This Day in History: 6 March 2020
6 March 1953
67 years ago, today, Georgy Malenkov is named premier and first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, succeeding Joseph Stalin one day after his death. However, soon after, he was pushed aside by Nikita Khrushchev. Malenkov had been one of the few oldest Bolsheviks, who survived Stalin's purges of the 1930s. He preferred to work in the background, passively, and so was not taken seriously by many in the government. Under Stalin's surveillance, he still managed to advance up the Communist Party hierarchy, and so by the late 1940s, it was widely assumed he would succeed Stalin, which he did. When Malenkov took power, it appeared he might be a reformist, as he wanted to cut military spending and ease political repression. This is believed to have led to opposition by Khrushchev through his formation of a coalition of leaders against Malenkov, two weeks later.
In February 1955, Malenkov was voted out as premier, by the same coalition, and Nikolai Bulganin took over, who was a puppet of Khrushchev's. Malenkov resented this, and two years later, joined a plot to overthrow Khrushchev, however, this failed, and Malenkov was removed from government positions and expelled from the Party. He faced being sent to Kazakhstan to serve as the manager of a hydroelectric operation, instead of imprisonment, and died in 1988. Ultimately, Malenkov was a transition figure from the dictatorship of Stalin to a more moderate regime under Khrushchev, even though Khrushchev, who had wanted to get rid of Malenkov, ended up supporting many of his reforms.
Want to find out more about the life and legacy of Georgy Malenkov? Click here for more information.
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