Georgy Maximillianovich Malenkov
Georgy Maximillianovich Malenkov (1902–1988) was a Soviet leader of the Stalin-era generation: Politburo member, deputy premier, and Stalin's brief successor as Premier (1953–1955) and party secretary (March–September 1953).
Career
- Rose through the party apparatus in the 1930s; managed cadres during the war (GKO); delivered key reports at congresses.
- After Stalin's death led the collective leadership with Beria and Molotov; backed Beria's arrest (June 1953).
- As Premier pushed the "New Course": consumer-goods priority over heavy industry, reduced taxes on peasants, housing drive — an early soft line Khrushchev outflanked him from both sides.
- Removed as Premier (1955), allied with Molotov in the "Anti-Party Group" attempt against Khrushchev (1957), expelled, and ended his days managing a power station in Kazakhstan.
Assessment
Malenkov represents the technocratic-managerial tendency within late Stalinism — competent administration without political line. His defeat by Khrushchev settled that the post-Stalin succession would be decided by party-machine politics rather than policy coherence, opening the road to voluntarism and revisionism (see Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Kruschev, Secret Speech).