Background

Ethnicity: Georgy Malenkov's paternal ancestors were from the area of Ohrid in the Ottoman Vilayet of Manastir (present-day the Republic of Macedonia).

Georgy Malenkov was born on January 8, 1902, in Orenburg, Russian Empire (now Orenburg, Russia). He was the son of Maksimilian Malenkov and Anastasiya Shemiakina. Maksimilian Malenkov was a wealthy farmer in Orenburg province and Anastasiya Shemiakina was the daughter of a blacksmith and the granddaughter of an Orthodox priest.

Education

Georgy Malenkov graduated from Orenburg gymnasium just a few months prior to the Russian revolution of 1917. Later he studied at the Moscow Higher Technical Institute (now the Bauman Moscow State Technical University) between 1921 and 1925.

Career

Georgy Malenkov started his career in 1918, after the Civil War broke out, when he enlisted in the Red Army as a volunteer, taking up arms against the White Russian forces alongside the communists. In 1920, he became part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and during the final years of the Civil War, he served as a political commissar on a propaganda train in Turkestan.

Later he studied at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and in 1925 became a technical secretary of the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee. He 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 1934, Stalin made him his personal secretary. In the same year, he became a chief aide of the head of the party executive bodies department and in 1936 he became the head of the party executive bodies department. From 1939 until 1953 he served as secretary of the Central Committee. He also served as the head of the Communist Party's Cadres Directorate from 1939 to 1946.

Before the outbreak of the war with Germany, in February 1941, Georgy Malenkov became a candidate member of the 18th Politburo and held this post until 1946. During the war, he supplied planes to the Red Air Force, and he appears to have undertaken his tasks efficiently. In 1943, Stalin made him the chairman of the committee that oversaw the post-war economic rehabilitation in several liberated areas, with the notable exception of Leningrad. After mid-May 1944, he became deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.

From March 18, 1946, Malenkov was a member of the ruling Politburo. After the exposure of a scandal in the aviation industry, he lost both his deputy chairmanship of the government and his role as secretary of the Central Committee, in March and May 1946, respectively. Thanks to the intervention of Lavrenty Beria, however, he was able to recover both positions by August. In 1948 he became Second Secretary of the Communist Party, a post that he held until 1952. After Stalin's death in 1953, Malenkov became the chairman of the Council of Ministers and the main party secretary. On March 14, however, the latter position was given to Khrushchev. On February 9, 1955, Georgy Malenkov became deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and held this post until 1957. He also served as Minister of Energy and Electrification from 1955 to 1957.

In 1957, Malenkov tried to organize a palace coup of his own against Khrushchev. However, the coup miserably failed and Malenkov was stripped of all important positions. He became the director of a hydroelectric power station in Ust-Kamengorsk and subsequently of a thermal power station in Ekibastuz. In 1961, the Ekibastuz city party committee expelled him from membership, and Malenkov retired on a pension until his death in Moscow on January 14, 1988.

Achievements

• 

  Georgy Malenkov was a Soviet politician and close associate of Stalin, who was known as the successor to Stalin. He was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1955. Malenkov was the only man other than Stalin who was a member of all three of the highest bodies of the Party and Government – the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Collegium of the Council of Ministers.
  
  On September 30, 1943, Georgy Malenkov received the title of the Hero of Socialist Labour. He also was awarded the Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945." Malenkov was the recipient of three Orders of Lenin. The first one was granted to him on September 30, 1943, the second one in November 1945, and the third one in January 1952.
  
  Georgy Malenkov was portrayed in many films, such as The Battle of Stalingrad, The Inner Circle, and The Death of Stalin. In 1954 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam issued a series of three stamps commemorating Vietnamese-Soviet friendship with an image of Ho Chi Minh and Georgy Malenkov.

Religion

Some sources said that Malenkov in his later years converted to Russian Orthodoxy and then became a reader (the lowest level of Russian Orthodox clergy) and a choir singer.

