Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov (1896–1948) — political figure
"Yesterday, a bust of the prominent Party and Soviet state figure A. A. Zhdanov, whose name the plant bears, was unveiled in the square by the main gatehouse of the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant plant." Newspaper Gorkovskaya Pravda, 1979. "To abolish the name of A. A. Zhdanov from the title of the Gorky Polytechnic Institute, to repeal all resolutions and decisions connected with the perpetuation of A. A. Zhdanov's memory through the assignment of his name to settlements, streets, enterprises, collective farms, state farms, educational institutions, and other establishments and organizations." Newspaper Gorkovskaya Pravda, 1989.
Zhdanov's name was struck from the memory of Nizhny Novgorod residents. But is it gone forever? Andrei Zhdanov was born in Mariupol, in Yekaterinoslavskaya Governorate, into the family of a public schools inspector. He completed a technical secondary school in Tver and from 1912 onward tied his fate to the Bolshevik underground. During the Civil War he served as a political officer in the Red Army in the Urals and in Tver. In 1922 Zhdanov was sent to Nizhny Novgorod, where he first worked in Sormovo District and was then confirmed as head of the agitation and propaganda department of the guberniya Party committee. From 1924 to 1934 he led the Nizhny Novgorod Party organization, having been elected responsible secretary of the guberniya committee of the RCP(b). In 1929 Zhdanov became first secretary of the krai committee of the VKP(b). So: eleven years in one place, in a society seething with passions, with right and left deviations, with the creation and destruction of political "platforms." Yet under Zhdanov the Nizhny Novgorod Party organization did not split, and mass repressions were also avoided. From 1923 onward, more than two hundred reports, speeches, addresses, and articles by Zhdanov appeared in local newspapers — primarily in Gorkovskaya Kommuna (newspaper)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))). All of them were devoted to pressing problems and urgent matters. In July 1923, for instance, he wrote: "…Already now the danger of underestimating planned work and the inability to work according to plans is taking shape. This may condemn our work to amateurishness and spontaneity." In the vast Nizhny Novgorod Krai, formed in 1929, major enterprises were put into operation: the Nizhny Novgorod GRES, the Vakhtan rosin-extraction plant, the Balakhna cardboard mill and paper combine, a milling-machine plant, a meat-packing plant, an automobile plant, an aviation plant, the Novoye Sormovo plant, and the Borsky glass plant. In addition, a thorough reconstruction of the oldest enterprises was carried out, and new workshops were opened in Dzerzhinsk. Housing for workers was actively built; institutes, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, stadiums, theatres, and museums were opened. Naturally, Zhdanov did not lay bricks himself, but he put considerable effort into the development of the vast krai, which encompassed Nizhny Novgorod and Vyatka guberniyas, the Murom Uyezd of Vladimir Oblast, and the Mari and Votkinsk autonomous oblasts. As everywhere else in the country, collectivization was carried out on Nizhny Novgorod soil. However, it was not carried out as it was in other places. On 19 July 1930, at a meeting of the Party aktiv of Sormovsky District, where the results of the 16th Party Congress were being discussed, Zhdanov declared: "…There must be no herding of people into collective farms." Under him, in 1933, the "planned" total collectivization of the krai was not implemented; the Party boss's common sense restrained his subordinates from ill-considered decisions. Even so, by January 1934 more than 60 percent of the poor and middle peasant households in the krai had been consolidated into collective farms. A report prepared in 1995 reveals that "…there are no data whatsoever concerning the personal participation of Zhdanov A. A. in extra-judicial bodies, nor any documentary materials relating to his personal initiatives in the political persecution of specific citizens, nor any unlawful sanctions, in the records of the FSK RF Directorate for Nizhny Novgorod Region." He was modest in dress: he wore a kosovorotka (a Russian collarless shirt) and a suit, liked to sing, and played the piano. As historians write, with his piano accompaniment, Stalin, Voroshilov, and Molotov sang church songs. Writers and journalists, with whom he was friendly, were frequent visitors to the krai committee secretary's office. According to his son's recollections, the Zhdanov family lived very modestly throughout their time in Nizhny Novgorod. "In Nizhny Novgorod we had two rooms off a shared corridor." Zhdanov loved skating and skiing and went rowing, but his busy schedule left little time for any of it. In summer the family lived at a dacha in Alexandrovka, located in the Myza area, where Zhdanov played gorodki. Indeed, all manner of things have happened on our land: churches were demolished and monuments toppled, good names were consigned to oblivion — but the time has come to gather up the stones. It is likely that Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov too has earned an enduring place in the memory of Nizhny Novgorod residents.