Georgy Malenkov: Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox Officeholder
|name = Georgy Malenkov<br /> <small>Гео́ргий Маленко́в</small>
|image = Georgy-malenkov colour.jpg
|nationality = [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]
|ethnicity = [[Russian people|Russian]], [[Macedonians (ethnic group)|Macedonain]]
|caption = Official portrait of Malenkov
|office = [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] of the [[Council of Ministers (Soviet Union)|Council of Ministers]]
|1blankname = [[List of First Deputies of the Soviet Union|First&nbsp;Deputies]]
|1namedata = [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]<br>[[Nikolai Bulganin]]<br>[[Lavrentiy Beria]]<br>[[Lazar Kaganovich]]
|term_start = 6 March 1953
|term_end = 8 March 1955
|predecessor = [[Joseph Stalin]]
|successor = [[Nikolai Bulganin]]
| office6 = Member of the [[Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo/Presidium]]<br>(Candidate member)
| term_start6 = 21 February 1941
| term_end6 = 18 March 1946
| office7 = (Full member)
| term_start7 = 18 March 1946
| term_end7 = 29 June 1957
| office8 = Member of the [[Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Secretariat]]
| term_start8 = 22 March 1939
| term_end8 = 6 May 1946
| term_start9 = 1 July 1946
| term_end9 = 14 March 1953
| office10 = Member of the [[Orgburo]]
| term_start10 = 22 March 1939
| term_end10 = 14 October 1952
|birth_name=Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov
|birth_date = {{birth date|1902|1|8|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Orenburg]], [[Russian Empire]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1988|1|14|1902|1|8|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
|spouse = Valeriya A. Golubtsova
|children = 3
|alma_mater = [[Bauman Moscow State Technical University|Moscow Highest Technical School]]
|profession = Engineer, politician
|party = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]}}

'''Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov''' ({{lang-ru|Гео́ргий Максимилиа́нович Маленко́в}}, ''Georgij Maksimilianovič Malenkov''; 8 January 1902 – 14 January 1988) was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] politician, [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] leader and close collaborator of [[Joseph Stalin]]. After Stalin's death, he became [[Premier of the Soviet Union]] (1953–1955) and was considered the most powerful Soviet politician before being overshadowed and ousted by [[Nikita Khrushchev]].

==Early life==
Malenkov was born at [[Orenburg]], [[Russian Empire]]. His paternal ancestors were of [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonian]] extraction (area of [[Ohrid]]), some of whom served as officers in the [[Russian Imperial Army]]. His father was a wealthy farmer in Orenburg province. Young Malenkov occasionally helped his father to do business selling the harvest.<ref name="ab1">Zubok, V.M. & Pleshakov, K., ''Inside the Kremlin's cold war: from Stalin to Khrushchev'', Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 140: "His ancestors were czarist military officers of Macedonian extraction."</ref> His mother was the daughter of a blacksmith and the granddaughter of an [[Russian Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] priest.<ref name="ab2">Zubok, V.M. & Pleshakov, K., ''Inside the Kremlin's cold war: from Stalin to Khrushchev'', Harvard University Press, 1996, p. 140.</ref>
Malenkov graduated from Orenburg gymnasium just a few months prior to the [[Russian revolution of 1917]] and joined the [[Red Army]] as volunteer in 1918, fighting alongside communists against capitalists. He joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) in 1920 and worked as a [[political commissar]] on a propaganda train in [[Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Turkestan]], Central Asia, during the Russian civil war in Central Asia.<ref name="ab2"/>

==Cohabitation==
In 1920, in [[Central Asia|Turkestan]], Malenkov started living together with Valeria Golubtsova, daughter of Aleksei Golubtsov, former State Councellor of the Russian Empire in [[Nizhny Novgorod]] and dean of the Imperial Cadet School. Golubtsova and Malenkov never officially registered their union and remained unregistered partners for the rest of their lives; such status allowed them to receive twice as many perks from the Soviet system. Valeria Golubtsova joined the Soviet Communist party in 1920. Her personal views were described as [[antisemitism]], by her co-workers.<ref>[http://www.ihst.ru/projects/sohist/papers/viet/1994/1/129-137.pdf Kusnetsova, Raisa. Stranitsy is "Povesti zhizni." Moscow, 1994]</ref> She had direct connection to [[Vladimir Lenin]] through her mother — one of "Nevzorov sisters" who were apprentices of Lenin and studied together with him for years, long before the Russian revolution of 1917. This connection helped both Golubtsova and Malenkov in their communist career. Later Golubtsova was the director of the Moscow Energy Institute, a center for nuclear power research in USSR.<ref>Bazhanov, Boris. "Stalin's secretary memoirs." Paris, 1980.</ref><ref>Nikolaevsky, Boris, Felshtinsky, Yuri. Malenkov's biography from "Secret pages of history." Moscow, 1995. [http://lib.ru/HISTORY/FELSHTINSKY/tajnye_stranicy.txt]</ref>

