Georgy Malenkov

Georgy Malenkov
Георгий Маленков
Official portrait, 1953
5th Premier of the Soviet Union
In office 6 March 1953 – 8 February 1955
President	Nikolay Shvernik Kliment Voroshilov
First Deputies	Vyacheslav Molotov Nikolai Bulganin Lavrentiy Beria Lazar Kaganovich
Preceded by	Joseph Stalin
Succeeded by	Nikolai Bulganin
Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union
In office 9 February 1955 – 29 June 1957
Premier	Nikolai Bulganin
In office 2 August 1946 – 5 March 1953
Premier	Joseph Stalin
In office 15 May 1944 – 15 March 1946
Premier	Joseph Stalin
Additional positions Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union In office 31 August 1948 – 16 October 1952 Preceded by Andrei Zhdanov Succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev (de facto) Senior Secretary of Cadres of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union In office 18 March 1946 – 6 May 1946 Preceded by Andrey Andreyev Succeeded by Alexey Kuznetsov (de facto)
Personal details
Born	Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (1902-01-08)8 January 1902 Orenburg, Russian Empire
Died	14 January 1988(1988-01-14) (aged 86) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting place	Kuntsevo Cemetery, Moscow
Citizenship	Soviet
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1920–1961)
Domestic partner	Valeriya Golubtsova (1920–1987)
Children	3
Alma mater	Moscow Highest Technical School
Profession	Engineer politician
Religion	Atheist convert to Russian Orthodox
Central institution membership 1946–1957: Full member, 18th, 19th, 20th Presidium 1948–1953: Member, 18th, 19th Secretariat 1941–1946: Candidate member, 18th Politburo 1939–1946: Member, 18th Secretariat 1939–1952: Member, 18th Orgburo Leader of the Soviet Union[a] ← Stalin Khrushchev →

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov^[b] (8 January 1902 [O.S. 26 December 1901]^[1] – 14 January 1988)^[2] was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union after his death in March 1953. After one week, Malenkov was forced to give up control of the party apparatus, but continued to serve as Premier of the Soviet Union. He then entered a power struggle with the party's First Secretary, Nikita Khrushchev that culminated in his removal from the premiership in 1955 as well as the Presidium in 1957.

Malenkov served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and joined the Communist Party in 1920. From 1925, he served in the staff of the party's Organizational Bureau (Orgburo), where he was entrusted with overseeing member records; this role led to his heavy involvement in facilitating Stalin's purges of the party in the 1930s. From 1939, Malenkov was a member of the party Secretariat, and during World War II was made a member of the State Defense Committee, where his primary responsibilities were aircraft and missile production. In 1946, he became a full member of the Politburo, where his rivals for succession to Stalin were Andrei Zhdanov and Lavrentiy Beria; Malenkov rose in stature after Zhdanov's death in 1948.

Following Stalin's death on 5 March 1953, Malenkov succeeded Stalin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the highest-ranking member of the Secretariat. On 14 March, the Politburo (then known as the Presidium) forced him to give up his position in the latter thereby allowing Nikita Khrushchev to become the party's highest-ranking Secretary. Subsequently, Malenkov contented himself serving as the Presidium's highest-ranking member and acting chairman until eventually being eclipsed by Khrushchev as the country's undisputed leader.^[3] After being compelled to resign the premiership in 1955, Malenkov conspired with his colleagues in the Presidium to remove Khrushchev from the Soviet leadership. When the attempted coup by the so-called "Anti-Party Group" failed in 1957, Malenkov was dismissed from the Presidium before being expelled from the party altogether by 1961.

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