Alexei Yepishev

Alexei Alexeevich Yepishev, also spelled Epishev (Russian: Алексей Алексеевич Епишев; May 19 [O.S. May 6] 1908 - September 15, 1985) was a Soviet political officer, politician and diplomat. He served as the Chief of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy from 1962 to 1985.

Early years

Yepishev was born to a laborer's family in Astrakhan. In 1923, he began working in a local fishery, where he joined the Komsomol; in 1927, he became the secretary of the fishery's branch of the organization and later, an instructor in the municipal branch. In 1929, he was accepted as a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), where he became an ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin.

In 1930, Yepishev joined the Red Army, where he underwent commanders' training in the following year and served as an political officer in the Tank Corps. In 1938, he graduated from the Joseph Stalin Military Academy for Mechanization and Motorization. In June that year he was sent as an political organizer to the Comintern Locomotive Factory in Kharkov, where he was responsible for the Party branch of the workers in the T-34 tanks' production line. There, he also joined the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR, in which he remained a member until 1952. In March 1940 he was appointed first secretary of the Kharkov regional Party committee. From May 1940 until January 1949 he was a member of the Organization Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party's Presidium.

World War II

After the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, Yepishev became responsible for directing the war effort in the region: he mobilized the Kharkov people's militia, of which he was the commissar, and organized partisan formations. In October 1941, shortly before the city's fall to the enemy, he was evacuated to the Urals, where he was appointed first secretary of the Party committee in Nizhny Tagil, and as such was responsible for the rebuilding of the arms factories transferred from the front line areas. In November 1942, he became the CPSU Central Committee's commissioner for personnel matters. On 22 December 1942 he was also appointed Deputy People's Commissar for medium machine building. During the Battle of Stalingrad, he was briefly stationed in the Stalingrad Front's military council. In February 1943, he was removed of all his posts and re-instated as the Kharkov party chief, as the Red Army seemed to recapture the area. On 26 May, Yepishev was given the rank of a major general and posted as member of the military council, the highest political officer, in General Kirill Moskalenko 40th Army. As such, he participated in the Battle of Kursk and the Lower Dnieper Offensive. On 2 November, he received the same position in the 38th Army, again under Moskalenko, and held it until the end of the Second World War. The 38th took part in the Battle of Kiev, the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive, the Battle of the Dukla Pass and the Prague Offensive.

Post-war career

On 11 May 1945, shortly after the German capitulation, Yepishev moved back to his former office in the 40th Army, which he held until August 1946. He then left the Armed Forces and was appointed the Ukrainian Communist Party's secretary for personnel matters. From 9 January 1950 until August 1951, he headed the Odessa region's Party committee. He was a deputy in the 3rd and 4th convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, between 12 March 1950 to 14 March 1958.

On 26 August 1951, Yepishev was posted as Deputy Minister for personnel matters in the Ministry for State Security. Yepishev was one of many officials with no prior experience in intelligence who were transferred to the MGB after it was purged of members associated with its executed former chief, Viktor Abakumov. On 14 October 1952, he was accepted as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. On 11 March 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, Yepishev was returned to his post in Odessa, where he remained until August 1955. On 26 March 1954, he was accepted as a member of the Ukrainian Communist Party's Central Committee.

From 14 August 1955 until 27 November 1960, Yepishev was the Soviet ambassador to the People's Republic of Romania. He left this office to immediately become ambassador in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the years 1961-1962. He was also a deputy of the 6th to 11th convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, from 18 March 1962 until his death.

On 11 May 1962, Yepishev was promoted to the rank of Army General and appointed Chief of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, effectively the Armed Forces' political supervisor. On 16 November 1964, he was accepted as a full member in the CPSU's Central Committee.

In July 1985, Yepishev was relieved of his post and appointed inspector in the Ministry of Defense. He died shortly after.