Mikhail Kalinin

Mikhail Kalinin
Михаил Калинин
Kalinin in 1920
1st Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 17 January 1938 – 20 March 1946
Leader	Joseph Stalin
Premier	Vyacheslav Molotov Joseph Stalin
Deputy	Nikolai Shvernik
Preceded by	Office established; Himself (as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee)
Succeeded by	Nikolai Shvernik
Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union
In office 30 December 1922 – 17 January 1938
Premier	Vladimir Lenin Alexei Rykov Vyacheslav Molotov
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished; Himself (as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet)
3rd Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets
In office 30 March 1919 – 15 July 1938
Preceded by	Yakov Sverdlov Mikhail Vladimirsky (acting)
Succeeded by	Office abolished; Aleksei Badayev (as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR)
Other offices held Full member of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Politburo In office 1 January 1926 – 3 June 1946 Member of the Orgburo In office 16 March 1921 – 2 June 1924 Candidate member of the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th Politburo In office 25 March 1919 – 1 January 1926
Personal details
Born	(1875-11-19)19 November 1875 Verkhnyaya Troitsa, Russia
Died	3 June 1946(1946-06-03) (aged 70) Moscow, Soviet Union
Resting place	Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow
Political party	RSDLP (1898–1903) RSDLP (Bolsheviks) (1903–1918) VKP(b) (1918–1946)
Spouse	Ekaterina Ivanovna Lorberg-Kalinina
Occupation	Civil servant
Signature

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (Russian: Михаил Иванович Калинин, IPA: [kɐˈlʲinʲɪn] ^ⓘ; 19 November [O.S. 7 November] 1875 – 3 June 1946)^[1][2][3] was a Soviet politician and Russian Old Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1938 until his resignation in 1946. From 1926 until his death, he was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Born to a peasant family, Kalinin worked as a metal worker in Saint Petersburg and took part in the 1905 Russian Revolution as an early member of the Bolsheviks. During and after the October Revolution, he served as mayor of Petrograd (St. Petersburg). After the revolution, Kalinin became the head of the new Soviet state, as well as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Politburo.

Kalinin remained the titular head of state of the Soviet Union after the rise of Joseph Stalin, with whom he enjoyed a privileged relationship, but held little real power or influence. He retired in 1946 and died in the same year. The former East Prussian city of Königsberg, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945, was renamed Kaliningrad after him a year later. The city of Tver was also known as Kalinin until 1990, when its historic name was restored, one year before the eventual fall of the Soviet Union.