Georgy Malenkov - Premiership and Duumvirate

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 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 these years 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 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.