Page "Kliment Voroshilov" Paragraph 1

Voroshilov was born in the settlement of Verkhnye, Bakhmut district ( uyezd ), Yekaterinoslav Governorate ( now part of Lysychansk city in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine ), in the Russian Empire, into a railway worker's family of Russian ethnicity.

However, according to the Soviet Major General Pyotr Grigorenko Voroshilov himself alluded to his Ukrainian heritage and the previous family name of Voroshilo.

Voroshilov joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Voroshilov became a member of the Ukrainian Council of People's Commissars and Commissar for Internal Affairs along with Vasili Averin.

He was well known for aiding Joseph Stalin in the Military Council ( led by Leon Trotsky ), having become closely associated with Stalin during the Red Army's 1918 defense of Tsaritsyn.

Voroshilov was active as a commander of the Southern Front during the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War while with the 1st Cavalry Army.

As Political Commissar serving co-equally with Stalin, Voroshilov was responsible for the morale of the 1st Cavalry Army, which was composed chiefly of peasants from southern Russia.

Voroshilov's efforts as Commissar did not prevent a resounding defeat at the Battle of Komarów or regular outbreaks of murderous anti-Semitic violence within the Cavalry army's ranks.