directorate responsible for the nuclear weapons program. Following
Stalin’s death in March 1953, he was appointed first deputy minis-
ter in the Ministry of Medium Machine Building, responsible for
building and testing nuclear weapons. Zavenyagin died young. Ac-
cording to one history of the Soviet nuclear weapons program, he
bravely and perhaps recklessly exposed himself to nuclear radiation
in the building of the first Soviet nuclear weapons. Igor Kurchatov,
the father of the Soviet bomb, also died young after being heavily
exposed while working with Zavenyagin.ZEK. In Joseph Stalin’s gulagsystem, the term for a prisoner was zek,
short for zakulchoniy chelovek(imprisoned person).ZHDANOV, ANDREI (1896–1948). Zhdanov was Joseph Stalin’s
cultural and ideological commissar following World War II. During
the Great Patriotic War, Zhdanov served as Communist Partyboss
in Leningrad during the siege. Following the war, Zhdanov was
Stalin’s mouthpiece, attacking modern trends in literature, art, and
film in a campaign known as the Zhdanovshchina (the Time of
Zhdanov). He denounced the great poet Anna Akhmatova as “half
nun, half harlot” and railed against anti-Russian and anti-Soviet
trends in the arts. Stalin used the issue of ideological conformity to
crack down on Jewish intellectuals and order the murder of the actor
Solomon Mikhoels. The MGBalso moved to destroy small literary
groups that had sprung up during the war. Hundreds of students were
arrested for participation in these groups.
Zhdanov, in poor health, died of a heart attack as the campaign
he unleashed began to gather speed. A young doctor denounced
Zhdanov’s primary physicians to Stalin for mishandling his care:
Zhdanov had been allowed out of bed prematurely after suffering a
series of heart attacks. Stalin paid no attention to the denunciation at
the time, but he had the letter placed in a special file. Four years later
he would use the denunciation as the spark to begin his last great
purge, the Doctors’ Plot. Even in death, Zhdanov served Stalin.ZHIVAGO. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890–1960) wrote his great
novel Doctor Zhivagoin secret over many years. In 1957 the manu-300 •ZEK06-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 300