Politics

Georgy Malenkov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1920. He was one of the most eager converts of the ideology. As a technical secretary of the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee Malenkov distinguished himself as an able administrator and loyal Stalinist. Later he became Stalin's secretary and amassed enormous power, directing the appointment and removal of personnel and becoming deeply involved in the purge process. Later he ran the party organization for the Central Committee and reviewed party documents in preparation for the Great Purge beginning in 1936. Malenkov took an active role in various aspects of this purge, supervising particularly harsh actions in Belarus and Armenia in 1937.

By the late-1940s it was widely assumed that Georgy Malenkov would succeed Stalin. During World War II he held the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of the People's Commissars and also was in charge of the nuclear weapons program. He took a keen interest in recruiting the most talented young engineers and scientists. He downplayed the role of the omnipresent commissars who understood little technology but were charged with ideological purification.

In 1944, Malenkov gave a speech regarding the necessity to increase the vigilance of Jewish staff, following which Jewish nationals had difficulties in gaining high posts. However, after World War II his career briefly declined. The main reason was Andrei Zhdanov and his purified communist ideology. Malenkov stressed the universal values of science and engineering. He proposed to promote the technical experts to the highest positions in the Soviet administrative elite. Andrei Zhdanov's faction called for prioritizing political education and ideological purity.

After War World II ended, Malenkov began to build a comprehensive case against Zhukov and several other military officers who were being considered national heroes. Malenkov accused Zhukov of anti-revolutionary behavior and selfish Bonapartism. He arranged Zhukov's downfall and his demotion in rank. He was also involved in the downfall of Leningrad mayor Alexander Kuznetsov. During the late Stalin period, Malenkov once again played a leading role in new purges, including the Leningrad Affair and the exposure of the "Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee."

After the death of Stalin Malenkov announced the necessity to put an end to the personality cult and start a collective leadership of the country. He initiated several reforms, one of which was the release and rehabilitation of political prisoners. He canceled additional payments to high political officials and increased the wages of lower workers. Malenkov made an attempt to improve agriculture by increasing purchasing prices and reducing taxes. He also gave passports to villagers, who since 1932 had been prohibited from leaving their villages. However, this reform was not completed.

Malenkov joined with Khrushchev to overcome a putsch by Beria in 1953, but then a power struggle between the two leaders developed. Malenkov and former old-guard Stalinists Lazar Kaganovich and Vyacheslav Molotov resented Khrushchev's de-Stalinization speech at the Twentieth Party Congress of February 1956. In 1957 the three engineered a majority vote within the Presidium for Khrushchev's removal. Khrushchev, however, was able to reverse the vote in a Central Committee plenum, which saw the defeat of the so-called Antiparty Group. On June 29, Malenkov lost his positions in the Presidium and the Central Committee.

Personality

Those who knew Georgy Malenkov said that he was a gifted manager and an energetic man. He understood everything at a glance and was a hardworking person. Milovan Djilas said that he gave one the impression of being a withdrawn, cautious, and not very personable man. He was also noted as a polite and tactful man.

Georgy Malenkov was interested in science, subscribed to scientific journals and read many books. He also loved chess.

Quotes from others about the person

• Yuri Zhukov: "If Malenkov then survived, now we would be a different, much more prosperous country. The money of the USSR would not go to Asia or Africa: it would be spent on raising the living standards of Soviet citizens, stimulating food and light industry as a whole; there was also a Malenkov program that set out these guidelines."

Interests

• Chess, science

Connections

Georgy Malenkov cohabited with Valeriya Golubtsova from 1920, however, there was no formal marriage registration. The couple gave birth to three children.

Father:

Maksimilian Malenkov

(died 1907)

Mother:

Anastasiya Shemiakina

(1884 – 1968)

late spouse:

Valeriya Golubtsova

Valeriya Golubtsova (May 15, 1901 – October 1, 1987) was rector of Moscow Power Engineering Institute.

Son:

Andrei Malenkov

(born May 29, 1937)

Son:

Georgy Malenkov

(born October 20, 1938)

Daughter:

Valentina Malenkova

(born September 9, 1924 – 2010)

colleague:

Joseph Stalin

References

• Malenkov: A Biographical Study of Stalin's Successor A book by Martin Ebon.
  1953
• The Soviet Union Since Stalin
  1980