Speech by K.E. Voroshilov at the parade on November 7, 1941 in Kuibyshev

For the first time in the national historiography of the Great Patriotic War, the article examines the process of preparing a speech by Marshal K.E. Voroshilov at the parade held on November 7, 1941 in the temporary military capital of the Soviet state, Kuibyshev. The article is based on declassified draft versions of the speech, which are in the fund of K.E. Voroshilov of the Council of People's Commissars of the State Archive of the Russian Federation. These documents are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The analysis of the draft versions of the speech led the authors to the conclusion that Voroshilov prepared the speech on his own and worked carefully on the content, constantly improving it. Writing a speech has gone from a plan to several options, first handwritten and then typed. Voroshilov constantly worked on improving the text of the speech, as evidenced by inserts into the same version, made both in ink and in pencil. When working on a speech, Voroshilov had to take into account two points that imposed special responsibility on his speech. If it was impossible to broadcast the parade from Moscow, it was supposed to broadcast the parade from Kuibyshev. Secondly, the military attaches of the diplomatic missions located in Kuibyshev were present at the parade. In this regard, special attention is paid in the article to the analysis of the search for definitions of the allied countries of the USSR in the war. At the same time, a comparison of the speech delivered at the parade and printed in the newspapers of the country, and the last version of the speech, located in Voroshilov's papers, showed a rather significant difference. Based on this, the authors made a hypothetical conclusion that the speech was corrected and expanded for publication. This indicates that Voroshilov's speech did not fully satisfy the leaders of the state and was corrected.