Vyacheslav Molotov
Soviet politician, statesman and diplomat (1890–1986)
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (né Skryabin; 9 March [O.S. 25 February] 1890 – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary. He was one of the most prominent figures in the Soviet government during the rule of his close ally, Joseph Stalin. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars from 1930 to 1941, he held office as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and again from 1953 to 1956. The Molotov cocktail was named for him.
An Old Bolshevik, Molotov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906 and was arrested and internally exiled twice before the October Revolution of 1917. He briefly headed the party's Secretariat before supporting Stalin's rise to power in the 1920s, becoming one of his closest associates. Molotov was made a full member of the Politburo in 1926 and premier in 1930, overseeing Stalin's agricultural collectivisation (and resulting famine) and his Great Purge. Following his appointment as Foreign Minister in 1939, he signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany, which led to their joint occupation of Poland and the ensuing annexation of the Baltic states. During World War II, he became deputy chairman of the State Defence Committee as well as Stalin's main negotiator with the Allies. Upon the war's end in 1945, he began to lose favour, losing his ministership in 1948 before being criticised by Stalin at the 19th Party Congress in 1952.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Vyacheslav Molotov” is soviet politician, statesman and diplomat (1890–1986). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Vyacheslav, Molotov and Soviet, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “soviet politician, statesman and diplomat (1890–1986)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q132899. VIAF identifies the subject as 112059678. The Library of Congress control number is n85305122. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1986, 1930 and 1941.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Vyacheslav Molotov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.