Word: malenkov
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...Malenkov? The question hung in the air above the Congress meeting. In the same speech, Khrushchev revealed that one of Stalin's last acts was an effort to liquidate almost the whole Presidium. The inference Khrushchev may have wanted drawn from these facts is that "someone" was exploiting the dying Stalin's well-known psychosis to get all his rivals for leadership liquidated...
Though an able administrator and an adroit politician. Georgy Malenkov was probably too ruthless an intriguer for the big institutions (NKVD, the army, etc.) to entrust their future to. Though he lasted 23 months as Premier of the Soviet Union. Malenkov lasted only 16 days as First Secretary of the party, the crucial job Stalin willed him. Next in line after Malenkov in the hierarchy was Beria (who was quickly liquidated, a sop to popular anti-Stalin feeling, as much as for the crimes he had committed). Then came Molotov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan...
...events there was room for genuine ideological difference. Was not the process of destalinization, crudely set off by Khrushchev, proceeding too quickly? Had not Khrushchev's rough peasant hand, thrust into the delicate balance between independent Yugoslavia and the dependent satellites, been a contributing factor in the revolt? Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich got their chance to rally allies in an attack on Khrushchev at the December plenum of the Central Committee and thus delay their own fate. The ostensible issue in the plenum was a party plan, pushed by Khrushchev, for decentralizing Soviet industry (a plan which decreases...
...Khrushchev also had allies. Zhukov and Serov, at the army and police level, Mikoyan and Suslov, at the political level, ruthlessly crushed the Hungarian outbreak. At a February plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev was able to make a full comeback with his industrial plan. The fate of Malenkov & Co., if it had ever been in doubt, now seemed certain. But there was still one desperate play to make...
...maneuvering. According to one version, he invited Zhukov to his dacha, appealed to him for army support at an extraordinary Presidium meeting, citing the danger to the whole defense setup if Khrushchev's reckless policies prevailed. (Zhukov instead privately tipped off Khrushchev that a plot was brewing.) Then Malenkov, Molotov or Kaganovich (one or all three) demanded a meeting of the Presidium. Khrushchev is said to have agreed, but when the Presidium met on June 17 or 19, three full members were absent. The opposition challenged Khrushchev's right to preside, and on a vote he was denied...