Frol Romanovich Kozlov (18 August 1908 – 30 January 1965) was a Soviet politician and a member Secretariat from 1960–1964. He was a Hero of the Socialist Labour (1961).

Biography

Kozlov was born in the village of Loshchinino (Лощинино), Kasimovsky Uyezd of Ryazan Governorate. In 1921 he graduated from the first level of school. He began his career in 1923 as a labourer at a Kasimovsky spinning factory. At the same time, he studied at the Factory Apprenticeship School. In November 1923 he became a member of the Komsomol, and in 1925 he was elected executive secretary of the Komsomol factory team. Between 1953 and 1957, Kozlov was the first secretary of the Leningrad Oblast CPSU Committee. He was elected a candidate member of the Presidium (as the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was then called) on 14 February 1957 and served as a full member in 29 June 1957. In July 1959, he visited the secretive Bohemian Grove encampment in northern California. In 5 April 1960, he was elected as the Party's Senior Secretary of Cadres, then later he became the de facto Second Secretary of the CPSU from 1960–1963, he was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. He was considered Khrushchev's likely successor but even before his mentor's removal from office, Kozlov's position had been undermined by the effects of his alcoholism. He was relieved of his duties on 16 November 1964, following the ousting of his mentor, Nikita Khrushchev. At the time of his removal, Kozlov had already suffered a stroke, and he died shortly after his removal from office at the age of 56. He was honored with a state funeral and his ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. In 1992, he was deemed partly responsible for the June 1962 Novocherkassk massacre.

Decorations and awards