Georgy Malenkov - Career in The Communist Party

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 Moscow Highest Technical School in the 1920s. 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 Vyacheslav Malyshev, who later became chief of the Soviet nuclear program alongside Kurchatov.

In 1924, Stalin noticed Malenkov and assigned him to Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. In 1925, Malenkov worked in the staff of the Organizational Bureau (Orgburo) of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

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. In this work Malenkov became closely associated with Stalin and was later heavily involved in the treason trials during the purging of the party. 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. 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 Orgburo (predecessor of Politburo). In February 1941 Malenkov became a candidate member of the Politburo.