Lazar Kaganovich Biography

Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet communist who was one of the most trusted deputies of Joseph Stalin. He played a pivotal role in Stalin’s rise to the top position of the politburo and the premiership of the Soviet Union. He was also the orchestrator of the 1932-33 famine in Soviet Ukraine and garnered notoriety for his brutal treatment and killings of those regarded as threats to Stalin’s regime. He served as the project manager and helmed the original design team of the Moscow Metro, which was called Metropolitenimeni L.M. Kaganovicha until 1955. Originally from the Kiev Governorate, Kaganovich hailed from a Jewish family. He obtained membership of the Bolshevik Party around 1911 and quickly became an important figure in the communist movement. During the October Revolution of 1917, he was the leader of the insurgency in Gomel. In the years leading up to the Second World War, he held various significant posts in the Soviet government. During the war, Kaganovich served as the Commissar (Member of the Military Council) of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian Fronts. By the time of his death in 1991, he had effectively become the last surviving Old Bolshevik. Only five months after his death, the Soviet Union itself collapsed.