Alexander Nikolaevich Poskrebyshev[3] (Russian: Александр Николаевич Поскрёбышев; 7 August 1891 – 3 January 1965) was a Soviet politician and a state and Communist Party functionary.

[1][2][3][4] Poskrebyshev was born on 7 August 1891, in the village of Uspenskoe near the city of Vyatka in the Russian Empire, the son of a shoemaker.

Between 1924 and 1929 he was a Manager of the office of General Secretary of Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

[1][7] In May 1929, Poskrebyshev became a Deputy of Ivan Tovstukha, Chief of the Secret Section of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

In 1935 Poskrebyshev became the Director of Administration of the General Secretary of Central Committee of CPSU, replacing Ivan Tovstukha, who died of tuberculosis.

[12] The apex of Poskrebyshev's political career came in 1952, when he was appointed Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee, thereby gaining a seat in the Politburo.

[13] However, a few months later Lavrentiy Beria accused Poskrebyshev of losing secret documents, and he was removed from the position by Stalin.

[11] The leaking of any information related to job duties and/or secret documents was the reason for punishment of staff member of Secret/Special Section without civil trial.

[18] According to investigations of the Russian opposition group "Memorial", the lists of convicted were not managed by Special Sector of Central Committee.

[19] The "Memorial" Group says that Nikolai Yezhov personally visited all members of the Politburo to get their endorsement of the lists of convicted.

[20] At this time Poskrebyshev, much like other prominent members of the Communist Party (for example, Vyacheslav Molotov and Mikhail Kalinin) was not able to help his wife.

"On 6 June 1941, Poskrebyshev wrote a report to the Central Committee indicting M. P. Mager, the Chief of Staff of the Leningrad Military District, who had already been arrested once in 1938.

According to records of commission of Presidium of Central Committee of Communist Party[24] Mager was arrested under resolution of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, affirmed by Semyon Timoshenko (March 1941).

However, in spite of this, on 20 July 1941, the Supreme Military Court of USSR did make a decision regarding the Mager case: the death sentence (he was rehabilitated in 1955).

Poskrebyshev did participate in a January 1947 discussion of the publication of Georgi Fedorovich Aleksandrov's History of Western Philosophy.

Poskrebyshev is also mentioned in connection with the works of Soviet scientists N. G. Klueva and G. I. Roskin,[29] who participated in one of the first USSR Court of Honor cases (June 1947).

In April 1946, Poskrebyshev focused Joseph Stalin's attention on technical problems in the research of an anti-cancer drug mentioned by Klueva and Roskin.

A laboratory for studying anti-cancer drugs was created on 22 April 1946, and it ordered equipment though the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.

"[34] Alexander Barmine, who first met Poskrebyshev in 1923, described him as "a roly-poly, red-cheeked baldish little man ... (who) grew in importance and pomposity during the fifteen years that I knew him.

[37]There is also a sarcastic portrayal of him in the story Stalin's Smile by N. Karaguzhin about the time when his second wife was arrested that was written in 1961 and distributed illegally by samizdat.

[1][7] The reported speculation of unknown eyewitnesses[40] concerning routine humiliation of Poskrebyshev by Stalin must be considered as simple gossip.

[41] According to Poskrebyshev, Stalin ordered Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya’s poisoning during her birthday celebration, her ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

[39] The fourth Order of Lenin Poskrebyshev received, on 6 August 1951, was for his 60th birthday and in honor of his work for the Communist Party and Soviet Union.

[9] As a four-time recipient of one of the highest awards by the Soviet Union,[1] Poskrebyshev's reputation as a confidant of Stalin was further reinforced.

Stalin removed Poskrebyshev from his position in the Special Section and from his role as personal secretary in 1952, under pressure from Lavrenty Beria.

[5][20] In 1953, he was removed from active political life and forcibly retired[5] after coming into connection with the Doctor's Plot—he had been a medical student and had also administered Stalin with medicine.

Following the 20th Congress in 1956, at which he was denounced in passing by Khrushchev,[5][46] Poskrebyshev retired permanently and lived out the remainder of his days in Moscow, dying there in 1965.