DMITRY S. POLYANSKY AS A REGIONAL LEADER IN THE MEMORIES OF CRIMEANS

Dmitry S. Polyansky (1917–2001) is known as one of the CPSU and USSR leaders. He combined his membership in the Politburo of the Communist Party (1960–1976) with the posts of Russian PM, the Deputy and First Deputy Chairman of the all-union Government, the Soviet Minister of Agriculture (1958–1976). Later Polyansky served a SU ambassador in Japan and Norway (1976–1987). As a politic and state activist he was involved to number of odious events: the transfer of the Crimean Oblast (1954), the defeat of the Anti-Party Group (1957), the “Ryazan affair” (1960), the “Novocherkassk massacre” (1962), the Nikita S. Khrushchev’s ouster (1964), the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968), the arrest and deportation of Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn (1974). Polyansky is also “accused” for the close relations with Joseph V. Stalin, the harassment to Alexander A. Galich, the concealment of Jewish origin, the bohemian lifestyle of family, the careerism and retrograde. But the other characteristics of him are seemed to be not noticed in literature and mass-media, although there are many facts that refute the dubious reviews about this representative of “red elite”. They underline his role in the development of the USSR and international cooperation, the fight against obscurantism in science and art, the support of Sergey N. Sergeyev-Tsensky, Vladimir S. Vysotsky, Valentin S. Pikul, Ivan M. Shevtsov etc. The article deals with the activity of Polyansky in 1949–1955. Unknown characteristics of this man, which belong to his relatives and former colleagues in the Crimea, are putting into circulation. The features of Polyansky’s image are recreated, the genesis of his personality is also explained.