==Career in the Communist Party==
After the Russian civil war, Malenkov quickly built himself a reputation of a tough communist [[bolshevik]]. He was promoted in the communist party ranks and was appointed communist secretary at the military-based [[Bauman Moscow State Technical University|Moscow Highest Technical School]] in the 1920s.<ref name="ab2">Paxton, J., ''Leaders of Russia and the Soviet Union: from the Romanov dynasty to Vladimir Putin'', CRC Press, 2004, p. 113–114.</ref> Russian sources state that, rather than continuing with his studies, Malenkov took a career of a Soviet politician – his university degree was never completed, and his records have been indefinitely classified. Around this time, Malenkov forged a close friendship with [[Wjatscheslaw Alexandrowitsch Malyschew|Vyacheslav Malyshev]], who later became chief of the Soviet nuclear program alongside [[Igor Kurchatov|Kurchatov]].

In 1924, Stalin noticed Malenkov and assigned him to Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party.<ref name="Volkogonov, Dmitri 1991">Volkogonov, Dmitri. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy, 1991, New York: Grove Weidenfeld. ISBN 0-7615-0718-3</ref> In 1925, Malenkov worked in the staff of the Organizational Bureau (''[[Orgburo]]'') of the [[Central Committee of the CPSU]].<ref name="ab2"/>

Malenkov was in charge of keeping records on the members of the Soviet communist party – two million files were made under his supervision during the next ten years.<ref name="Volkogonov, Dmitri 1991"/> In this work Malenkov became closely associated with Stalin and was later heavily involved in the treason trials during the [[Great Purges|purging of the party]].<ref name="ab2"/><ref name="Volkogonov, Dmitri 1991"/> In 1938 he was one of the key figures in bringing about the downfall of [[Yezhov]], the head of the [[NKVD]]. In 1939 Malenkov became the head of the Communist party's Cadres Directorate, which gave him control over personnel matters of party bureaucracy.<ref name="ab2"/> During the same year he also became a member and a secretary of the Central Committee and rose from his previous staff position to full member of the Orgburo.<ref name="ab2"/> In February 1941 Malenkov became a candidate member of the [[Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee|Politburo]].<ref name="ab2"/>

==Career during World War II==
After the [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion]] of June 1941, Malenkov was promoted to the [[State Defense Committee]] (GKO), along with [[Lavrentiy Beria|Beria]], [[Kliment Voroshilov|Voroshilov]] and [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]] with Stalin as the committee's head.<ref name="ab2"/> This small group held total control over all political and economic life in the country and Malenkov's membership thus made him one of the top five most powerful men in the Soviet Union during World War II. During 1941–1943 Malenkov's primary responsibility in the GKO was supervising military aircraft production as well as supervising the development of nuclear weapons. In 1943 he also became chairman of a committee that oversaw the post-war economic rehabilitation of some liberated areas with the exception of Leningrad.<ref name="ab2"/>

==Building Soviet nuclear missiles and rocket launch sites==
Stalin gave Malenkov the most important task – building nuclear missiles in collaboration with [[Lavrentiy Beria]]. Malenkov was appointed Chief of the Soviet Missile program, his first deputy was [[Dmitri Ustinov]], a 33 year-old rocket scientist who later became one of the most powerful Soviet Defense Ministers. During World War II, Malenkov, Ustinov and [[Mikhail Khrunichev]] started the Soviet missile and rocket program that soon absorbed the German missile industry. Malenkov supervised the takeover of German [[V-2|V2]] missile industry that was moved from [[Peenemünde]] to Moscow for further development that resulted in building [[Vostok (rocket family)|Vostok]] missiles and orbiting [[Sputnik]] a few years later. At the same time, Malenkov followed Stalin's orders of building several space centers, such as [[Kapustin Yar]] near the Volga river and Khrunichev missile center in Moscow.<ref name="Volkogonov, Dmitri 1991"/><ref name="Knight, Amy 1993">Knight, Amy. (1993). Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.</ref>

