Epishev, Alexey Alekseevich

Alexey Alekseevich Epishev was born on May 19, 1908 in Astrakhan, in a working class family.

He worked in a cooperage workshop at the Astrakhan fishery plant. He graduated from evening school.

1927-1941

Since 1927 - Secretary of the Komsomol organization of the enterprise, then worked as an instructor and head of the department of agitation and propaganda in the Komsomol district committee in Astrakhan . Member of the CPSU (b) since 1929 . Since 1930, in the Red Army (he served in the 7th separate regiment of communications in the troops of the Volga Military District ). He graduated from command personnel courses in 1931 , was the chief of the headquarters of the 61st Infantry Division ^[1] , then a political worker in tank units. He graduated from the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army named after I.V. Stalin ( 1938 ).

Since 1938 - at party work (with remaining in the Red Army cadres). He worked as party organizer of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the Komintern plant in Kharkov , then became the first secretary of one of the district party committees in Kharkov . He distinguished himself by the fact that a week after his arrival in Kharkov he had already made a speech exposing the “enemies of the people” at the KhPZ. Largely associated with his name ^{[ who? ]} executions of the creators of BT tanks and in the plant’s team. In 1938 he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine (he remained until 1952 ). Since March 1940 - 1st Secretary of the Kharkov Regional Committee and the City Committee of the CPSU (B.) .

During World War II

With the outbreak of war, he simultaneously became commissar of the Kharkov corps of the people's militia. In the fall of 1941 , before the enemy occupied the city, he was evacuated from Kharkov to the Urals , worked there as the responsible organizer of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) on the construction of a defense plant, in 1942 - 1943 - the 1st secretary of the Nizhny Tagil City Party Committee, at the same time - Deputy People's Commissar of the Middle machine-building of the USSR (the last appointment is due to the fact that in Nizhny Tagil and around it huge capacities of defense enterprises were concentrated, and by the post of deputy people's commissar, he had the right to intervene in the work of any of them to produce instructions from Moscow). For a short time he was at the front as an authorized Military Council of the Stalingrad Front during the Battle of Stalingrad .

In May 1943, he was again drafted into the Red Army and was appointed a member of the Military Council of the 40th Army . From October 1943 - the 38th Army , in 1945 - 1946 - again in the 40th Army .

In May 1946, he was transferred to the reserve and returned to party work, but now in Kiev , appointed secretary for personnel and member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. In 1950 he graduated from the Higher Courses at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks . Since 1950 - 1st Secretary of the Odessa Regional Party Committee.

In 1951, he was suddenly called to Moscow and appointed Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR for personnel. The appointment was connected with the arrest of the former minister V.S. Abakumov and the purge of the ministry from the nominees of the latter. In their place were appointed party workers who had no relation to the state security organs. Just as suddenly, Epishev was removed from this post a few days after the death of I.V. Stalin in March 1953 and returned to the post of 1st secretary of the Odessa regional party committee. In 1954 - 1956 - Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

In the years 1955-1961. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Soviet Union to Romania , 1961-1962 - in Yugoslavia . He had the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Soviet Union (1955).

Led by GlavPUR

In the spring of 1962, he was recalled from Yugoslavia , enlisted for the third time in military service, and on April 30, 1962, was appointed to the post of head of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy . He served in this post longer than anyone else.

He played an exclusive role in the complete subordination of the Armed Forces to the interests of the leadership of the CPSU . He had full power in the army, since he did not even submit to the Minister of Defense of the USSR (GlavPUR was also a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, all appointments in GlavPUR were made exclusively through the Central Committee of the CPSU) ^[2] . He is a supporter of the most dogmatic and orthodox views, a categorical opponent of the mention of repressions, the cult of personality, and unsuccessful operations during the Great Patriotic War. He said: “Who needs your truth, if it prevents us from living?” ^[3] Toughly and actively opposed the “wrong” works in literature and art. Even if the authors managed to get permission to publish a film or book that Yepishev did not like, he forbade their propaganda and demonstration in the army.

February 21, 1978 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was awarded the highest award of the USSR - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1952-1964 he was a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee . Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from November 1964 until the end of his life. Member of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th – 11th convocations from Odessa region (11th convocation).

Recent years

In May 1985, relieved of his post and transferred to the Group of Inspectors General . He died on September 15, 1985, was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery (plot 7).

• Hero of the Soviet Union (02.21.1978).
• Four Orders of Lenin (01/23/1948, 02/22/1968, 12/14/1978, 05/18/1983).
• Order of the October Revolution (05/04/1972).
• Four Orders of the Red Banner (10.23.1943 ^[4] , 01.10.1944 ^[5] , 05.23.1945 ^[6] , 04.11.1981).
• Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree (08/25/1944) ^[7] .
• Two Orders of the Patriotic War I degree (05/29/1944 ^[8] , 03/11/1985).
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (05.17.1958).
• Three Orders of the Red Star (09/19/1941, 08/27/1943 ^[9] , ...).
• Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" III degree.
• Lenin Prize ( 1983 ).
• Medals ^[10]

• Two orders of Clement Gottwald ( Czechoslovak Socialist Republic , 10/03/1969, 1/10/1984) ^[11] .
• Two Orders of Sukhbaatar ( Mongolian People's Republic ).
• Order of the Military Flag ( Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ).
• Two orders of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, I degree ( People’s Republic of Bulgaria ).
• Order of the Star of Romania (СРР) I degree ( Socialist Republic of Romania ).
• Order of August 23, I degree ( Socialist Republic of Romania ).
• Order of the Banner of the 1st degree ( Hungarian People's Republic ).
• Military Cross of 1939 ( Czechoslovak Socialist Republic ).
• Order of the Renaissance of Poland, II degree ( Polish People's Republic ).
• Grunwald Cross II degree ( Polish People's Republic ).
• Military Order of the White Lion "For Victory" I degree ( Czechoslovak Socialist Republic ).

• In 1985-1995, he was named after the Donetsk Higher Military-Political School of Engineering and Signal Corps .
• A plaque in Moscow, in the Kolymazhny Lane , on the house where A. A. Epishev lived ^[12] .
• In 2003, a support fund for the Russian Army named after Army General Aleksei Alekseevich Epishev was established in Russia.
• In honor of Army General Epishev, a street was named in Astrakhan.

• Epishev, Alexey Alekseevich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".
• Biographies:
  • Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Epishev Alexey Alekseevich .
  • Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Epishev Alexey Alekseevich .
  • Intelligence and counterintelligence in the faces - Encyclopedic Dictionary of Russian special services. Epishev Alexey Alekseevich .
  • A Handbook on the History of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union 1898-1991. Epishev Alexey Alekseevich .
  • Epishev, Alexey Alekseevich . On the Chronos website .
• Literature
  • Buslovsky V.I. Commissars of the Great Victory. - M., 2016 .-- S. 384-375.
  • Skrylnik A.I. Army General A.A. Epishev - M .: Military Publishing House, 1989. - 319, [1] p., [13] p. ill .; ISBN 5-203-00045-X .