Alexander Shelepin
| Alexander Shelepin Алекса́ндр Шеле́пин |
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| Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions | |
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In office 1967–1975 |
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| Preceded by | Viktor Grishin |
| Succeeded by | Alexey Shibaev |
| 2nd Chairman of the Committee for State Security | |
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In office 25 December 1958 – 13 November 1961 |
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| Premier | Nikita Khrushchev |
| Preceded by | Ivan Serov |
| Succeeded by | Vladimir Semichastny |
| Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers | |
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In office 19 May 1972 – 7 May 1973 |
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| Premier | Alexei Kosygin |
| Preceded by | Mikhail Yefremov |
| Succeeded by | Zia Nureyev |
| First Secretary of the Komsomol | |
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In office 30 October 1952 – 28 March 1958 |
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| Preceded by | Nikolai Mikhailov |
| Succeeded by | Vladimir Semichastny |
| Full member of the 22nd, 23rd, 24th Politburo | |
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In office 16 November 1964 – 16 April 1975 |
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| Member of the 22nd, 23rd Secretariat | |
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In office 31 October 1964 – 26 September 1967 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin 18 August 1918 Voronezh, Soviet Russia |
| Died | 24 October 1994 (aged 76) Moscow, Russian Federation |
| Citizenship | Soviet (until 1991) and Russian |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Шеле́пин; 18 August 1918 – 24 October 1994) was a Soviet state security officer and party statesman. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its Politburo and was the head of the KGB from 25 December 1958 to 13 November 1961.
Shelepin was born in Voronezh, according to one source the son of a railway official. A history and literature major while studying at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy and Literature, Shelepin was in charge of recruiting guerrilla fighters during World War II; after the notorious execution by the Germans of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (whom he had selected) Shelepin caught Joseph Stalin's attention and his political fortune was made. He became a senior official of the Communist Youth League in 1943, and at the head of the successor organisation, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, from 1952 to 1958. He accompanied Nikita Khrushchev on the Soviet leader's trip to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1954.
Shelepin then became the head of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, which had been reorganised and reformed as the KGB after the death of Soviet leader Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev appointed Shelepin in part because of several major KGB defections in the 1950s during the tenure of Ivan Serov as head of the KGB. Shelepin attempted to return state security to its position of importance during the Stalinist era. He demoted or fired many KGB officers, replacing them with officials from Communist Party organisations, and, especially, from the Communist Youth League.
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