Alexey Kuznetsov

Alexey Alexandrovich Kuznetsov (Ru:Алексей Александрович Кузнецов) ( – 1 October 1950) was a Soviet statesman, CPSU functionary, Lieutenant General and member of CPSU Central Committee (1939–1949).

Born in Borovichi, in the Novgorod province of European Russian, he started work as teenager in a local sawmill. In 1924-32, he was an organiser of Komsomol in the Novgorod and Nizhny Novgorod provinces. In 1932, he was transferred to Leningrad (St Petersburg) as a minor party official, but rose quickly during the Great Purge, as more senior officials were arrested. In August 1937, he was appointed Second Secretary (deputy leader) to Leningrad CPSU ''gorkom'' (city committee) and ''obkom'' (oblast committee) making him second in command of the Leningrad province, under Andrei Zhdanov. On 19 November 1937, speaking at a public meeting in Volkhovsky District, he declared: "I consider it a great happiness to work under the leadership of Comrade Zhdanov. Under his leadership, I will continue to smash vile fascist agents. Trotskyist-Bukharin saboteurs and spies, and fight for the purity of the ranks of our great communist party."

During the Siege of Leningrad, helped organize the city's defense.

In January 1945, Kuznetsov was promoted to the post of First Secretary of the Leningrad provincial and city party committees, when his mentor, Zhdanov, was called to Moscow to serve as a Secretary of the Central Committee. On 18 March 1946, he was promoted again, to the post of Secretary of the Central Committee, replacing Georgy Malenkov as the head of party organisation, and working alongside Zhdanov and Stalin. He was also given responsibility for supervising the police. This made a threat to the former head of the NKVD, Lavrentiy Beria. Aged 41, he was now part of the 'inner circle' of the roughly nine most powerful Soviet officials, but "Kuznetsov's promotions earned him the undying hatred of the two most vindictive predators in the Stalinist jungle: Beria and Malenkov." Provided by Wikipedia