The Presidential Library features a new collection dedicated to Sergei Mironovich Kirov’s fate

On the occasion of the 135th anniversary of the energetic Soviet statesman beloved by thousands of ordinary people, the Presidential Library features a new collection Sergei Kirov. 1886-1934, which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal. It includes Kirov's articles and speeches, memoirs of his associates, friends and relatives, unique documents and photographs, numerous materials of the Leningrad and central press related to his activities and tragic death. The collection of materials for the film “The Great Citizen” about the life and death of Sergei Kirov, filmed at the Lenfilm studio in the late 1930s, is of special attention.

Kirov's real name is Kostrikov. He was born on March 27, 1886 in the city of Urzhum, Vyatka province - "in the deep lowlands of the old society, in the wilderness of the county, in bitter poverty". At the age of 7, Sergei became an orphan. His childhood and adolescence is illustrated in the book Sergei Mironovich Kirov (Kostrikov)  (1936).

In 1904, the young man joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and a year later he became a member of the Tomsk Committee of the RSDLP and was in charge of an illegal printing house. Sergei was arrested several times. The same edition contains Kirov’s letter from prison: “...The future is ours! And here is the present. Dark, dirty cell. There is eternal twilight; when you look at it through the door, people seem to be shadows: gray faces, gray suits and the same gray exhausted looks. There are no tables or bunks in this dungeon and people who have lost even the appearance of a person both sleep and eat on the dirty asphalt floor. <...> When you try to embrace all this horror, your own grief seems like a drop in the ocean..."

In 1909 Sergei moved to Vladikavkaz and began working for the Terek newspaper. It was at this time that Kostrikov became Kirov. When he was once again released from prison, the entire editorial staff invented a pseudonym. We stopped at "Cyrus" - the name of the greatest commander. It was under this name that he went down in the history of the USSR.

In 1920 Kirov, being a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the XI Army, ended up in Baku as part of the Red Army and became a member of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). This period of his life and career is reflected in the unique book Sergei Mironovich Kirov in the Fight for Oil (1935), written by Lavrentiy Beria.

In January 1926 Sergei Kirov was elected first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and the City Party Committee, as well as the North-West Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). Kirov ruled the city on the Neva for almost 9 years. Less than a year before his death, he said from the rostrum of the 17th Party Congress: “Our successes are really tremendous. The devil only knows, if humanly speaking, I really want to live and live. Actually, look at what is being done. It's a fact!" And further: "In Leningrad, only the glorious revolutionary traditions of the Petersburg workers remained old, everything else has become new".

Much is known about Kirov's activities at the head of the city on the Neva: "There was literally not a single branch of work in Leningrad and Leningrad Region where Kirov's keen eye and firm hand, his thoughtful and clear instructions, were not felt". The publication Sergei Mironovich Kirov: Memoirs of Leningrad workers (1939) focuses on his ordinary life.  

December 1, 1934 a step away from his office in Smolny, the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and the City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Sergei Mironovich Kirov was killed. He was 48 years old.

Kirov was loved by both the authorities and the people, therefore they said goodbye to him not formally, with tears in their eyes according to the obituaries published in newspapers and magazines for December 1934, which are presented in the new collection of the Presidential Library.

Sergei Kirov was one of the most popular politicians of his time: they listened to him, talked about him and wrote about him. Thus, the bibliographical reference Sergei Mironovich Kirov in the Leningrad Press (1935) features that his name was repeated 1094 times on the pages of newspapers from 1926 to the tragic death.