Kliment Voroshilov
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People's Commissar for Defence, 1925-1940; Marshal of the Soviet Union; Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, 1953-1960 · Soviet Union
On the regime page: Soviet Union under Stalin
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Content note: Describes purged Red Army officers as a "gang" wiped out. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“The trotskyites and their later accomplices, who for quite a long time occupied leading posts in the Party and in the Government, did their utmost to weaken the army cadres, to demoralize them and to turn them into a political tool for their dastardly counterrevolutionary activities, and thereby to disorganize the ranks of our Red Army. Under Stalin’s immediate direction this Trotsky-Bukharin gang and the effects of its machinations were completely wiped out.”
English: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.
Voroshilov, then People's Commissar for Defence, wrote the article after the 1937-38 purge of senior Red Army officers. The passage refers to the removal of those officers as the destruction of a Trotsky-Bukharin gang.
"Stalin, Builder of the Red Army" (article for Stalin's sixtieth birthday), in K. Voroshilov, Stalin and the Armed Forces of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951), p. 72 Source
Content note: Describes purge victims as enemy agents and traitors. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“Invaluable was the service Comrade Stalin rendered to our Motherland when he divined just in time the plans of the enemy agents in our country as represented by the trotskyites, bukharinites, and other traitors, wreckers and emissaries of the bourgeoisie. These enemies of the people attempted to undermine the economic and military might of our country and create a situation favourable to the imperialists in the event of war. Comrade Stalin directed the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet people along the line of defeating their enemies, which was decisive in the question of successfully building Socialism and strengthening the defensive capacity of the U.S.S.R.”
English: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.
Voroshilov credits Stalin with foreseeing the plans of those condemned in the Moscow trials. The passage follows his account of Stalin's role in the Civil War.
"Stalin, Builder of the Red Army" (article for Stalin's sixtieth birthday), in K. Voroshilov, Stalin and the Armed Forces of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951), pp. 50-51 Source
Content note: Calls the Yugoslav leadership a clique of spies and fascists. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“Resorting to monstrous hypocrisy, such as vows of loyalty to Socialism, the Tito clique has tried to deceive the Yugoslav people and the peoples in the democratic camp, conceal from them, at the behest of Anglo-American imperialism, their fascist interior, their sinister designs against the Soviet Union and the People’s Democracies. The recent Budapest and Sofia trials of the imperialist agents Rajk and Kostov demonstrated to the whole world how the Belgrade adventurers made the peoples of Yugoslavia pass under the yoke of Wall Street and the City, converting that country into a nest of spies, a centre of fascist imperialist aggression in the Balkans”
English: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.
Voroshilov, then Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, wrote after the Soviet-Yugoslav split of 1948 and the 1949 Rajk and Kostov trials in Hungary and Bulgaria. The article accuses the Yugoslav leadership under Tito of serving Western powers.
"A Commander of Genius of the Great Patriotic War", written for Stalin's seventieth birthday (21 December 1949), in K. Voroshilov, Stalin and the Armed Forces of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951), pp. 145-146 Source
“On the 21st of December 1949 the Soviet people and all progressive mankind celebrate the seventieth birthday of the greatest man on our planet, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin—their wise leader, teacher, indefatigable fighter for peace and for the independence of nations, the builder of a new human society and a commander of genius.”
English: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1951; translator not credited. Original-language text not found.
Opening of Voroshilov's article for Stalin's seventieth birthday, published during the personality cult that surrounded Stalin.
"A Commander of Genius of the Great Patriotic War", opening paragraph, in K. Voroshilov, Stalin and the Armed Forces of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951), p. 81 (chapter opening) Source