Editing Vyacheslav Molotov (section)

==Soviet Premier==
[[File:Molotov-Stalin.png|thumb|Molotov and Stalin]]
Addressing a Moscow communist party conference on 23 February 1929, Molotov emphasised the need to undertake "the most rapid possible growth of industry" both for economic reasons and because, he claimed, the Soviet Union was in permanent, imminent danger of attack.<ref>{{cite book |last1=E.H.Carr |first1=and R.W.Davies |title=Foundations of a Planned Economy, volume 1 |date=1974 |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex |page=352}}</ref> The argument over how fast to expand industry was behind the rift between Stalin and the right, led by Bukharin and Rykov, who feared that too rapid a pace would cause economic dislocation. With their defeat, Molotov emerged as the second most powerful figure in the Soviet Union. During the Central Committee plenum of 19 December 1930, Molotov succeeded [[Alexey Rykov]] as the [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] of the [[Council of People's Commissars]], the equivalent of a Western [[head of government]].{{sfn|Montefiore|2005|pp=63–64}}

In that post, Molotov oversaw the implementation of the [[First Five-Year Plan]] for rapid industrialisation.{{sfn|Montefiore|2005|pp=45 and 58}} Despite the great human cost, the Soviet Union under Molotov's nominal premiership made large strides in the adoption and the widespread implementation of agrarian and industrial technology. Germany secretly purchased munitions that spurred a modern armaments industry in the USSR.<ref>{{Cite book |author = Scott Dunn, Walter | title = The Soviet economy and the Red Army, 1930–1945 | publisher = [[Greenwood Publishing Group]] | year = 1995 | isbn = 0-275-94893-5 | page = 22}}</ref> Ultimately, that arms industry, along with American and British  aid, helped the Soviet Union prevail in the [[Second World War]].<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Davies, Robert William |author2=Harrison, Mark |author3=Wheatcroft, S.G. | title = The Economic transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913–1945 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | year = 1994 | isbn = 0-521-45770-X | pages = 250–251}}</ref>

[[File:Voroshilov Kaganovich Kosarev Molotov 1932.jpg|thumb|[[Klim Voroshilov]], [[Lazar Kaganovich]], Alexander Kosarev and Vyacheslav Molotov at the seventh Conference of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol), July 1932.]]

=== Role in collectivisation ===
Molotov also oversaw [[collectivisation in the USSR|agricultural collectivisation]] under [[Stalin's regime]]. He was the main speaker at the Central Committee plenum in 10–17 November 1929, at which the decision was made to introduce collective farming in place of the thousands of small farms owned by peasants, a process that was bound to meet resistance. Molotov insisted that it must begin the following year, and warned officials to "treat the [[kulak]] as the most cunning and still undefeated enemy."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Conquest |first1=Robert |title=The Harvest of Sorrow, Soviet Collectivisation and the Terror-Famine |date=1988 |publisher=Arrow |location=London |isbn=0-09-956960-4 |page=112}}</ref> In the four years that followed, millions of 'kulaks' (land-owning peasants) were forcibly moved onto special settlements to be used as slave labour. In 1931 alone almost two million were deported. In that year, Molotov told the Congress of Soviets "We have never refuted the fact that healthy prisoners capable of normal labour are used for road building and other public works. This is good for society; it is also good for the peasants themselves."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Polonsky |first1=Rachel |title=Molotov's Magic Lantern, Uncovering Russia's Secret History |date=2011 |publisher=faber and faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-23781-4 |page=290}}</ref> The famine caused by the disruption of agricultural output and the emphasis on exporting grain to pay for industrialisation, and the harsh conditions of forced labour killed an estimated 11 million people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Conquest |title=Harvest of Sorrow |page=306}}</ref> 
 
Despite the famine, in September 1931, Molotov sent a secret telegram to communist leaders in the North Caucasus telling them the collection of grain for export was going "disgustingly slowly."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Applebaum |first1=Anne |title=Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine |date=2018 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=978-0-141-97828-4 |page=168}}</ref> In December, he travelled to [[Kharkiv]], then the capital of Ukraine, and, ignoring warnings from local communist leaders about a grain shortage, told them that their failure to meet their target for grain collection was due to their incompetence. He returned to Kharkiv in July 1932, with [[Lazar Kaganovich]], to tell the local communists that there would be no "concessions or vacillations" in the drive to meet targets for exporting grain. This was the first of several actions that led a Kyiv Court of Appeal in 2010 to find Molotov, and Kaganovich, guilty of genocide against the Ukrainian people. On 25 July, the same two men followed up the meeting with a secret telegram ordering the Ukrainian leadership to intensify grain collection.<ref>{{cite web |title=Resolution of the court, Kyiv Court of Appeal, 2-A Solomyanska Street, Kyiv. Ruling in the name of Ukraine |url=https://holodomormuseum.org.ua/en/resolution-of-the-court/ |website=Holodomor Museum |date=16 October 2019 |access-date=30 August 2021}}</ref>

