Abstract
Malenkov’s resignation from the Premiership at the February 1955 Supreme Soviet session marked the close of the second period of the post-Stalin era.1 It would be an oversimplification to consider this merely the climax of personal rivalries, although that element was present. His downgrading actually symbolized the destruction of the coalition which had ruled Russia for the 18 months following Beria’s unsuccessful bid for power and the formation of a new one oriented around Khrushchev, but not completely dominated by him.
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The first hints came from Hungary when Drayas, the Minister of Culture, (November 21, 1954) and M. Rákosi, Party First Secretary, (December 3, 1954) both “expressed alarm at the tendency of prominent officials under the pretext of `self-criticism’ to attack fundamental regime policies and institutions.” Published in Free Europe Press, “The New Line in the Soviet Sphere: A Chronology of Major Events, November r6 — March 19, 1955,” and Free Europe Press, “The Second Analytical Survey of Major Trends in the Soviet Orbit (July 1954—June 1955).” (Hereafter referred to as the “Second Analytical Survey.”)
U. Yusupov, Uzbek Premier, was replaced by N. A. Mukhitdinov after Khrushchev personally denounced him, his cabinet, and the Uzbek Party’s Politburo for their failure to deliver cotton. New York Times, Dec. 29, 1954, P. 5.
Pravda printed only a 1700 word Tass dispatch which mentioned the speech in four of the last five paragraphs but gave no more than a hint of its subject. Pravda, Nov. 21, 1954, P. 2, Current Digest, VI, 46, p. 17, and the New York Times, Dec. 24, 1954, p. 12.
New York Times, Dec. 24, 1954, P. 4, Harry Schwartz.
Szabad Nép, June 12, 1955, as quoted by the “Second Analytical Survey,” op. cit., p. xi.
Pravda, Dec. 21, 1954, pp. 2–3, Current Digest, VI, 51, p. 3.
Pravda and Izvestia, Dec. 21, 1954, as quoted by the Bulletin of the Institute for the Study of the USSR, “Post-Stalin Domestic Policy,” p. 33.
Izvestia, Jan. 5, 1955, as quoted by the New York Times, Jan. 17, x955, p. 36, Harry Schwartz.
The others were A. G. Leonov, former chief of the Investigation Department; his two deputies, M. T. Likhachev and V. L. Komarov (all of whom were shot); and I. A. Chernov and Va. M. Broverman (who were sentenced to 15 and 25 years, respectively).
Pravda and Izvestia, Dec. 24, 1955, p. 2, Current Digest, VI, 49, p.
Pravda and Isvestia, Dec. 24, 1954, p. 1, Current Digest, VI, 51, p. 7.
New York Times, Jan. 4, 1955, P. 20.
Soviet News, 3082, Jan. 14, 1955, p. 2.
Pravda, Jan. 24, 1955, PP. 2–3, Current Digest, VI, 52, pp. 4–6.
On January 25, 1955, Mikoyan resigned as Minister of Trade. (Pravda and Isvestia, Jan. 25, 1955, P. 4, ibid., VI, 52, p. 6.) This was originally interpreted as the first move against the “new course” because the domestic trade network had been closely associated with actually putting goods on the shelves. However, Soviet officials discouraged this view, and his subsequent promotion on March r to First Deputy Premier seemed to support the argument that his resignation was actually a preview of the forthcoming reorganization. New York Times, March 1, 1955, p. I, Clifton Daniel.
The exact role of the Central Committee in these events is unknown. Despite its increased influence after Stalin’s death there was nothing to indicate that it played as significant a part in 1955 as it did in July 1957. Everything points to the 1955 changes having originated in the Presidium. The purpose of the meeting was apparently to brief local officials in much the same manner as Soviet diplomats stationed in Western capitals had been briefed two weeks earlier. Ibid., Feb. 13, 1955, Part 4, p. r.
Pravda and Isvestia, Feb. 3, 1955, pp. I-5, Current Digest, VII, 6, pp. 3-it.
Pravda, pp. 2–3, and Izvestia, pp. 4–5, Feb. 4, 1955, Current Digest, VII, 4, PP. 7–13.
During July the prices of television sets, phonograph records, cameras, and aluminium kitchen utensils (all luxury items out of the reach of the vast majority of consumers) were cut by 20 per cent. In December television set prices were slashed a further 20 per cent. Economic Survey of Europe in 1955, p. 168. Cf. pp. 339–340.
Soviet News, 3100, Feb. 9, 1955, p. r. Malenkov’s record belies these assertions: March 1939—October 1952 member of the Orgburo; February 1941—March 1946 alternate member of the Politburo and a full member after that date; March 1939—March 1953 member of the CPSU Secretariat; member of the wartime State Committe of Defense; and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from Stalin’s death until his 1955 “resignation.” It was Khrushchev and not Malenkov who had been most closely identified with agriculture since 1950. In the explanation circulated to the Cominform Malenkov was charged with taking part in the “Leningrad affair” and opposing Beria’s arrest. Bialer, op. cit., pp. 8–9.
The importance of this ministry had been diminished by the creation of the Ministry of Electric Power Station Construction on November 22, 1954. However, if it still retained authority over atomic power installations then Malenkov retained significant importance. Mosely, “How ‘New’ is the Kremlin’s New Line?”, p. 376.
Soviet News, 3101, Feb. 1o, 1955, p. 3, and 3105, Feb. 16, 1955, p. 3.
The following Army Generals were promoted to the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union: I. Kh. Bagramyan; S. S. Biryuzov; Grechko; Yeremenko; Moskalenko; and Chuikov. The elevation of two colonel generals, S. I. Rudenko and V. A. Sudets, to the rank of Marshal of Aviation indicated the importance of the air force. Colonel Generals S. S. Varentsev and V. Kazakov were both made Marshals of the Artillery. Later in the year six more professional soldiers with important commands were promoted to the rank of General of the Army. (New York Times, March Iz, 1955, p. 1, Clifton Daniel and Garthoff, o¢. cit., pp. 24 and 49.) Between 1950 and 1954 ten of the 23 military district commanders had been replaced. Five others had been transferred to different areas of the Soviet Union. Meissner, “Verwaltungsumbau,” p. 289.
Communist Marshals,“ BBC, March 14, 1955.
New York Times, March IS, 1955, p. 3, Harry Schwartz.
Pravda and Izvestia, March 1, 1955, p. s, Current Digest, VII, 9, p. 3o; and the New York Times, March 1, 1955, p. r, Clifton Daniel.
New York Times, March 2, 1955, p. 6 and March s, 1955, p. 3, Harry Schwartz.
Pravda, March 3, 1955, p. 2, and Izvestia, p. i, Current Digest, VII, 9
Supplements to News, 4, Feb. 16, 1955, and New Times, 7, Feb. 12, 1955, Current Digest, VII, 8, p. 11.
Quoted by Pravda and Izvestia, March 1o, 1955, P. 4, ibid., VII, 8, pp. 11.
Pravda, March 12, 1955, p. 4, ibid., VII, 8, pp. ii-12.
The Great Friendship of Russia and China,“ BBC, Feb. 18, 1955.
For example, in early January N. S. Patolichev, Party chief in Belorussia, asserted that the Republic was to become a flax producing area in accordance with “Comrade Khrushchev’s instructions.” The implication was that they had the same authority as those of Stalin’s. Pravda as quoted by the New York Times, Feb. 5, 1955, p. 4, Harry Schwartz.
Pravda, April 14, 1955, P. 1 as quoted by ibid., April 17, 1955, p. 22, Harry Schwartz.
In 1957 after four years of intensive efforts to raise production the average Soviet farmer was producing approximately the same quantity of grain (eight quintals per hectare) as Czarist peasants had. This was one sixth the output of his American counter-part. Even Polish peasants under Gomulka’s policies averaged 14 quintals per hectare. “Grain Yields,” BBC, Jan. 13, 1958.
There had been a few earlier efforts to reverse it. Beginning in 195o demobilized military personnel were ordered to return to their native villages and were denied permission to work in factories. New York Times, Jan. 6, 1954, p. r, Drew Middleton.
Pravda and Izvestia, Feb. 3, 1955, pp. 3–5, Current Digest, VII, 6, p. 4.
Bergson, “The Russian Economy since Stalin,” p. 212.
New York Times, Nov. 8, 1955, p. 3, Harry Schwartz.
