Editing Kliment Voroshilov (section)

== Political career ==
Voroshilov served as a member of the Central Committee from his election in 1921 until 1961. In 1925, after the death of Mikhail Frunze, Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar for Military and Navy Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR,
<nowiki> </nowiki>a post he held until 1934. His main accomplishment in this period was 
to move key Soviet war industries east of the Urals, so that the Soviet 
Union could strategically retreat, while keeping its manufacturing 
capability intact.<sup>[6]</sup> Frunze's political position adhered to that of the Troika (Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev,
<nowiki> </nowiki>Stalin), but Stalin preferred to have a close, personal ally in charge 
(as opposed to Frunze, a "Zinovievite"). Frunze was urged by a group of 
Stalin's hand-picked doctors to have surgery to treat an old stomach ulcer, despite previous doctors recommendations to avoid surgery and Frunze's own unwillingness.<sup>[7]</sup> He died on the operating table of a massive overdose of chloroform, an anesthetic. Leon Trotsky charged that the surgery served to disguise the assassination of Frunze.<sup>[7]</sup> Voroshilov became a full member of the newly formed Politburo in 1926, remaining a member until 1960.

Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar (Minister) for Defence in 1934 and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935. He played a central role in Stalin's [[Great Purge]]
<nowiki> </nowiki>of the 1930s, denouncing many of his own military colleagues and 
subordinates when asked to do so by Stalin. He wrote personal letters to
<nowiki> </nowiki>[[exile]]d former Soviet officers and diplomats such as commissar Mikhail 
Ostrovsky, asking them to return voluntarily to the Soviet Union and 
falsely reassuring them that they would not face retribution from 
authorities.<sup>[5]</sup> Voroshilov personally signed 185 documented execution lists, fourth among the Soviet leadership after [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], Stalin and [[Lazar Kaganovich]].<sup>[8]</sup>

During [[World War II]], Voroshilov was a member (1941–1944) of the State Defense Committee. Voroshilov commanded Soviet troops during the Winter War from November 1939 to January 1940 but, due to poor Soviet planning and Voroshilov's incompetence as a general,<sup>[9]</sup> the Red Army suffered about 185,000 casualties. When the leadership gathered at Stalin's dacha at Kuntsevo,
<nowiki> </nowiki>Stalin shouted at Voroshilov for the losses; Voroshilov replied in 
kind, blaming the failure on Stalin for eliminating the Red Army's best 
generals in his purges. Voroshilov followed this retort by smashing a 
platter of roast suckling pig on the table. [[Nikita Khrushchev]] said it was the only time he ever witnessed such an outburst.<sup>[10]</sup>
<nowiki> </nowiki>Voroshilov was nonetheless made the scapegoat for the initial failures 
in Finland. He was later replaced as Defense Commissar by Semyon Timoshenko. Voroshilov was then made Deputy Premier responsible for cultural matters.<sup>[11]</sup>

Voroshilov initially argued that thousands of Polish army officers 
captured in September 1939 should be released, but he later signed the 
order for their execution in the [[Katyn Massacre]] of 1940.<sup>[12]</sup>

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Voroshilov became commander of the short-lived Northwestern Direction (July to August 1941), controlling several fronts. In September 1941 he commanded the Leningrad Front. Working alongside military commander Andrei Zhdanov as German advances threatened to cut off Leningrad,
<nowiki> </nowiki>he displayed considerable personal bravery in defiance of heavy 
shelling at Ivanovskoye; at one point he rallied retreating troops and 
personally led a counter-attack against German tanks armed only with a 
pistol.<sup>[13]</sup>
<nowiki> </nowiki>However, the style of counterattack he launched had long since been 
abandoned by strategists and drew mostly contempt from his military 
colleagues;<sup>[9]</sup> he failed to prevent the Germans from surrounding Leningrad and he was dismissed from his post and replaced by the far abler Georgy Zhukov on 8 September 1941.<sup>[14]</sup> Stalin had a political need for popular wartime leaders, however, and Voroshilov remained as an important figurehead.<sup>[9]</sup>

In an embarrassing incident at the 1943 Tehran Conference, during a ceremony to receive the "Sword of Stalingrad" from Winston Churchill, he took the sword from Stalin but then allowed the sword to fall from its scabbard onto his toes in the presence of the Big Three wartime leaders.<sup>[15]</sup>

In 1945–1947 Voroshilov supervised the establishment of the communist regime in postwar Hungary.<sup>[9]</sup>

In 1952, Voroshilov was appointed a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee.
<nowiki> </nowiki>Stalin's death on 5 March 1953 prompted major changes in the Soviet 
leadership. On 15 March 1953, Voroshilov was approved as Chairman of the
<nowiki> </nowiki>Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (i.e., the head of state) with Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party and [[Georgy Malenkov]] as Premier of the Soviet Union. Voroshilov, Malenkov, and Khrushchev brought about the 26 June 1953 arrest of [[Lavrentiy Beria]] after Stalin's death.