Boris Bajanov
| Boris Bazhanov | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Boris Bazhanov 1900 Mogilev-Podolskiy, Russia |
| Died | January 1982 (aged 81–82) Paris, France |
| Residence | France |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Other names |
|
| Citizenship | French |
| Known for | Stalin-era defector |
Boris Georgiyevich Bazhanov (Russian: Борис Георгиевич Бажанов, sometimes spelled Bajanov) (1900 – January 1982) was a secretary of the Soviet Union's Politburo, and personal secretary to Joseph Stalin from August 1923 to 1925.
After holding several different positions in the Politburo from 1925 to 1928, Bazhanov defected from the Soviet Union on January 1, 1928, gaining French citizenship. The only assistant of Stalin's secretariat to have defected, subsequent attempts to hunt down and kill Bazhanov in France failed, and from 1930 he wrote and published memoirs and books about the secrets behind Stalin's actions, which continued to be published and translated after his death in 1982.
Boris Bazhanov was born in 1900, in Mogilev-Podolskiy, Russian Empire (now in Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine), the son of a physician. When Bazhanov was 17 years old, the Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the collapse of the Russian Empire and the subsequent Russian Civil War. With the splintering of power in Bazhanov's native Ukraine, the Ukrainian territory was continuously fought over by various ideological factions.
Despite the political situation, Bazhanov graduated from high school in the summer of 1918, and in September went to study physics and mathematics at the University of Kiev, however shortly after his arrival the university was closed. During a student demonstration against the closure of the university Bazhanov was injured by gunfire, afterwards returning to his hometown to recover.
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