Shelepin, Aleksandr Nikolayevich

▪ 1995

      Soviet government official (b. Aug. 18, 1918, Voronezh, Russia—d. Oct. 24, 1994), was a ruthless, powerful member of the post-Stalin leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and at one time was thought to be in contention for his country's top position. Even though he gained power with the aid of Nikita S. Khrushchev and was chairman (1958-61) of the Committee for State Security (KGB) under him, he was thought to have played a major part in Khrushchev's overthrow (1964). Shelepin graduated (1939) from the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature and then served with the Red Army during the war with Finland (1939-40). After joining the CPSU (1940), he rose rapidly through party and government ranks and by 1952 was director of the Komsomol (Young Communist League), a post he held until he became KGB head. As KGB chairman Shelepin was known to have been responsible for policies of political harassment, espionage, and assassinations. He gained even more power when he was named chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control (1962), and in 1964, after Khrushchev's ouster, he became a member of the party Presidium (later the Politburo). When Leonid Brezhnev assumed power, however, Shelepin gradually lost his prominence. After his 1975 trip to Britain as head of a trade union delegation provoked huge protest demonstrations because of his KGB activities, Shelepin was dismissed from the Politburo.

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▪ Soviet politician

born Aug. 18, 1918, Voronezh, Russia

died Oct. 24, 1994

      Soviet government official who led the Komsomol (Young Communist League; 1952–58), served as head of the Committee for State Security (KGB; 1958–61), and was a member of the Communist Party's Politburo (1964–75). He is thought to have played a role in Nikita Khrushchev's (Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich) ouster in 1964.

      Shelepin joined the Communist Party in 1940 and rose rapidly in both the party and the Soviet government. Appointed first secretary of the Komsomol's central committee in 1952, he directed the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of youths for Khrushchev's ambitious Virgin Lands Program, aimed at the economic development of Central Asia. Long regarded as an ally of Khrushchev, Shelepin became chairman of the KGB in 1958. As he was not originally from the security branches, this has been viewed as an attempt by Khrushchev to curb the police apparatus and bring it more firmly under party control. In 1962 Shelepin was appointed chairman of the new Committee of Party and State Control, which had broad investigative and administrative powers.

      After Khrushchev's downfall in 1964, Shelepin, thought to represent a hard-line faction in the party, joined the party Presidium (i.e., the Politburo). But his position slowly eroded thereafter, probably because he was a potential rival to party leader Leonid Brezhnev. In 1975 he was dropped from the Politburo (formerly the Presidium) and was not reelected to the Central Committee at the 25th party congress.

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