Khrushchev vs. Malenkov?
VISHNIAK, MARK
KHRUSHCHEV VS. MALENKOV? Ambitious Communist party secretary may be elbowing Premier out of power By Mark Vishniak Associate Editor, "Time" A new falling-out among the oligarchs who today rule...
...Last summer, Premier Georgi M. Malenkov successfully defeated the challenge of MVD chief Lavrenti P. Beria...
...The head of the state farms for a long time was Comrade Skvortsov...
...Previously, Molotov had been the nominal head of the Government, and Stalin, as First Secretary of the Party, had ruled the Soviet Union without actually holding a governmental post...
...Ambitious Communist party secretary may be elbowing Premier out of power By Mark Vishniak Associate Editor, "Time" A new falling-out among the oligarchs who today rule the Soviet Union may be in the offing...
...State Planning Commission...
...He has himself appointed head of the Soviet CP delegation to the Polish party congress, and the entire Polish Politburo journeys to the frontier to greet him...
...Yet, curiously, he attacks members of the Council of Ministers headed by Premier Malenkov (who is also, incidentally, Chairman of the Presidium of the Party...
...He upbraids men who are not even his own subordinates...
...Reference should be made to the incorrect conduct of Comrade Benediktov, the Minister of Agriculture...
...More important for our purposes here, however, was the tone of the report...
...Khrushchev is speaking here as First Secretary of the Communist party...
...The State Planning Commission and the Ministry of the Foodstuffs Industry must provide for an increase in the work capacity of sugar refineries...
...He makes an implied criticism of Trofim D. Lysenko (whose climb to scientific pre-eminence six years ago was generally associated with the rise of Malenkov and the fall of his rival, Andrei A. Zhdanov), and, the following day, Pravda itself "unmasks" Lysenko...
...In the March 5 issue of Trud, organ of the Soviet trade unions, a certain Comrade Zelenov praised Stalin on the anniversary of his death...
...It was that of a schoolmaster lecturing unruly pupils: "The reclamation of new lands must not be limited to the western areas of the country...
...Each day's reports from the Soviet Union confirm the rivalry...
...It is extremely doubtful whether he is capable, as First Deputy Minister of State Farms, of remedying the situation...
...In his capacity as First Secretary of the Party, Khrushchev has replaced the Party secretaries in the Russian, Ukrainian, Moldavian, Ka-zakhstan, Georgian and Azerbaijanian Soviet Republics...
...Its contents were highly significant, including a number of startling revelations on Soviet agriculture...
...Why is Malenkov so passive, or tolerant, toward Khrushchev, who has so provocatively exceeded his competence and jurisdiction...
...A considerable amount of blame for mistakes in planning lies with Comrade Demidov, Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Commission, in charge of agricultural questions, and Comrade Dmitriev, former head of the Department of Agricultural Planning of the U.S.S.R...
...The actual driving force of this wartime State Defense Committee was Malenkov...
...Comrade Demidov and particularly Comrade Dmitriev victimized people who raised their voices against incorrect planning and proposed altering the structure of arable acreage...
...Nevertheless, it is not necessary to predict the outcome of the Malenkov-Khrushchev rivalry to recognize that it exists...
...yet, here we find him relegated to the nameless "other members of the CC," while Khrushchev is mentioned...
...Now a new and perhaps more formidable adversary, Communist party secretary Nikita S. Khrushchev, seems to be bidding for power...
...Malenkov made a similar move last December 19 when he appointed five new Vice Chairmen of his Council of Ministers--saburov, Malyshev, Pervukhin, Kosygin and Tevosyan--all of them technicians and engineers like Malenkov himself and long his "comrades-in-arms...
...This never happened when Zhdanov, Bulganin, Malenkov, Voroshilov and others headed similar delegations to Eastern Europe...
...It is hard to say...
...A similar situation may be in the making now as Khrushchev advances steadily in power...
...Minister of State Farms...
...The gathering struggle between Khrushchev and Malenkov is indicated by other recent developments...
...Khrushchev's February 23 report to the plenum of the Communist party clearly reflected his enhanced position in the Soviet hierarchy...
...In the course of the article, he wrote: "[During the war,] Stalin was placed at the head of the armed forces of the Soviet state...
...His present behavior signals a return to the relationship between Party and Government that prevailed before May 6, 1941, when Stalin had himself designated Premier...
...and, because rule by duumvirate has never lasted long in history, it is reasonable to expect more spectacular developments in the future...
...Apparently, he became engulfed in bureaucracy...
...Khrushchev has no formal authority to control and correct Soviet ministers...
...The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of State Farms must correct these mistakes...
...The heads of the U.S.S.R...
...Malenkov may just be waiting for Khrushchev to overextend himself...
...Perhaps, however, the farm crisis in the Soviet Union is so serious that, the deeper Khrushchev is involved in it, the more politically vulnerable he becomes...
...Work on draining marshy land and developing water meadows is still badly organized...
...In the past seven months, he has made six major speeches or reports on various phases of Soviet agriculture: on animal husbandry (September 3), on the machine-tractor stations (January 28), on the state farms (February5) , on "advanced" workers in agriculture (February 15), on grain deficiencies (February 23) and on reclamation and development of virgin soil (February 22 and March6...
...Khrushchev has clearly been gaining in prominence...
...Ministry of State Farms and its local organs are not taking measures to eliminate the defects...
...After this more or less academic criticism, Khrushchev goes on to mention names in a blunt manner: "Whose fault is this...
...This is an obvious move to put his supporters in key positions throughout the U.S.S.R...
...Comrade Skvortsov will hardly enjoy such confidence again in the future...
...Confidence was placed in Comrade Skvortsov, but he proved a poor organizer and a shortsighted worker...
...It is necessary to point out that shortcomings and mistakes in questions of planning are being eliminated very slowly...
...It is doubtful whether Comrade Demidov will be able, while working in the Stale Planning Commission, to correct his mistakes...
...The Central Committee of the Party assigned N. A. Bulganin, A. A. Zhdanov, A. S. Shcherbakov, N. S. Khrushchev and other members of the CC directly to military work...
...He was also given the important honor of introducing the principal speaker at the Bolshoi Theater ceremonies last January 21, the thirtieth anniversary of Lenin's death...
...But this is the only effective counter-step Malenkov has taken...
...The blame for these mistakes lies to a still greater extent with Comrade Kozlov, the U.S.S.R...
Vol. 37 • April 1954 • No. 15
