Kuznetsov, Aleksei Aleksandrovich

Born Feb. 20, 1905, in Borovichi; died Oct. 1, 1950. Soviet statesman and party leader. Became a member of the CPSU in 1925. The son of a worker.

Kuznetsov was a leader in Komsomol work in Novgorod Province and Leningrad Oblast from 1924 to 1932; later he was active in party work. During 1937 and 1938 he was second secretary of the Leningrad oblast committee; from 1938 to 1945 he was also second secretary of the Leningrad city committee of the ACP (Bolshevik). Between 1939 and 1946, Kuznetsov was a member of the Military Council of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, he was one of the leaders in the defense of Leningrad and the rout of the fascist German armies. A member of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, he became a lieutenant general in 1943. From 1945 to 1946 he was first secretary of the Leningrad oblast committee and of the city committee of the party. From 1946 to 1949, Kuznetsov was secretary of the Central Committee of the ACP(B). At the Eighteenth Congress of the party in 1939, he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the ACP(B). In 1946 he became a member of the Orgburo (Organizational Bureau) of the Central Committee. He was a deputy to the first and second convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Kuznetsov was awarded two Orders of Lenin and four other orders.