Malenkov's Heyday and Deposition

...At the next plenum in June 1954, the report on agriculture was given not by Khrushchev but by Ivan Benediktov, the Minister of Agriculture and an opponent of Khrushchev's agricultural experiments since the disputes of early 1951...

...Working for the state, a steady customer, now seemed infinitely preferable to working for an anonymous Soviet consumer—who, it soon became apparent, was anything but well-to-do...

...Major preparations for the eventual Western Pact bloc were then under way, with a whole series of formal meetings, banquets, etc...

...In addition, the February-March plenum considered two other important questions...

...The directors were, in effect, transformed In his first two articles, Boris I. Nicolaevsky told how Stalin died on the eve of a great new purge, organized (among others) by Khrushchev and Bulganin against Beria, Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov...

...This was particularly noticeable at the congresses of various trade unions which were held in October and November 1953...

...The resolutions were published in Prawo Ludu, organ of the Polish Communist party, on February 9, 1955...

...But the plenum clearly did not approve the "sharp turn" in foreign policy sought by the Khrushchev-Molotov bloc...

...This makes plausible the theory that a speech on foreign policy was originally slated to be made by Malenkov, and that at the last moment, a meeting of the Presidium transferred the assignment to Molotov and approved his attack on Malenkov...

...Previously, these secretaries had often been closely connected with the directors of the various plants...

...He was especially intransigent on the question of East Germany, which Beria had planned to sacrifice...

...Khrushchev's Party apparatus at the same time tremendously enlarged its cadres...

...One was the question of reviewing the cases of victims of Stalinist terror...

...4, 1955...

...What was still involved was the division of Beria's empire...

...At the Central Committee plenum in February-March 1954, Khrushchev delivered a long report on agriculture which dealt principally with opening up the virgin lands in Siberia and Kazakhstan...

...Khrushchev placed in each MTS a special secretary of the Party regional committee, plus a number of "instructors" as assistants, with at most two kolkhozes to each instructor...

...In all the many speeches made during the trip, Premier Malenkov's name was not mentioned once...

...Malenkov's name was not directly mentioned, but everyone knew about his role as chief organizer of this affair...

...A majority was formed against Malenkov in the Presidium...

...Whereas the struggle between Malenkov and Khrushchev on domestic policy is reasonably clear, it is more difficult to analyze the struggle on foreign policy...

...Beria's report at the March 1953 plenum had already made a tremendous impression...

...Since the entire apparatus of Party propaganda was placed at the service of the campaign against Mal-enkov's policies, he was doomed from the start...

...Molotov had a majority in the Presidium — it could have been formed only with Khrushchev's support — and at the January 1954 four-power conference in Berlin Molotov set Soviet policy...

...The Khrushchev-Molotov bloc did not obtain a majority on this question at the plenum...

...The Chinese Communist leaders were on bad terms with Malenkov, who insisted that China conduct herself with great restraint toward the United States...

...The plenum chose Andreyev to take Shkiryatov's place, thus combining in one person the chairmanships of both commissions—that of the Supreme Soviet and that of the Party Central Committee...

...It was announced at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet on February 8, 1955, just before a long report on foreign policy by Molotov which contained a clear attack on Malenkov (without naming him) for his speech of March 12, 1954 on the danger of global nuclear war...

...he had been chairman of the Party Control Commission and had been one of Stalin's confidants in preparing the "second Yezhovshchina...

...The fact that no one in the Soviet Union criticized Malenkov at that time for his speech—the first such criticism coming in a speech by Molotov on February 8, 1955 — means that Malenkov had been supported by a majority of the plenum...

...With the June 1954 plenum, Malenkov's position was even stronger and he decided to deal his opponents a blow at the most sensitive spot: He arranged the trial of Ryumin, former Deputy Minister of State Security, who in 1952-53 had had direct charge of all work in preparing the "second Yezhovshchina...

...This resolution was adopted on February 6, 1955, that is, six days after the end of the Soviet Central Committee plenum...

...One secretary to each MTS, and one instructor to each one or two kolkhozes, meant a total of at least 75-80,000 new political jobs— not paid quite as well as the directorial posts in industrial enterprises which went to the economic managers in the division of Beria's empire, but all in all a significant strengthening of the Party machine...

...but Molotov, not Malenkov, was in charge...

...The leaders of the "peace movement," in any case, convoked a special conference to discuss "peaceful solution of the German problem" on February 6, 1955 in Warsaw...

