Of peasant stock from the Moscow gubernia. Worked as a farm hand and unskilled labourer at the railways, and then turner at a factory. Became a communist in 1925. From the middle of the 1920s he devoted himself to Komsomol and party work. Received a degree at the Institute of "Red Professorship". In 1938 he became secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and in April 1939 chairman of the Executive Council of the Moscow Soviet.
Made a huge contribution to the implementation of the General Plan of Moscow's reconstruction: in 1939-1940 house-building no longer became limited to certain seasons of the year, the high-speed line production of buildings was introduced and the massive construction of multi-storeyed buildings in the city started. By 1941 13 large bridges and 45 kilometres of granite embankments were built in Moscow and the capacity of the water supply system almost doubled. Under the leadership of Pronin massive work was done in the city to strengthen the anti-aircraft defence of the capital, build and equip bomb-shelters, and adapt the underground so that it could protect the population against air attacks; massive training of the population was held at enterprises, in institutions and house-management offices. In the summer of 1940 Pronin was awarded the Order of Lenin for his success in the development of the city economy.
From the very first days of the Great Patriotic War all of the Moscow Soviet's efforts were directed at the mobilisation and training of reserves for the Red Army, and the implementation of the decisions of the State Defence Committee for the production of ammunition, arms and fighting kits. After the evacuation of several enterprises into the interior of the country a whole new military industry was virtually created in Moscow. By the beginning of December 654 of the 670 factories subordinated to the Moscow Soviet were already producing arms and ammunition, and 94 per cent of the production at these factories was devoted to military needs. Pronin himself directly participated in the coordination of the work of 50 factories for the production of BM-13 rocket launchers' units and ammunition. The government order was carried out in a record time: by August 1941 the first rocket launchers (known as Katyusha) were already dispatched from Moscow to the front.
Pronin was closely involved in the formation of emergency volunteer corps and other voluntary units, the evacuation of technical equipment and people, the construction of a defence belt at the approaches to the city and the improvement of the anti-air defence system.
As member of the Military Council of the Moscow Military District and the Moscow Defence Zone, Pronin, together with the First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Party Committee and the Moscow City Party Committee, A.S. Shcherbakov, rendered enormous assistance to the State Defence Committee and the Western Front Command in the autumn-winter of 1941 as far as the defence of the city was concerned. An active participant in the Battle for Moscow remembers: "I was struck by the fact how much energy could fit into this smallish man, so that under the hardest circumstances he could sustain a normal life for a city with millions of inhabitants and come to thorough grips with all defence measures..."
At the end of 1944 Pronin was appointed first deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Federation, and thereafter worked as deputy minister and minister at several Union and republican ministries. Was elected deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and Russian Federation and a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation.
|
RUS
ENG