==Attack on Georgy Zhukov==
[[Georgy Zhukov]] was the most prominent Soviet military commander during [[World War II]], winning several critical battles, such as the [[Siege of Leningrad]], the [[Battle of Stalingrad]], and [[Battle of Berlin]]. Stalin and Malenkov grew suspicious of Zhukov, worrying he possessed capitalistic tendencies, because Zhukov established a friendship with Gen. [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], invited the future American president to [[Leningrad]] and [[Moscow]], and endorsed collaboration between the United States and the Soviet Union. At the conclusion of World War II and shortly thereafter, Malenkov sided against several who were considered Soviet war heroes, among them Zhukov, [[Gordin]], [[Rybakovsky]] and several other popular generals. Malenkov's accusations against Zhukov were mostly based upon allegations of counter-revolutionary behavior and selfish "Bonapartism." Soon Zhukov was demoted in rank and moved to a lower position in Odessa where his only foes were local Party forces and the mafia. Zhukov had his first heart attack not long after, and Malenkov's concerns of him had largely faded.<ref name="Volkogonov, Dmitri 1991"/><ref name="Knight, Amy 1993"/>

After the ruthless attack on [[Georgy Zhukov]], Malenkov gained strength and became closer with Stalin and several other top communists. In 1946 Malenkov was named a candidate member of the [[Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee|Politburo]]. Although Malenkov was temporarily trailing behind his rivals [[Andrei Zhdanov]] and [[Lavrentiy Beria]], he soon came back into [[Joseph Stalin]]'s favour, especially after Zhdanov's mysterious death in 1948. That same year, Malenkov became a [[Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee|Secretary of the Central Committee]]. At the end of World War II and shortly after, Malenkov implemented Stalin's plan to destroy all political and cultural competition from Leningrad/St. Petersburg, the former capital of Russia, in order to concentrate all power in Moscow. Leningrad and its leaders earned immense respect and popular support due to winning the heroic [[Siege of Leningrad]]. Both Stalin and Malenkov expressed their hatred to anyone born and educated in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, so they organized and led the attack on the Leningrad elite. Beria and Malenkov together with [[Abakumov]] organized massive executions of their rivals in the [[Leningrad Affair]] where all leaders of Leningrad and Zhdanov's allies were killed, and thousands more were locked up in [[Gulag]] [[labour camp]]s upon Stalin's approval. Malenkov personally ordered the destruction of the Museum of the [[Siege of Leningrad]] and declared the 900-day-long defense of Leningrad "a myth designed by traitors trying to diminish the greatness of comrade Stalin." Simultaneously, Malenkov replaced all communist party and administrative leadership in Leningrad by provincial communists loyal to Stalin. After that, in order to test Malenkov as a potential successor, the aging Stalin increasingly withdrew from the business of the Communist party secretariat, leaving the task of supervising the Soviet Communist party entirely to Malenkov.<ref>Zhores A. Medvedev & Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sUFm-KL367EC&pg=PA40&dq=General+Secretary+abolished+Stalin&hl=no&ei=h1zWTJeGOcfsOYudnb4J&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=General%20Secretary%20abolished%20Stalin&f=false The Unknown Stalin]'', p. 40.</ref> In October 1952, Stalin even had the office of General Secretary formally abolished (though in effect this did not diminish Stalin's authority).<ref>Geoffrey Roberts, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=5GCFUqBRZ-QC&pg=PA345&dq=General+Secretary+abolished+Stalin&hl=no&ei=Ul3WTJjLAYrtOeaLmcQJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=General%20Secretary%20abolished%20Stalin&f=false Stalin's wars: from World War to Cold War, 1939–1953]'', p. 345.</ref>

1952 and 1953 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine covers indicate that Malenkov was generally considered to be Stalin's apprentice and successor.<ref>[http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1952/1101521006_400.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19521006,00.html&h=527&w=400&sz=36&tbnid=FIr1L3ebh1QQaM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=68&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmalenkov%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=malenkov&docid=1fqjLBK25CKBQM&sa=X&ei=7sZJT6_fIcSpiAK1h_TICA&ved=0CEgQ9QEwBQ&dur=669 Time magazine 1952, 1953 cover and editorials]</ref>

==Premiership and duumvirate==

Malenkov's ambitions and crafty politics bore fruit upon Stalin's death on 5 March 1953. He was the top member of the Secretariat and, with Beria's support, Malenkov became [[Premier of the Soviet Union]]. However, after several sharp political attacks by [[Nikita Khrushchev]] during the year 1953 Malenkov had to resign from the Secretariat, because Khrushchev was supported by other members of the [[Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee]]. While Malenkov headed the government, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] eventually assumed supreme leadership of the party as [[General Secretary of the CPSU|First Secretary of the CPSU]] in September 1953, ushering in a period of a Malenkov-Khrushchev ''duumvirate.''

