predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place citizenship imagesize party office birth_date term_start article_title term_end name
andrei zhdanov andrei zhdanov pyotr popkov pyotr popkov 1 october 1950 borovichi , russian empire leningrad , russian sfsr , soviet union soviet 160px communist party of the soviet union first secretary of the leningrad city party committee member of the secretary 18th secretariat member of the 18th orgburo of the leningrad regional party committee first 30 october 1895 17 18 march 1946 january 1945 17 january 1945 18 march 1946 alexey kuznetsov
 26 7 march 1949 march 1946 26 march 1946 28 january 1949 alexey kuznetsov Алексей Кузнецов
alexey kuznetsov

alexey alexandrovich kuznetsov -lrb- , borovichi -- october 1 , 1950 , moscow -rrb- was a soviet statesman , cpsu -lrb- since 1925 -rrb- functionary , lieutenant general , member of cpsu central committee -lrb- 1939-1949 -rrb- .
he was second secretary -lrb- deputy leader -rrb- to leningrad cpsu `` gorkom '' -lrb- city committee -rrb- and `` obkom '' -lrb- oblast committee -rrb- , and , during the siege of leningrad , helped organize the city 's defense .
for his work during the siege , he was promoted to first secretary in 1945 .
zhdanov was thought to want kuznetsov to replace him as cc party chairman .
kuznetsov was also believed to be a possible replacement for stalin on the latter 's death .
he was a strong supporter of stalin , who appointed him to head the security functions of the party , showing how much the soviet leader trusted him .
the beginning of kuznetsov 's fall came when stalin demoted him and returned him to a minor post in leningrad -lrb- a frequent sign that the subject was destined for a final fall -rrb- .
this may have been because kuznetsov had been digging into kirov 's death - suspicion of stalin 's involvement in this murder has never been put to rest .
eventually kuznetsov was arrested , tried and sentenced to death in a secret trial during the leningrad affair .
he was executed in 1950 .
his death consolidated the power of malenkov , beria and bulganin -- with the inference that they may have been involved in the charges -- fabricated or not .
he was rehabilitated posthumously .
