User:CitrusHemlock/Leonid Ilyichev

Leonid Fyodorovich Ilyichev
Леони́д Фёдорович Ильичёв
Editor-in-Chief of Pravda
In office 23 June 1951 – November 1952
Preceded by	Mikhail Suslov
Succeeded by	Dmitri Shepilov
Head of the Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR
In office 1953–1958
Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU
In office 31 October 1961 – 29 March 1966
Head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU
In office 20 December 1962 – May 1965
Preceded by	Office established (Fyodor Konstantinov as Propaganda and Agitation Department head)
Succeeded by	Pyotr Demichev
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR
In office 1965–1989
Personal details
Born	(1906-03-15)15 March 1906 Yekaterinodar, Russian Empire
Died	18 August 1990(1990-08-18) (aged 84) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Education	North Caucasian Communist University Institute of Red Professors

Leonid Fyodorovich Ilyichev (15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1906 – 17 August 1990) was a Soviet philosopher, journalist and politician who held several editorial and political offices throughout his career. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of Pravda from 1951 to 1952, the Head of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee from 1958 to 1961, and Head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee from 1961 to 1965.

Early life and career

Ilyichev was born in Yekaterinodar, Kuban Oblast, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire on 15 March 1906.

Later career

Ilyichev became an academic of the Russian Academy of Sciences on 29th of June, 1962, becoming a member of the Department of Economic, Philosophical and Legal Sciences (philosophy).

Press department

In April 1956, the Polish-Yiddish newspaper Folks-Sztyme published an article entitled “Undzer veytik un undzer treyst" (Our Pain and Our Consolation), which outlined the extent of Stalin's repression of Yiddish culture during the 'anti-cosmopolitan campaign'. Ilyichev, acting without permission to comment on the article, strongly opposed it, and called it "slanderous and anti-Soviet" on the grounds that the damage done to the Yiddish community was similar to that done to all other ethnic communities in the Soviet Union under Stalin. While he claimed much of the article was fallacious, he stayed silent on what aspects were untrue after Folks-Sztyme published an open response asking for clarification.

Ilyichev was frequently involved in the censorship, or attempted censorship, of art and media he perceived to be anti-Soviet. For example, after the death of John F. Kennedy, Melor Sturua writing for Izvestia published an image of the president in a black frame, a mark typically reserved for deceased Politburo members. For this, Ilyichev unsuccessfully attempted to expel Surura from the CPSU.

On 28 October 1962, during the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet officials were tasked with writing and translating a message from Khrushchev to Kennedy that would promise to dismantle and return Soviet missiles within Cuba, a message that would effectively end the crisis. The officials, believing that President John F. Kennedy would be delivering a speech at 9:00 am EST, rushed to finish the message, before passing the copies off to Ilyichev to deliver to the Radio Moscow headquarters approximately two hours before the perceived deadline. Ilyichev ordered his chauffeur to drive as fast as possible to the station regardless of traffic regulation, with Moscow Militsiya noticing the speed of the government car and waving traffic to the side. Once at the station, Ilyichev ordered famous radio announcer Yuri Levitan to deliver the message without rehearsal in order to meet the 9:00 deadline.

Foreign ministry

In early October 1982, Ilyichev was sent as the head of an envoy to the People's Republic of China for preliminary political consultations between China and the Soviet Union. General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev believed that the meetings could provide "common sense, mutual respect and mutual advantage", and hoped they could serve as a basis for reconciliation of the Sino-Soviet split. The consultations covered three key disputes China had with the Soviet Union: the Union's support of the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, the stationing of Soviet troops in the People's Republic of Mongolia, and the high number of Soviet troops on the Chinese border. Ilyichev's counterpart from China was Minister of Foreign Affairs Qian Qichen, the two frequently speaking with each other both within and outside formal meetings. Little was accomplished during the initial conference, however Qichen considers it to be the first step to normalized relations between the Soviet Union and China. Ilyichev would continue traveling to China to lead normalization talks, meeting with Wu Xueqian in October 1983, and Qichen again in October 1985.

Honors and awards

Throughout his career, Ilyichev was awarded several decorations and medals for his journalistic and political works.

	Lenin Prize, (1960)
	Order of Lenin, three times (4 May 1962, 14 May 1986, 14 May 1986)
	Order of the Red Banner of Labor, four times (15 March 1976, 14 May 1986, 14 May 1986, 14 May 1986, 14 May 1986)
	Order of the October Revolution, (14 May 1986)
	Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (14 May 1986)
	Order of the Badge of Honour (14 May 1986)

References

Bibliography

• Qichen, Qian (January 3, 2006). Ten Episodes in China's Diplomacy. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060854195.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

• Scammell, Michael (June 15, 2021). Solzhenitsyn A Biography. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000386615.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

• Friedla, Katharina; Nesselrodt, Markus (December 14, 2021). Polish Jews in the Soviet Union (1939–1959). Academic Studies Press. ISBN 9781644697511.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

• Johnson, Priscilla (February 15, 1965). Khrushchev and the Arts. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262100052.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

• Dobbs, Michael (June 2, 2009). One Minute to Midnight. Vintage Books. ISBN 9781400078912.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

• Skilling, H. Gordon; Griffiths, Franklyn (1971). Interest Groups in Soviet Politics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691056412.

• Estraikh, Gennady (2022). Jews in the Soviet Union: A History. Vol. 5. New York University Press. ISBN 9781479819485.

• Kind-Kovács, Friederike; Labov, Jessie (2013). Samizdat Tamizdat and Beyond). Berghahn Books. ISBN 9780857455864.

• Shubin, Vladimir (2008). Hot "Cold War": the USSR in Southern Africa). Pluto Press. ISBN 9780745324739.

• Michael, Franz (1975). "China and the Soviet Union: Waiting for Mao to Die?". Current History. 69 (408). University of California Press. JSTOR 45313347.

• Speier, Hans (1957). "Soviet Atomic Blackmail and the North Atlantic Alliance". World Politics. 9 (3). Johns Hopkins University Press. JSTOR 2008917z.

• Hsueh, Chun-tu (1982). "Russia Revisited: A New Look at the Triangular Relations". International Studies Notes. 9 (3). Oxford University Press. JSTOR 42554438.

• Ashin, Gennady (2008). "«ОЧЕНЬ НЕ ЛЮБЛЮ Я ЭЛИТУ...» Интервью с Геннадием Константиновичем Ашиным" [“I REALLY DON’T LIKE THE ELITE...” Interview with Gennady Konstantinovich Ashin] (PDF). Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology (in Russian). 11 (1): 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-08. Retrieved 2024-08-08.

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Categories:

• 1906 births
• 1990 deaths
• People from Krasnodar
• Pravda people
• Institute of Red Professors alumni
• Russian male journalists
• Ministers of foreign affairs of the Soviet Union
• Recipients of the Order of Lenin
• Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences