Arvīds Pelše | |
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Chairman of the Party Control Committee of the Central Committee | |
In office 8 April 1966 – 29 May 1983 |
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Preceded by | Nikolay Shvernik |
Succeeded by | Mikhail Solomentsev |
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Latvia | |
In office 25 November 1959 – 15 April 1966 |
|
Preceded by | Jānis Kalnbērziņš |
Succeeded by | Augusts Voss |
Full member of the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th Politburo | |
In office 8 April 1966 – 29 May 1983 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Iecava Parish, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire |
7 February 1899
Died | 29 May 1983 Moscow, Soviet Union |
(aged 84)
Nationality | Latvian |
Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
Profession | Historian |
Arvīds Pelše (Russian: А́рвид Я́нович Пе́льше, Arvid Yanovich Pelshe); February 7 [O.S. January 26] 1899 – May 29, 1983) was a Latvian Soviet politician, functionary, and historian.
Pelše was born into a peasant family, in "Mazie" farm near Zālīte, Iecava in Bauska District, Latvia to Johan Pelshe and his wife Lisa. He was baptized in the village church on March 14 of the same year. As a worker in Riga, Pelše joined the Social-Democratic Party (Bolsheviks) of the Latvian Region in 1915. In 1916 he met Lenin in Switzerland. Between 1914 and 1918, Pelše worked in the workshops of Riga and Vitebsk, as a milling machine operator at the steam-engine making plant in Kharkov, as a punching worker in Petrograd and a loader in the port of Arkhangelsk. On behalf of the local committees he had joined the revolutionary propaganda. He was delegate of the sixth congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of the Arkhangelsk party organization. He participated in the February Revolution in 1917 and was a member of the famous Petrograd Soviet. He was actively involved in the preparation and conducting of the October Revolution in 1917. In 1918 he joined the Cheka. In 1918, he was sent by Lenin to Latvia to prosecute the revolution there. In 1919 he was attached to the Red Army and later became a manager in the Construction Ministry of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic. After the defeat of the Soviet Latvian régime he returned to Russia in 1919.