Soviet Latvian politician (1899?1983)
Arv?ds Pel?e
(
Russian
:
А?рвид Я?нович Пе?льше
,
Arvid Yanovich Pelshe
; 7 February [
O.S.
26 January] 1899 ? 29 May 1983) was a
Latvian
Soviet
politician
,
functionary
, and historian.
Career
[
edit
]
Pel?e was born into a peasant family, in Mazie farm near
Z?l?te
,
Iecava
in
Bauska District
,
Latvia
to Johan Pel?e and his wife Lisa. He was baptized in the village church on 14 March of the same year.
[1]
As a worker in Riga, Pel?e joined the
Social-Democratic Party (Bolsheviks) of the Latvian Region
in 1915. In 1916, he met
Lenin
in
Switzerland
.
[2]
Between 1914 and 1918, Pel?e worked in the
workshops
of
Riga
and
Vitebsk
, as a milling machine operator at the steam-engine making plant in
Kharkov
, as a punching worker in
Petrograd
and a loader in the port of
Arkhangelsk
. On behalf of the local committees he had joined the revolutionary propaganda. He was a delegate of the sixth congress of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
of the Arkhangelsk party organization. He participated in the
February Revolution
in 1917 and was a member of the famous
Petrograd Soviet
. He was actively involved in the preparation and conducting of the
October Revolution
in 1917. In 1918, he joined the
Cheka
. In 1918, he was sent by Lenin to Latvia to prosecute the revolution there. In 1919, he was attached to the
Red Army
and later became a manager in the Construction Ministry of the
Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic
. After the defeat of the Soviet Latvian government, he returned to Russia in 1919.
[2]
He was a lecturer and political commissar in the Red Army from 1919 to 1929. In 1931, he graduated from the history department of the Moscow Institute of the Red Professoriat, and between 1931 and 1933, he was a graduate student in the institute. At the same time, he was an instructor at the Institute of Party History at the Central School of
NKVD
between 1929 and 1932. Between 1933 and 1937, he was first deputy of the Commissariat of State Farms (
Sovkhozes
). Between 1937 and 1940, he taught
history
in the Moscow Higher Educational Institute. In June 1940, he played a leading role in the process of admitting of Latvia into the USSR
[
clarification needed
]
. From March 1941 to 1959, he served as Secretary of the
Central Committee
of the
Communist Party of Latvia
for propaganda and agitation. During the
Great Patriotic War
in 1941-1945, he worked to prepare the party and the Soviet cadres to transform
Latvia
into a communist
[
citation needed
]
state.
In 1958, he traveled to
Denmark
to attend the 20th Congress of the
Communist Party of Denmark
. July 1959 to November 1959 marked the purge of all nascent nationalism from the Communist Party of Latvia?about 2,000 of the party leadership and activists were stripped of their posts and privileges.
The Soviets elevated Pel?e to First Secretary, replacing the purged Kalnb?rzi?? on 25 November 1959. In January 1960, Pel?e promptly denounced his former (purged) associates for deviating from "the right path in carrying out Leninist nationality policy".
[3]
From that point forward, the First Secretaries of the Latvian SSR were servile party functionaries, as first embodied by Pel?e, whom Latvians regarded as symbols of submissiveness to the Soviets.
[4]
[5]
Pel?e was appointed as member of the
Central Committee
in 1961. That same year, after
Yuri Gagarin
returned from his space mission, Pel?e proposed changing the name of the Latvian capital
R?ga
but the Soviet central authorities saw this as extreme.
In 1963, Pel?e headed a commission nicknamed the "Pel?e Commission", which investigated the assassination of
Sergei Kirov
. The commission finished its work in 1967.
[6]
Pel?e served as First Secretary of the Latvian SSR until 15 April 1966. At the 23rd Party Congress in 1966, Pel?e addressed his colleagues as follows:
- "We will never permit anyone to interfere in our internal affairs but will conduct a determined struggle against any imperialist interference in the affairs of other countries and peoples."
On 7 November 1975, Pel?e gave a speech in the ceremony commemorating the 58th anniversary of the October Revolution. In his address,
Pel?e confirmed continuing Soviet support for "fighters for freedom" and "the patriots in Angola."
[7]
He was rewarded for his faithful service, being selected by the 23rd Party Congress for full membership to the
Politburo
of the
CPSU
, a position he held until his death in May 1983. Pel?e was also Chairman of the
Party Control Committee
, which oversaw the discipline of party members, from 1966 to 1983.
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
Pel?e's health was failing in his last years. When he did not attend
the funeral
of
Leonid Brezhnev
in November 1982, rumors spread he had died, but a few days later, on 23 November, he appeared in a session of the
Supreme Soviet
. Another absence which was noticed by the media was in the ceremony marking the centennial of the death of Karl Marx, on 31 March 1983, one month before he died.
[8]
He suffered from
lung cancer
, as well as
atelectasis
, which aggravated his lungs, and worsening
cardiopulmonary failure
. He died of
cardiac arrest
at 5:55 on 29 May 1983.
[9]
Pel?e was honoured with a
state funeral
; his remains
lay in state
at the
House of Trade Unions
. On 2 June, his ashes were carried by an armoured vehicle to Red Square, with all the Politburo members standing at the top of
Lenin's Mausoleum
. After lavish eulogies were read by Soviet leader
Yuri Andropov
and Politburo member
Viktor Grishin
, his ashes were laid to rest in the
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
.
Pel?e wrote some works on the history of the
CPSU
, on the history of the revolutionary movement in
Latvia
,
anti-capitalist
nationalists, the socialist and communist construction in the country.
He was twice awarded with
Hero of the Socialist Labor
(1969, 1979), 6
Order of Lenin
, the
Order of the October Revolution
and other medals. The
R?ga Polytechnic Institute
was named for Pel?e after he died.
Pel?e was married three times. He had two children from the first marriage: a daughter, Beruta (died), and son, Arvik (died during World War II). One son from the second marriage, Tai, (was born in 1930) - a pensioner, and did not support any contacts with his father after the 3rd marriage. The third wife of Pel?e was Lidiya, the ex-wife of Stalin's secretary
Alexander Poskrebyshev
. From 1966 until his death, he lived at 15 Spiridonovka Street. A commemorative plaque was placed in the front of the building.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
LVVA. Ф. 235, Оп. 7, Д. 110, Л. 78 об-79.
- ^
a
b
Who's Who in
Russia Since 1900
, Martin McCauley
- ^
Soviet Disunion
- ^
Dreifelds, Juris,
Latvia in Transition
, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- ^
Bogdan, Henry,
Histoire des peuples de l’ex-URSS
[
History of the Peoples of the former USSR
], Perrin, Paris, 1993.
- ^
Who Killed Kirov?: The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery
, 2000
- ^
Angola, national liberation and the Soviet Union, Dr. Daniels Papp
- ^
UPI, March 30, "Eight Politburo members gathered today in the Bolshoi Theater to mark the centennial of the death of Karl Marx"
- ^
Medical assessment that appeared in Soviet newspapers on 31 May 1983
Further reading
[
edit
]
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
- Remeikis, Thomas: “A Latvian in the Politbureau: A Political Portrait of Arvids Pel?e.”
Lituanus
12:1 (1966) 81-84.
ISSN
0024-5089
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