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The Soviet statesman and party leader Mikhail Kalinin was born
On November 7 (19) in 1875, Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Verkhnyaya Troitsa, Korchevsky District, Tver Governorate, now Kashinsky City District, Tver Region.
Mikhail graduated from the elementary school with the help of the landowner D. P. Mordukhai-Boltovsky in 1889. After that, the landowner took him to St. Petersburg to work as a housekeeper. During his four years of service, Kalinin developed a passion for reading. In 1893, he started working at the Old Arsenal Cartridge Factory, then moved to the Putilov Factory in 1896, and attended the 2nd Narva Evening School for Adults of the Imperial Russian Technical Society from 1897 to 1899.
Upon entering the proletarian milieu, Mikhail Kalinin came into contact with Marxism and made some of his first political connections. In 1898, he joined the underground organization Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class and the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDLP). The following year, he was arrested for his involvement with the Union and was sent into exile in Tiflis, where he met Joseph Stalin. After serving his sentence, he was placed under police surveillance in Reval (now Tallinn) and the Olonets Governorate.
With the start of the Russian Revolution, Kalinin illegally returned to St. Petersburg to join Vladimir Lenin in revolutionary activities. In 1906, he became a delegate to the Fourth Unification Congress of the RSDLP, held in Stockholm, and in 1912, he joined the Central Committee's Russian Bureau, which coordinated party activity across Russia.
At the beginning of the 1917 Revolution, he was elected as a member of the Petrograd Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (b), the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and a member of the Petrograd City Duma. He also joined the editorial board of the Bolshevik newspaper, Pravda.
After the October Revolution, the Petrograd City Duma appointed him as the mayor. Following the dissolution of the City Duma in August 1918, he served as the Commissioner of Urban Economy for the Union of Communes in the Northern Region.
After the death of Yakov Sverdlov on March 16, 1919, Mikhail Kalinin was appointed chairman of the Central Executive Committee on the initiative of Vladimir Lenin (or according to other sources, Leon Trotsky). As a person well-acquainted with rural life and with the ability to reach out to broad layers of the working class, Kalinin was seen as the ideal candidate for the position.
During the Civil War, Kalinin traveled to combat zones to conduct propaganda and educational work. From 1921 to 1923, he led the Central Commission for Famine Relief and the Central Committee for Addressing the Consequences of Famine within the Central Executive Committee.
At the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR in December 1922, Kalinin became the chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. This position was later abolished in 1938 with the introduction of the new Soviet constitution. From January 1938 until March 1946, Kalinin served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
Mikhail Kalinin, who headed the Central Executive Committee and later the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was formally the head of the Soviet Union. However, he had no real power, and his duties were limited to representing the country, making speeches, attending protocol events, such as the presentation of state awards, and receiving petitioners and their appeals.
Back in 1919, Leon Trotsky gave Mikhail Kalinin the nickname "All-Russian Elder". Later, during the time of the cult of personality under J. Stalin, his image as "grandfather Kalinin", who became the "All-Union Headman" after the formation of the USSR, was replicated in Soviet art. Soviet citizens viewed him as an advocate, and he received millions of letters from prisoners and their families seeking help.
In most cases, Kalinin could only assist with resolving household issues. However, there is evidence that after contacting him, some prisoners were able to achieve release. Despite the fact that M. Kalinin was one of the organizers of the eviction, he also handled complaints received at the reception regarding "improper evictions."
In the 1930s and 1940s, M. Kalinin supported the general line of the Communist Party. His signature appears on legislative acts that legalized mass repressions in the 1930s, such as the Resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On Amendments to the Existing Criminal Procedure Codes of the Union Republics," dated December 1, 1934. This resolution simplified the imposition and enforcement of sentences. Another resolution, also from 1934, lowered the age of criminal responsibility for children to 12 years. Other resolutions from this time period included the Resolution on Measures to Combat Juvenile Delinquency, also from 1935.
According to this law, in October 1938, the wife of Mikhail Kalinin, Ekaterina Kalinina (née Lorberg), was arrested. In June 1945, she was pardoned and began taking care of her husband, who had left the position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet due to poor health on March 19, 1946. Mikhail Kalinin passed away on June 3, 1946 in Moscow due to intestinal cancer.
He was laid to rest on Red Square, near the Kremlin Wall. Cities and towns, including Tver and Kalininsk, districts, streets, avenues, squares, enterprises, institutions, and ships have been named after him. Many of these names have been preserved to this day. By the decision of the Council of Ministers, monuments were erected in his honor in Moscow, Leningrad, and Kalinin. Later, they appeared in other cities across the USSR.
Lit.: Калинин, Михаил Иванович // РУВИКИ. [2024] [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://ru.ruwiki.ru/?curid=24598&oldid=1191949485; Ленин В. И. О кандидатуре М. И. Калинина на пост председателя ВЦИК. Речь на XII заседании ВЦИК // Ленин В. И. Полное собрание сочинений. М., 1969. Т. 38. С. 223–226; Михаил Иванович Калинин. Краткая биография. М., 1980; Успенский В. Д. Первый президент: Повесть о Михаиле Калинине. М., 1975.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials::
Сергеев Б. В. Михаил Иванович Калинин: жизненный путь большевика революционера. [М.], 1934;
Калинин М. И. Речи на XVII съезде ВКП(б). [М.], [1934];
Калинин М. И. О молодёжи: [речи и выступления: сборник]. М., 1944;
ГА РФ. Ф. Р3316. Оп. 16. Д. 72. О приезде т. Калинина в Москву. 10.08.1923 (доступно в электронном читальном зале);
ГА РФ. Ф. Р3316. Оп. 17. Д. 251. О передаче архива т. Калинина. 15.11.1924 (доступно в электронном читальном зале);
ГА РФ. Ф. Р3316. Оп. 16. Д. 448. Сводки писем, поступающих на имя М. И. Калинина от рабочих и крестьян. 1930 (доступно в электронном читальном зале);
ГА РФ. Ф. Р3316. Оп. 24. Д. 238. О переименовании гор. Тверь в гор. Калинин и ст. Тверь Октябрьской ж. д. в ст. Калинин. 16.11.1931–10.01.1932 (доступно в электронном читальном зале);
Митинг в честь пуска ДнепроГЭС, 10 октября 1932 года: [фрагменты кинохроники / Президент. б-ка им. Б. Н. Ельцина; ред.-сост. Т. И. Дьяконова]. СПб., 2011 (в кадре: участники митинга М. И. Калинин, Г. К. Орджоникидзе, А. Барбюс).