Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (,, Klyment Okhrimovych Voroshylov ), popularly known as Klim Voroshilov () ( 4 February 1881 – 2 December 1969 ) was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman.

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

Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar for Defence in 1934 and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935.

Voroshilov personally signed 185 documented execution lists, fourth among the Soviet leadership after Molotov, Stalin and Kaganovich.

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Voroshilov was made commander of the short-lived Northwestern Direction, controlling several fronts.

Stalin's death on 5 March 1953 prompted major changes in the Soviet leadership and in March 1953, Voroshilov was approved as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ( i. e., the head of state ) with Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party and Georgy Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union.

Following Khrushchev's fall from power, Soviet leader Brezhnev brought Voroshilov out of retirement into a figurehead political post.

Voroshilov was awarded a second medal of Hero of the Soviet Union 1968.

Two towns were also named after him: Voroshilovgrad in Ukraine ( now changed back to the historical Luhansk ) and Voroshilov in the Soviet Far East ( now renamed Ussuriysk after the Ussuri river ), as well as the General Staff Academy in Moscow.

The day after the Pact was signed, the French and British military negotiation delegation urgently requested a meeting with Soviet military negotiator Kliment Voroshilov.

Soviet president Kliment Voroshilov, Soviet Communist Party chairman Nikita Khrushchev and Kekkonen in Moscow in 1960.

* March 5 – Katyn massacre: Members of the Soviet Politburo ( Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Mikhail Kalinin, Kliment Voroshilov and Lavrenty Beria ) sign an order, prepared by Beria, for the execution of 25, 700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14, 700 Polish POWs.

In a collaboration with Kliment Voroshilov, Molotov contributed both musically and lyrically to the 1944 version of the Soviet national anthem.

In 1945, Soviet Marshal Kliment Voroshilov forced the freely elected Hungarian government to yield the Interior Ministry to a nominee of the Hungarian Communist Party.

The Kliment Voroshilov ( KV ) tanks were a series of Soviet Red Army heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov.

Editors and contributors to the GSE included a number of leading Soviet scientists and politicians: Hamid Alimjan, Viktor Ambartsumian, Nikolai Baibakov, Mykola Bazhan, Maia Berzina, Nikolay Bogolyubov, Andrei Bubnov, Nikolai Bukharin, Nikolai Burdenko, Mikhail Frunze, Victor Glushkov, Igor Grabar, Pavel Lebedev-Polianskii, Veniamin Kagan, Ivan Knunyants, Andrei Kolmogorov, Valerian Kuybyshev, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Vladimir Obruchev, Aleksandr Oparin, Yuri Prokhorov, Karl Radek, Nikolai Semashko, and Kliment Voroshilov.

* Kliment Voroshilov ( Marshal of the Soviet Union )

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.

After the first German experiences with the newer Soviet tanks like the T-34 or the Kliment Voroshilov tank during Operation Barbarossa, the need for a Panzerjäger capable of destroying these more heavily armoured tanks became clear.

On November 30, 1939, forces of the USSR under the command of Kliment Voroshilov attacked Finland in what became known as the Winter War, starting with the invasion of Finnish Karelia and bombing civilian boroughs of Helsinki.

During World War II, Voroshilov was a member of the State Defense Committee.

The KV series of tanks, used in World War II, was named after Voroshilov.

These included both those who were purged in 1937 – 38 ( Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov ), and those who held high commands in the early years of World War II ( Budyonny, Kulik, Shaposhnikov, Timoshenko and Voroshilov ).

* KV-1, the first model of the Kliment Voroshilov tank, deployed by the Soviets in World War II

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.

A postage stamp featuring Voroshilov from 1976

Voroshilov was married to Ekaterina Davidovna, born Golda Gorbman, who came from a Jewish Ukrainian family from Mardarovka.

A list from the Great Purge signed by Molotov, Stalin, Kliment Voroshilov | Voroshilov, Lazar Kaganovich | Kaganovich and Andrei Zhdanov | Zhdanov

The first five marshals of the Soviet Union from left to right: Tukhachevsky, Budyonny, Voroshilov, Blyukher and Yegorov.

After Bondarenko's graduation in 1954 he was admitted to the Voroshilov Aviation Military Academy and a year later he was transferred to an air force college in Grozny, Armavir Military Pilot Aviation School, from which he graduated in 1957.

In September 1938 the People's Commissar for Defense, Kliment Voroshilov, reported that a total of 37, 761 officers and commissars were dismissed from the army, 10, 868 were arrested and 7, 211 were condemned for anti-Soviet crimes.

In retribution, Stalin instructed his crony Kliment Voroshilov, who was a Peoples Commissar of Defense, to bar Yakir from membership in the prestigious Advisory Council of the Defense Commissariat.

Voroshilov was nominated honorary citizen of the Turkish town of Izmir in November 1933 ; in Izmir also a street was named after him ( 1951 renamed " Plevne Bulvarı ").

This had begun the previous November, under the disastrous command of Kliment Voroshilov.

On November 20, the rank was conferred on five people: People's Commissar of Defence and veteran Bolshevik Kliment Voroshilov, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Alexander Ilyich Yegorov, and three senior commanders, Vasily Blyukher, Semyon Budyonny, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

In the November 1945 elections, Hungary, the Hungarian Communist Party, under Gerő and Mátyás Rákosi got 17 % of the vote, compared to 57 % for the Smallholders ' Party, but the Soviet Commander in Hungary, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov installed a coalition government with Communists in key posts.

On November 5, 1935, the city was renamed Voroshilovgrad () in honour of Soviet military commander and politician Kliment Voroshilov.

On 2 November Junkers Ju 88s of KG 51 scored several hits on the cruiser Voroshilov, and put it out of action for months.

Voroshilov initially argued that thousands of Polish army officers captured in September 1939 should be released but later signed the order for their execution.

After presiding over the disastrous start of the campaign, and a disproportionally heavy death toll of Red Army soldiers, Voroshilov was replaced by Semyon Timoshenko as the commander of the front on January 7, 1940 ( and four months later as People's Commissar for Defense ).

On January 5, 1970, after Voroshilov died, the name was changed again to Voroshilovgrad.