Malenkov retained the office of premier for two years. During this time his political activities were mixed with a power struggle within Kremlin. Although he remained a staunch stalinist, Malenkov expressed his opposition to research and development of [[nuclear weapons|nuclear armament]], declaring "a nuclear war could lead to global destruction." Malenkov also opposed promotions of younger generations of politicians which soon led to his decline. He advocated refocusing the economy on the production of [[consumer goods]] and pushed away from diversity by subsidizing only a narrow list of goods and bread. Malenkov's actions led to severe food deficits, poor housing, and shortages of basic goods due to mismanagement and drastic misbalance across the Soviet national economy, something his successor Nikita Khrushchev would escalate.
[[File:Malenkow.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Malenkov as seen in September 1953]]

==Downfall==

Malenkov was forced to resign, in February 1955, after he came under attack for abuse of power and his close connection to Beria (who was executed as a traitor in December 1953). He was held responsible for the slow pace of reforms, particularly when it came to rehabilitating [[political prisoner]]s.

For two more years, Malenkov remained a regular member of the Politburo's successor, the Presidium. Together with Khrushchev, he flew to the island of [[Brijuni|Brioni]] (Yugoslavia) on the night of 1–2 November 1956 to inform [[Josip Broz Tito]] of the impending [[Soviet invasion of Hungary]] scheduled for November 4.<ref>Johanna Granville, [http://www.scribd.com/doc/14152546/Soviet-Archival-Documents-on-Hungary-OctoberNovember-1956-Translated-by-Johanna-Granville "Soviet Documents on the Hungarian Revolution, 24 October – 4 November 1956"], ''Cold War International History P roject Bulletin'', no. 5 (Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Washington, DC), Spring, 1995, pp. 22–23, 29–34.</ref>

However, in 1957, Malenkov organized another attempted coup against Khrushchev and [[Georgiy Zhukov]]. In a dramatic standoff in the Kremlin, Malenkov was turned on by both Khrushchev and Zhukov, who had the support of the Soviet armed forces. Malenkov's attempt failed. Bulganin together with his co-conspirators [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] and [[Lazar Kaganovich]], who were characterised by Khrushchev at an extraordinary session of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Party Central Committee]] as the '[[Anti-Party Group]]', were swiftly fired from the Politburo. In 1961, Bulganin was expelled from the Communist Party and exiled to a remote province of the Soviet Union. He became a manager of a [[hydroelectric plant]] in [[Oskemen|Ust'-Kamenogorsk]], [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]].<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862609,00.html RUSSIA: The Quick & the Dead]. TIME (1957-07-22). Retrieved on 2011-04-22.</ref>

After that Malenkov fell into obscurity and suffered from depression due to loss of power and the quality of life in a poor province. However, some researchers say that later Malenkov found this demotion and exile a relief from the pressures of the Kremlin power struggle. Malenkov in his later years converted to [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodoxy]], as did his daughter, who has since spent part of her personal wealth building two churches in rural locations. Orthodox Church publications at the time of Malenkov's death said he had been a reader (the lowest level of Russian Orthodox clergy) and a choir singer in his final years. He died at age 85.<ref>Simon Sebag Montefiore. ''Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar.' 2003</ref>

==Honours and awards==
* [[Hero of Socialist Labour]] (30 September 1943)
* Three [[Orders of Lenin]] (30 September 1943, November 1945, January 1952)

==Punishment and retributions==

In 1957 the Central Committee fired Malenkov from jobs in the Soviet government, cancelled his Kremlin privileges, special food perks and financial allowances.

In 1961 the Central Committee fired Malenkov from the Communist Party of USSR, as people throughout USSR demanded punishment for organizers of Stalin's Purge, and Malenkov was one of them.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Johanna, Granville, [http://books.google.com/books?id=RkaWTipqnecC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22johanna+granville%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES ''The First Domino: International Decision Making During the Hungarian Crisis of 1956''], Texas A & M University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58544-298-4.
* Sebag Montefiore, Simon, ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar'' (2003)

==External links==
{{Commons category|Georgy Malenkov}}
* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/malenkov/index.htm Georgy Malenkov Archive at marxists.org]
* [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,858727,00.html "Number 2½"], ''Time'', Mar 20, 1950.

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box| before = [[Joseph Stalin]] | title=[[Premier of the Soviet Union]]|after = [[Nikolai Bulganin]]|years=1953–1955}}
{{s-end}}

{{USSRpremier}}
{{Cold War}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=18030281}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Malenkov, Georgy
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| DATE OF BIRTH = 8 January 1902
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Orenburg]], [[Russian Empire]]
| DATE OF DEATH = 14 January 1988
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Moscow]], [[Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malenkov, Georgy}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery]]
[[Category:People from Orenburg]]
[[Category:Party leaders of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Heads of government of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Heads of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Heroes of Socialist Labour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin, three times]]
[[Category:Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Soviet politicians]]
[[Category:Russian communists]]

Revision as of 19:35, 8 April 2013