Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich 1893-1991
Soviet politician

He joined the Communist Party in 1911 and, after participating in the 1917 Russian Revolution, became First Secretary of the Ukrainian Party in 1925. In 1928 he moved to the secretariat of the All-Union Party and in 1930 became a full member of the politburo, as well as serving as First Secretary of the Moscow Party. He played a prominent role in the brutal, forced collectivization programme in the early 1930s, and in the great purges of 1936-38. He also served as Commissar for Railways and was responsible for building the Moscow metro. A close ally of Stalin, he survived the latter's death in 1953 but, having fallen foul of Nikita Khrushchev and participated in the Anti-Party Plot, was dismissed in 1957 and posted to a managerial position in a Siberian cement works.