Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ( Bolshevik ) in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks , becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934 . He was Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia from 20 July 1938 – 20 June 1947 . Zhdanov has been described by John Arch Getty as a key figure in the Terror , advocating an approach that would make the party a vehicle for political education , ideological agitation , and cadre preparation on a mass scale . Zhdanov 's encouragement of rank-and-file mobilisation helped created momentum for the Terror . Though somewhat less active than Vyacheslav Molotov , Joseph Stalin , Lazar Kaganovich and Kliment Voroshilov , Zhdanov was a major perpetrator of the Great Terror and personally approved 176 documented execution lists . In June 1940 , he was sent to Estonia to supervise the establishment of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic and its annexation by the Soviet Union . At the end of the Terror , Zhdanov noted that ‘ other means apart from repression ’ could be used to enforce ‘ state and labour discipline ’ . At the 18th Congress of the CPSU ( and after the fall of Yezhov ) Zhdanov gave a key speech in which he proposed ' to abolish mass Party purges ... now that the capitalist elements have been eliminated ' , declaring that the purges had been co-opted by ' hostile elements ' to ' persecute and ruin honest people . He was one of those accused during the United States House of Representatives ' 1953 – 1954 Kersten Committee investigation into the annexation of the Baltic states
Great Terror
Great Purge
Andrei Zhdanov