=== Temporary rift with Stalin ===
Between the assassination of [[Sergei Kirov]], the head of the Party organization in [[Leningrad]], in December 1934, and the start of the [[Great Purge]], there was a significant but unpublicised rift between Stalin and Molotov. In 1936, Trotsky, in exile, noted that when lists of party leaders appeared in Soviet press reports, Molotov's name sometimes appeared as low as fourth in the list "and he was often deprived of his initials", and that when he was photographed receiving a delegation, he was never alone, but always flanked by his deputies, [[Janis Rudzutaks]] and [[Vlas Chubar]]. "In Soviet ritual all these are signs of paramount importance," Trotsky noted.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=In the Columns of Pravda |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/xx/pravda.html |website=Leon Trotsky Internet Archive |publisher=Marxists.org |access-date=1 September 2021}}</ref> Another startling piece of evidence was that the published transcript of the first [[Moscow Show Trial]] in August 1936, the defendants – who had been forced to confess to crimes of which they were innocent – said that they had conspired to kill Stalin and seven other leading Bolsheviks, but not Molotov.<ref>{{cite book |title=Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre |date=1936 |publisher=People's Commissariat of Justice of the USSR |location=Moscow |page=38}}</ref> According to [[Alexander Orlov (Soviet defector)|Alexander Orlov]], an NKVD officer who defected to the west, Stalin personally crossed Molotov's name out of the original script.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orlov |first1=Alexander |title=A Secret History of Stalin's Crimes |date=1954 |page=162}}</ref>

In May 1936, Molotov went to the [[Black Sea]] on an extended holiday under careful NKVD supervision until the end of August, when Stalin apparently changed his mind and ordered Molotov's return.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Molotov and the Sovnarkon 1930–1941|last=Watson|first=Derek|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=1996|isbn=978-1-349-24848-3|location=UK|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-24848-3|page=162}}</ref>

Two explanations have been put forward for Molotov's temporary eclipse. On 19 March 1936 Molotov gave an interview with the editor of ''Le Temps'' concerning improved relations with Nazi Germany.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Stati I Rechi 1935–1936|pages=231–232}}</ref> Although Litvinov had made similar statements in 1934 and even visited Berlin that year, Germany had not then reoccupied the [[Rhineland]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Maxim Litvinov: A Biography|last=Holroyd-Doveton|first=John|publisher=Woodland Publications|year=2013|isbn=9780957296107|pages=408}}</ref> Derek Watson believed that it was Molotov's statement on foreign policy that offended Stalin. Molotov had made it clear that improved relations with Germany could develop only if its policy changed and stated that one of the best ways for Germany to improve relations was to rejoin the [[League of Nations]]. However, even that was not sufficient since Germany still had to give proof "of its respect for international obligations in keeping with the real interests of peace in Europe and peace generally."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Molotov and the Sovnarkon 1930–1941|last=Watson|first=Derek|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=1996|isbn=978-1-349-24848-3|location=UK|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-24848-3|page=16}}</ref> Robert Conquest and others believe that Molotov "dragged his feet" over Stalin's plans to purge the party and put Old Bolsheviks like Zinoviev and Kamenev on trial.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Conquest |first1=Robert |title=The Great Terror |date=1971 |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex |page=151}}</ref>

=== Role in the Great Purge ===
[[File:Molotov, Stalin and Voroshilov, 1937.jpg|thumb|Molotov (left) with [[Stalin]] (center) and [[Kliment Voroshilov|Voroshilov]] (right) in 1937 during the great purge]] 
After his return to favor, in August, Molotov supported Stalin throughout the purge, during which, in 1938 alone, 20 out of 28 [[People's Commissars]] in Molotov's Government were executed. {{sfn|Montefiore|2005|p=244}} After his deputy, Rudzutak, had been arrested, Molotov visited him in prison, and recalled years later that... "Rudzutak said he had been badly beaten and tortured. Nevertheless he held firm. Indeed, he seemed to have been cruelly tortured" ...but he did not intervene.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chuev |first1=Felix |title=Molotov Remembers, Inside Kremlin Politics |date=1993 |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |location=Chicago |isbn=1-56663-027-4 |pages=272–74}}</ref>  
During the Great Purge, he approved 372 documented execution lists, more than any other Soviet official, including Stalin. Molotov was one of the few with whom Stalin openly discussed the purges. When Stalin received a note denouncing the deputy chairman of [[Gosplan]], [[Georgy Oppokov|G.I.Lomov]], he passed it to Molotov, who wrote on it: "For immediate arrest of that bastard Lomov."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Medvedev |first1=Roy |title=Let History Judge, The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism |date=1976 |publisher=Spokesman |location=Nottingham |pages=345–46}}</ref>

Before the Bolshevik revolution, Molotov had been a "very close friend" of a [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialist Revolutionary]], [[Aleksandr Arosev|Alexander Arosev]], who shared his exile in Vologda. In 1937, fearing arrest, Arosev tried three times to ring Molotov, who refused to speak to him. He was arrested and shot. In the 1950s, Molotov gave Arosev's daughter his signed copies of her father's books, but later wished he had kept them. "It appears that it was not so much the loss of his 'very close friend' but the loss of part of his own book collection ... that Molotov continued to regret."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Polonsky |title=Molotov's Magic Lantern |page=87}}</ref>

Late in life, Molotov described his role in purges of the 1930s, arguing that despite the overbreadth of the purges, they were necessary to avoid Soviet defeat in World War II:

{{quote|Socialism demands immense effort. And that includes sacrifices. Mistakes were made in the process. But we could have suffered greater losses in the war – perhaps even defeat – if the leadership had flinched and had allowed internal disagreements, like cracks in a rock. Had leadership broken down in the 1930s we would have been in a most critical situation, many times more critical than actually turned out. I bear responsibility for this policy of repression and consider it correct. Admittedly, I have always said grave mistakes and excesses were committed, but the policy on the whole was correct.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chuev |first=Felix |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28148163 |title=Molotov Remembers: Inside Kremlin Politics : Conversations with Felix Chuev |publisher=I.R. Dee |others=Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov, Albert Resis |year=1993 |isbn=1-56663-027-4 |location=Chicago |pages=256 |oclc=28148163}}</ref>}}