AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MIKHAIL ANDREEVICH SUSLOV
I was born in 1902 in the village of Shakhovskoe in the former Khvalynskii uezd of the Saratovskaia guberniia (now the Pavlovskii raion, Kuibyshev oblast). My father and mother were poor peasants; they ran a small peasant farm and didn't even have their own horse. For this reason, my father occasionally sought work as a carpenter (Baku, Arkhangel'sk). Soon after the October Revolution, my father quit farm work in the village completely, but my mother, with my help, continued to farm for a time. Subsequently, my father worked as a laborer (store-room keeper in a butter factory in the city of Vol'sk), as well as a leader in soviet work. While a member of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks), he died in 1930. My father had been expelled from the party because of his drinking. My mother died in 1920.
In my immediate family, I have a brother, Paul, not a party member, who works as a bookkeeper in the Kuibyshev oblast (I don't know exactly where since I haven't corresponded with him since 1929 or 1930). None of my relatives (in my immediate family) was in the White Army, was deprived of the right to vote, or went abroad.
Until 1920 I lived in the village of Shakhovskoe and helped my mother on the farm, and sometimes in winter I worked in the village soviet and on the Committee of Poor Peasants as the assistant secretary (my father was the chairman of the committee).
In 1919 I began in earnest to be interested in Bolshevist political pamphlets and politics. At the beginning of 1920, I organized a Komsomol branch in my village and was its secretary. I served the party at this time chiefly as a collector in the surplus-appropriation system and as an organizer of aid to poor peasants at the expense of rich peasants [kulaks].
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In the fall of 1931, by decision of the organizational bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) [TsK VKP(b)], I was sent to work at the USSR People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants Inspection [NKRKI SSSR] of the Central Control Commission [TsKK] of the VKP(b), where I worked as a senior inspector until the beginning of 1934. After the TsKK was abolished, I worked as a controller of the Commission of Soviet Control until August 1936. I took an active role in party work also in this period: in the culture and propaganda section of the party committee, the party organization, propagandist, for a large part of 1933 and 1934 I worked with the Urals party members, and after that in the Chernigov oblast commission to purge the party, where I was the leader of the inspection unit.
In the fall of 1936, I was detailed by the TsK VKP(b) to the Economics Institute of the Red Professorate (for the 2nd year course). I studied here for one year, after which I was sent by the TsK VKP(b) to Rostov as the head the Section for Leaders of Political Bodies [ORPO] of the Oblast Committee [Obkom] of the VKP(b).
For the entire period of my stay in the party, I have not been disciplined by the party in any way; I have never had any doubts about the general party line [...]
PERSONAL INFORMATION FORM FOR PARTY REGISTRATION
Last name Suslov First name Mikhail Patronymic Andreevich
1. Gender male 2. Year/month of birth January 1902 3. Place of birth (use existing administrative divisions) Kuibyshev oblast, Pavlovskii raion, village of Shakhovskoe 4. Nationality Russian 5. Social background: a) former social position (title) of parents poor peasants b) primary occupation of parents prior to October Revolution agriculture ; after October Revolution father--in soviet industrial and party work, died in 1930; mother--homemaker, died in 1920 6. Primary occupation up to entering party agriculture from youth 7. Social position office worker 8. Party affiliation member VKP(b) 9. Which organization accepted you into membership in the VKP(b) City regional committee of Moscow 10. Party member since March 1921 Party membership card no. 1219627 11. Member of Komsomol from February 1920 to 12. Other party memberships (which, where, how long) no other memberships 13. Were you formerly a member of the VKP(b) no 14. Did you participate in opposition activities (which groups, when) Did not 15. Trade union membership, from what year Workers in Government Agencies, from September 1920 16. Education higher
General and special education: Prechistenskii Worker's Faculty, Moscow, Feb. 1921-July 1924, Graduated; Plekhanov Institute of National Economy, Moscow, 1924-1928, Graduated, specialty of economist
Party and political education: Institute of Economics, Russian Association of Scientific Research Institutes of Social Sciences [RANION], Moscow, Fall 1929-Mar. 1931, did not graduate, completed 2nd year; Economics Institute of the Red Professorate, Moscow, Fall 1936-Oct. 1937, did not graduate, completed 3rd year. 17. Educational degree (title) do not have 18. Scholarly publications and inventions none 19. Have you traveled abroad no