Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (Russian: ????????? ??????????? ????????) (February 25, 1890 (O.S.) (March 9, 1890 (N.S.))–November 8, 1986), Soviet politician and diplomat, was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protege of Joseph Stalin, to the 1950s, when he was dismissed from office by Nikita Khrushchev. He was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939.

Origins and early life

Molotov was born in the village of Kukarka (now Sovietsk in Kirov Oblast) as Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (????????), son of a shop clerk. He was a relative of the composer Alexander Scriabin. He was educated at a secondary school in Kazan, and joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906. For his political work he took the pseudonym Molotov (from the Russian molot, "hammer"). He was arrested in 1909 and spent two years in exile in Siberia. In 1911 he enrolled at the St Petersburg Polytechnic, and also joined the editorial staff of Pravda, the underground Bolshevik newspaper, of which Joseph Stalin was editor. In 1913 Molotov was again arrested and deported to Irkutsk, but in 1915 he escaped and returned to the capital.

Related Topics:
Kukarka - Kirov Oblast - Alexander Scriabin - Kazan - Bolshevik - Russian Social Democratic Labour Party - 1906 - Pseudonym - 1909 - Siberia - 1911 - St Petersburg - Pravda - Joseph Stalin - 1913 - Irkutsk - 1915

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