Kyrychenko, Oleksii

Kyrychenko, Oleksii [Кириченко, Олексій; Kyryčenko, Oleksij], b 25 February 1908 in Chornobaivka khutir, near Kherson, Kherson gubernia, d 29 December 1975 in Moscow. Soviet party and state official. He worked in the apparat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1938 and as a political officer in the Soviet Army during the Second World War. He was second secretary of the CC CPU (1949–53). After Joseph Stalin’s death he was the first Ukrainian head of the CC CPU (1953–7), member of the Presidium of the CC CPU (1952–7), and candidate member (1953–5) and full member (1955–60) of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev’s protégé and a very influential member of the CPSU secretariat, he was demoted in 1960.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]