Kliment Voroshilov

Kliment Voroshilov was a Russian and Soviet soldier and politician. He joined the Russian Imperial Army in 1903 and served in World War I. He joined the Bolsheviks during the Revolution and transferred his commission to the Red Army when that army was founded. He retired in 1953 with the rank of Marshal; however, despite being retired, he continued to hold the position of Marshal of the Soviet Union until his death. (Marshal of the Soviet Union was the highest military rank in the USSR with the exception of the purely honorary title of Generalissimo of the Soviet Union held by Josef Stalin in 1945.) His political offices included Defense Minister (1935-1969), People's Commisar for the Defense of the Soviet Union (1925-1940), and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1953-1960). He also sat in the Politburo from 1926 to 1960.

Voroshilov was a favorite of Stalin and survived the destalinizing purges of Nikita Khruschev in the 1950s and early 1960s. Despite attempts by Leonid Brezhnev to isolate Voroshilov politically, the marshal remained very popular and, to varying extents, influential until his death in 1969.

The K-V series of Soviet tanks was named in Voroshilov's honor.

Kliment Voroshilov in The War That Came Early
The K-V 1 tank, which allowed the Soviet armored divisions to claim a distinct advantage over their counterparts in the Second Coalition in the spring of 1941, was named in honor of Kliment Voroshilov.