Ibid., April 24, 1955, Part 4, p. 9, Thomas Whitney. Even this modest increase is open to question. Volin, “The Malenkov-Khrushchev New Economic Policy,” P. 197.
The original Fifth Five Year Plan goal of 130,000,000 metric tons (in terms of ‘bar yields’) had been scaled down by 1955 to 114,000,000. New York Times, Aug. 21, 1955, p. 1, Welles Hangen.
Before 1955 it occupied only ro,000,000 acres but by 196o there were to be 70,000,000 acres. Forty million of these were planted the first year despite a very late spring. Volin, “Khrushchev’s Economic Neo-Stalinism,” p. 462.
Pravda and Izvestia, Feb. 3, 1955, pp. 1–5, Current Digest, VII, 6, pp. 6–7. This reflected the regime’s incessant drive to improve the Soviet diet as a means of winning popular support. It is especially significant in the light of the grain shortage because “in a real crisis verging on a famine it would be much more economical from the standpoint of national food management to feed grain [rather] than animal products, since the former would yield about seven times as many calories as the latter.”
Pravda and Izvestia, Feb. 3, 1955, pp. 1–5, Current Digest, VII, 6, pp. 4–5. The strain that this agricultural expansion placed on the economy was illustrated by Benediktov’s announcement a few days later that all of the farm machinery manufactured in 1955 was earmarked for the virgin lands. (“Second Analytical Survey,” op. cit., P. 49.) By April 3, 1955, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, had issued orders adjusting their agricultural policies to similar corn-hog programs. New York Times, April 3, 1955, p. 16.
Previously the central administration had established rigid acreage quotas for each collective. (Pravda and Izvestia, March II, 1955, p. I, Current Digest, VII, 7, pp. 16–17.) Future distribution of foodstuffs was to be based not only upon a region’s needs but also its original contribution. Pravda and Izvestia, Feb. 3, 1955, pp. 1–5, ibid., VII, 6, p. to.
Dengi i. Kredit, 6, 1954 as quoted by “Russia’s Agricultural Bureacracy,” BBC, Nov. 3, 1954.
Pravda, April 5, 1955, p. 1, Current Digest, VII, 14, pp. 11—iz. At the Twentieth Party Congress the following year Khrushchev stated that over zo,000 such transfers had been completed, but he failed to explain why the program was not completed as originally announced. Laird, “Decontrols or New Controls? The ‘Reform’ of the Soviet Agricultural Administration,” p. 29.
New York Times, April 6, 1955, P. 4.
Intelligence Report No. 6922, U.S. Department of State, May I I, 1955.
New York Times, May 23, 1955, p. 1.
The American delegation was a counter-part to a Soviet one invited to the United States by the Des Moines (Iowa) Register after Khrushchev had admonished the Central Committee in January 1955 to look to American experience in corn production for guidance.
New York Times, Aug. 20, 1955, p. 35, Harry Schwartz.
Ibid., May 23, 1955, p. 11, Clifton Daniel, and Volin, “The New Battle for Grain in Soviet Russia,” p. 198.
New York Times, Aug. 20, 1955, Welles Hangen, p. 35. The 1955 cotton crop was also adversely effected by the weather. In Tadzhikistan torrential rains and hail followed a late frost. Altogether two or three resowings were required on three quarters of the plantations. Economic Survey of Europe in 1955, p. 170.
New York Times, June 18, 1955, p. i, Clifton Daniel.
This “learn from the West” campaign was first discernable in early 1954 when Soviet technicians were advised to take lessons from the Satellites. “The New Soviet Line — `Learn From the West’,” BBC, Aug. 25, 1955.
Pravda and Izvestia, July 17, 1955, pp. 2–6, Current Digest, VII, 28, pp. 3–20.
Pravda and Izvestia, July 13, 1955, pp. 1–3, ibid., VII, 26, pp. 6–1z, and the New York Times, July 18, 1955, p. 13, Harry Schwartz.
Economic Survey of Europe in 1955, pp. 168–169.
New York Times (Int. Ed.), Jan. 31, 1956, p. 3, Welles Hangen.
Economic Survey of Europe in 1955, p. 168.
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Embree, G.D. (1959). Domestic Political and Economic Crises. In: The Soviet Union between the 19th and the 20th Party Congresses, 1952–1956. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9550-8_4
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