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Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (born November 7 [November 19, New Style], 1875, Verkhnyaya Troitsa, Tver province, Russia—died June 3, 1946, Moscow) communist leader and statesman who was the formal head of the Soviet state from 1919 until 1946.

The first head of state was Mikhail Kalinin, who was inaugurated in 1922 after the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR. At over twenty years, Kalinin spent the longest time in office; he died shortly after his resignation in 1946. Andropov spent the shortest time in office. Heads of the Russian Soviet Republic (1917–1922)

Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin, chief executioner for the NKVD, is reported to have personally shot and killed 7,000 of the condemned, some as young as 18, from the Ostashkov camp at Kalinin prison, over 28 days in April 1940.

Mikhail Kalinin was one of six Soviet Politburo signatories to the order to execute more than 21,000 Polish prisoners of war in the forests of Katyn and elsewhere in 1940. Russia's invasion of ...

32nd President of the United States: 1933 ‐ 1945. Exchange of Letters with Mikhail Kalinin. (October 10 and 17, 1933) October 10, 1933. The President, on October 20, 1933, made public the following correspondence: Washington, October 10, 1933. My dear Mr. President: