Tikhon Yurkin

Tikhon Alexandrovich Yurkin (Russian: Ти́хон Алекса́ндрович Ю́ркин; 29 June 1898 – 18 August 1986) was a Soviet statesman.

Tikhon Yurkin
Тихон Юркин
Yurkin in 1930
Minister of Procurement of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
In office March 6, 1961 – 1962
Minister of Grain Products of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
In office September 5, 1960 – March 6, 1961
Preceded by	Fedor Kulakov
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Minister of Soviet Farms of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
In office 1954–1957
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
4th People's Commissar of Grain and Livestock Soviet Farms of the Soviet Union
In office July 22, 1937 – November 21, 1938
Preceded by	Nikolay Demchenko
Succeeded by	Pavel Lobanov
People's Commissar of Grain and Livestock Soviet Farms of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
In office September 1936 – August 1937
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Ivan Benediktov
1st People's Commissar of Grain and Livestock Soviet Farms of the Soviet Union
In office October 1, 1932 – April 4, 1934
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Moisey Kalmanovich
Personal details
Born	June 29, 1898 Moscow, Russian Empire
Died	August 18 or August 19, 1986 Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Resting place	Kuntsevo Cemetery (Moscow City)
Political party	Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (since 1919)
Awards	Order of Lenin Order of the October Revolution Order of Friendship of Peoples Medal "For Labour Valour"

Biography

Yurkin was born on June 29, 1898 in the family of a water carrier. He was of Russian ethnicity.^[1] Yurkin became a member of the Russian Communist Party from 1919. From 1911 he was a turner at the factories of Moscow and Petrograd; he then served in food detachments in Valuyki and Samara. Starting in 1922, he worked in various Soviet farms in towns such as Kropotkin and Armavir.^[2]

In 1928–1930, he was the organizer and first director of the Soviet grain farm Gigant.^[2] He then became the chairman of the Board of the All–Union Union of Agricultural Collectives of the Soviet Union in 1930.^[3] In the same year, he became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1931 Yurkin became Chairman of the State Association of Union Trusts of Grain Farms. From then until 1937, he moved between various People's Commissar of Grain and Livestock Farms jobs.^[4]

In the autumn of 1938, he was accused by Lavrentiy Beria of spying for the United States of America. Stalin did not agree with the accusations, but on November 21, 1938, Yurkin was removed from the post of People's Commissar "as having failed to do his job" and in the same year was removed from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.^{[citation needed]}

In 1939–1943, he was the director of the Soviet farm "May 1" in Balashikha. During the war, he met and began to live in a civil marriage with Lyudmila Ponomareva. He received a secondary education from the Kupyansk Agricultural College in 1948 as an external student.^[1]

Between 1949 and 1969, Yurkin bounced between different ministeries within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic; these included Minister of Soviet Farms and Minister of Procurement. In 1962, he became an adviser to the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and was later promoted to Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union from the Novosibirsk Region.^[1]

Yurkin died on August 18/19, 1986, and was buried at the Kuntsevo Cemetery.^[5]

Personal life

Yurkin fathered four children - Yuri Yurkin, Olga Sumarokova, Evgenia Semyonova, and Eleonora Yurkina. He had four grandchildren, including Alexey Semyonov. He was also the great-uncle of the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Ilya Ponomarev.

Awards

He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and the Order of Friendship of Peoples.^[1]