...The chief result of the September plenum was a decision to "strengthen Party leadership" in the collective farms...

...It is also possible that Malenkov himself refused under these circumstances to remain as Premier and announced his resignation on the spot In any event, Malenkov was not removed by decision of the Central Committee plenum, after whose session he still felt able to direct Government policy in so important a matter as the Warsaw Peace Conference...

...Malenkov's opponents were to contend that he had allowed himself to be intimidated by the "imperialists," who were looking for "weak-nerved and unstable people" among Soviet leaders to whom they could "talk the language of dictation and ultimatums" (Kommunist, No...

...Not only among the popular masses, but also among the lower and middle strata of the Party and Government apparatus, there was strong opposition to an aggressive foreign policy...

...Only in relatively limited circles was it known that Khrushchev had been the second member of the commission which Stalin ordered to investigate the "Zhdanovites" and that it was on the basis of his report that Stalin decided to liquidate them...

...At the end of October, after the delegation's return from China, the campaign against Malenkov was intensified...

...This movement had been created in 1948, immediately after Malenkov replaced Andrei Zhdanov as Party First Secretary (first, that is, after Stalin...

...These secretaries were not deputies to the station directors, but were their superiors...

...The August session of the Supreme Soviet, with Georgi Malenkov's budgetary report urging greater production of consumer goods, was followed by a September plenary meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee...

...From that time began a systematic investigation of the terror of the Stalin era...

...It is not 'world civilization' that will be destroyed, however much it may suffer from new aggression," declared Molotov, "but the rotten [capitalist] social system with its blood-soaked imperialist base, whose era is ending...

...Italics supplied...

...4, 1955...

...It was headed by Andrei Andreyev, who in September 1938 had led the Politburo commission that investigated the activity of OGPU chief Nikolai Yezhov and removed him from his post...

...to accuse Malenkov of seeking agreement with the West would merely make him popular...

...The response to that criticism was so unfavorable that this line of attack was immediately abandoned...

...The same question also drove a wedge into the bloc of economic managers...

...Malenkov made only one appearance, though still Premier...

...Stalin's death led to a compromise among the warring factions, recognizing the Party Presidium as the supreme state organ...

...These same judges, in a public session in Leningrad the following December, tried Victor Abakumov et al...

...for their liquidation of the "Zhdanovites" in 1949...

...This is evidenced by the fact that Malenkov, who remained Premier even after the plenum, could continue to pursue his foreign policy in one of its most important lines: the so-called "Partisans of Peace" movement...

...Khrushchev in the name of the Party apparatus now laid claim to these vital antennae of the Soviet state...

...The "sharp turn" toward greater consumer-goods production had led to reduced expenditures for other budget items, including a cut of some 15-20 per cent in 1954 for the Army and Navy...

...Puzanov flew to Warsaw from Moscow on the 4th or perhaps the 5th of February, having received instructions from Malenkov...

...The zampolit had been a deputy to the head of the Machine-Tractor Station, who represented Soviet industry in guiding the economic activity of the kolkhozes...

...Nevertheless, a majority of the Central Committee plenum that met at the end of January 1955 did not fully support the new bloc formed by Malenkov's foes from the supporters of Khrushchev and of Molotov...

...Not long before the February-March 1954 plenum, moreover, Matve: Shkirya-tov had died...

...This was particularly true in regard to the Army command, the professional leaders of which had backed Malenkov in 1953...

...For under every head of a Machine-Tractor Station there was a "political deputy," and this zampolit had been subordinate to Beria...

...when Beria tried to appeal for mass support against his Party foes, Malenkov joined Molotov and Khrushchev to oust him...

...The Abakumov trial was only one aspect of a broad-scale campaign that Khrushchev developed against Malenkov...

...The testimony of persons who attended this session indicates that both Malenkov's resignation and Molotov's speech came as a surprise to most of the delegates...

...At the same time Khrushchev, who had been named First Secretary at the September plenum, systematically brought under his control the apparatus of Party secretaries at industrial enterprises...

...The thesis of priority development of heavy industry was adopted...

...Politically, the main drive revolved around foreign policy, especially relations with China...

...Bui Beria helped Khrushchev oust Malenkov from the Party Secretariat...

...A special delegation was sent to China to improve relations in September 1954, made up of Khrushchev, Bulganin, Anastas Mikoyan and Dmitri Shepilov...

...From the statements accompanying the recent ouster of Malenkov, Molotov et al., we know that they criticized this plan...

