Investor Presentaiton
INTRODUCTION
In a 1947 picture taken in Kiev, a large group walks in a demonstration carrying posters
of Soviet leaders. Directly beside the poster of Stalin is one of a dark-haired man with a large
mustache and piercing gaze. The same man appears in numerous photographs with men in the
highest ranks of the Communist Party, and often he is seen with Stalin. In a 1953 photograph, he
stands especially somber next to Bulganin and Voroshilov near Stalin's corpse during the state
funeral in Moscow. This man is Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, a name once widely known
and acclaimed in the Soviet Union, but almost gone from public memory by the late 1960s. Prior
to 1955, the famous Moscow Metro was even named after him, the man attributed with its design
and creation. Lazar Kaganovich is one of the many men who served under Stalin and formed his
inner circle. He held various positions throughout his career, from First Secretary of the
Communist Party in Ukraine in the 1920s, to Stalin's Deputy and Moscow 'Party Boss' in the
1930s. His dedication to Communism and his relentless work ethic earned him the title 'Iron
Lazar' from his admirers. Kaganovich also headed a plethora of commissariats during his career,
and he played an especially large role in Stalin's collectivization efforts, resulting famines, and
the Great Purge of the late 1930s.
Lazar Kaganovich's life is cited across numerous historical sources about Stalinism and
Soviet Politics as holding great importance to the development of the Soviet Union. However,
scholars, and particularly historians, of Stalinism and the Soviet Union have, for the most part,
not closely examined his personal background and the nature of his role in the SovietView entire presentation