Russia Today: Historama, December 1st

 

Published 01 December, 2009, 21:15

A glance into the past – Historama reveals a few curious facts that make December 1 a special day in history.

Sergey Kirov was a prominent Soviet political leader and headed the Communist Party’s organization in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

He was seen as a potential rival to and critic of Joseph Stalin and his heavy-handed policies. Kirov was assassinated outside his office in Leningrad on this day in 1934. Although the Party blamed the killing on traitors, some say that Stalin was in fact behind the assassination.

His death served as a pretext for Stalin’s persecution campaign against Party members, and ushered in a spate of mass purges of the Party which claimed thousands of lives.

Today a city east of Moscow and a square in the leader's native St. Petersburg both bear his name.

Read more The Tehran Conference The Big Three powers – the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and United States – convened for the first time during the course of World War II on this day in 1943 in Tehran.

Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met face-to-face to discuss the Allied forces’ military strategy. Among the issues on the agenda was Stalin's request to open a second front in Europe.

Hitler tried to sabotage the conference by sending assassins and planting bombs, but the Nazi agents were caught and forced to send false information back to their superiors.

Legendary Soviet marshal’s birthday Georgy Zhukov, a Red Army officer during World War II and one of the most titled commanders in Soviet history, was born on December 1, 1896.

He gained nationwide recognition for his role in leading the army through the final efforts to liberate the Soviet Union from Nazi occupation and conquer Germany’s capital, Berlin.

He is less known for conducting a nuclear bomb test near the southern Russian town of Orenburg. Despite the suppression of facts surrounding the event, reports claim that some 45,000 people were exposed to radiation, with thousands believed to have died from exposure in the following years.

Kirov was a popular Russian. Kirov drew the unwelcome attention of Stalin, particularly after the 1934 party congress, where delegates voting for new Central Committee membership elected Kirov, who received only three negative votes, the fewest of any candidate, while Stalin, a Georgian, received 292 negative votes. 

Stalin was afraid that Kirov might replace him as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. He had Kirov assassinated and then started purging the party to get rid of Kirov's former supporters. 

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

Netcraft rank: 4763 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com