Институт красной профессуры
Vasily Pronin was born into a peasant family in the village of Pavlovo in Ryazan guberniya. As a young man, he earned his living by working as a farm laborer, repairman at the Nizhny Novgorod Railway, switcher at the Moscow Railway, and factory turner. In 1925, Pronin joined the ranks of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and engaged himself in Komsomol and party activities. Later on he graduated from the Institute of Red Professors and moved to Tuva on a party assignment. In 1938, Vasily Pronin was appointed secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party and then became chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council in April 1939.