassment.

Suslov also dealt with personnel and work issues harshly. If he left for a long time, then upon arrival he canceled all decisions made without him.

And if the decision on the issue had already been made even with the participation of Brezhnev, then he could easily cancel it and go to prove his point of view to the Secretary General.

Under Suslov, ideology was elevated to a cult. It was he who introduced the study of such an outlandish discipline as "scientific communism" in Soviet universities. They even passed the state exam on it, and it was impossible to enter graduate school without passing the "ideological" disciplines.

Suslov was in charge of all questions of ideology personally and did not allow any interference in them. He was ready to fight even with the KGB.

When they began to expel Soviet spies from Canada, Andropov blamed the then USSR ambassador for this and demanded that he be recalled. To which Suslov recalled that it was not the KGB who appointed "Comrade Yakovlev as ambassador to Canada."

Despite his incredible power, Suslov was modest in life. He was always friendly and reserved, even with his opponents. In everyday life, he was practically ascetic. He always wore galoshes, old-fashioned suits and the same coat.

He bought himself a new one only after Brezhnev, at one of the Politburo meetings, invited those present to chip in for Suslov for a new thing. Even the furniture in his apartment and at his dacha did not belong to him and was marked "Administration of the Central Committee of the CPSU."

He did not drink or smoke. And sometimes it caused a lot of inconvenience. For example, at official receptions, boiled water was poured into his glass instead of vodka.

True, Suslov was whimsical in food, in the sense that he preferred mashed potatoes with sausages to sturgeon.

He did not accept any gifts at all, let alone bribes. He even took a book only if the author himself presented it to him. And if one of the colleagues dared to give him a present, then he could lose his job.

Once Suslov even fired the director of a television factory for giving a TV to the winning team in a hockey match. Suslov asked: "Did he give his own TV set?"

His ascetic lifestyle was often ironic. Suslov wore only galoshes until he washed the sole, in any weather. By the galoshes under the hanger, everyone recognized that he was in place.

Also, the Secretary of the Central Committee did not travel at a speed higher than 60 km / h. Brezhnev, if he saw that everyone was trudging along the Mozhaisk highway, would say: “Mikhail, he’s probably going.”

Leonid Ilyich in a personal conversation with everyone was on the "you" and called by name, but in front of Suslov it was as if he was shy and called him "Mikhail Andreevich."

Of course, Suslov amazed everyone with his behavior, but it was absolutely sincere. Returning from foreign trips, he returned all the currency to the cashier, paid to the penny in the canteen for set meals.

For many years Suslov transferred part of his salary to the Peace Fund, but no one knew about it.

He loved order, so that everything was correct and fair, and he demanded this from others. So, Mikhail Suslov, being one of the most powerful people in the country, remained, probably, the most modest representative of the top power.