...This may have been the last straw for Khrushchev, spurring him to launch a "war to the finish" against Malenkov...

...It was decided to attack Malenkov on this front for several reasons...

...After Beria's liquidation, Malenkov had been forced to retreat on a number of points from the policy which Beria had pursued with his undoubted consent...

...It was impossible to criticize him openly for his relaxed foreign policy...

...This was a direct threat to Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin, who had been active members of the bloc that was preparing that prize...

...Furthermore, Malenkov was later able not only to rebuke Khrushchev for his attacks on England in a speech in Prague in June 1954 (the speech was printed in the Soviet press with deletions by the censor) but also to exert pressure on Chou En-lai to moderate the position of the Chinese delegation at the Geneva conference on Indo-China...

...The key resolution spoke of the "unification of Germany by means of free, supervised elections, which shall be conducted on the basis of election regulations guaranteeing all democratic freedoms, as provided in the plan presented in Berlin by Sir A. Eden...

...By the fall of 1953, Khrushchev had begun to combat this practice, and at one time he even goaded the workers against the plant directors...

...This resolution also stressed that Soviet troops should simultaneously be evacuated from Poland...

...At the same time...

...The very next month, new members were appointed to the Soviet Supreme Court...

...This shows clearly that, even after the Central Committee plenum, Malenkov felt that he had the right to continue his foreign-policy line, at least on questions concerning Western Europe...

...In 1953-54, when Malenkov headed the Soviet Government, it developed with particular vigor...

...We do not have precise information about these decisions of the plenum, but they unquestionably strengthened Malenkov's position...

...The whole system of leadership of the kolkhozes was, in fact, reorganized...

...This majority was formed by Khrushchev, Bulganin and Miko-yan, on the one hand, and Molotov and Kaganovich, on the other...

...The feature of the September plenum was a report by Nikita Khrushchev on "measures for the further development of agriculture," which led to further power for the Party apparatus headed by Khrushchev...

...It was common for the Party secretaries at the plants not only to enjoy various material benefits at the hands of the directors but to be directly salaried by them...

...The military leaders were not pleased...

...The question of the priority development of heavy industry, however, made it possible to drive a wedge into the bloc which had previously given Malenkov solid support...

...The specter of war frightened the Russian people...

...The conference adopted some curious resolutions, including one on the removal of all occupation forces from Germany...

...Hence, in February 1955, when Malenkov was removed from the Premiership, his policy was criticized only on one occasion from this point of view (Kommunist, No...

...Huge numbers of statements were arriving from victims of the terror who were still in camps or in exile, and their friends and relatives were insisting on their rehabilitation...

...When one recalls how decisively this "Eden plan" had been rejected by Molotov at Berlin in January 1954, one can appreciate the revolutionary act of this Warsaw conference...

...However, he stubbornly resisted the attempts to turn Soviet foreign policy back to the old intransigence — a policy whose chief advocate was Molotov...

...On March 12, 1954, immediately after the plenum ended, he openly asserted that cold war would inevitably lead to "hot war," and that, "with modern methods of war, means the destruction of world civilization...

...They concluded a far-reaching agreement promising extensive aid for the construction of factories, roads, etc...

...Soon afterward began the mass release of its victims and their reinstatement as members of the Party...

...At the same time, this plenum must have also considered questions of foreign policy...

...A solemn assembly was staged in Warsaw, presided over by the president of the Polish Parliament, Jan Dom-browski...

...Battle in the Kremlin—S Malenkov's Heyday and Deposition By Boris I. Nicolaevsky (Third of series) The unity of the Soviet leadership, apparently achieved after Lavrenti Beria's fall in July 1953, was merely external...

...into technical assistants to these regional-committee secretaries...

...Malenkov's plan for more consumer goods was formally attacked under the slogan of priority development for heavy industry...

...Even more surprising was the participation in the conference by an official Soviet delegation headed by Alexander Puzanov, then Premier of the Russian Soviet Republic, a Malenkov lieutenant (as such, shortly afterward removed...

...It gradually became apparent that the production of consumer goods was both technically more complicated and economically more troublesome than production for defense...

...The chronology seems to indicate it: On July 23, 1954, Soviet newspapers published a short, dry statement announcing the trial and execution of Ryumin...

...Precise information on the behind-the-scenes circumstances of Malenkov's deposition is still not available...

...Although it was adopted by the plenum, Khrushchev's authority was severely undermined...

...A special commission was created under the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet to review these cases...