A power struggle between Malenkov and Khrushchev began, and on 14 March Malenkov was forced to resign from the Secretariat.

The official explanation for his resignation was " to grant the request of Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers G. M. Malenkov to be released from the duties of the Party Central Committee ".

Khrushchev was able to consolidate his powers within the party machine after Malenkov's resignation, but Malenkov remained the de facto leading figure of the Party.

Beria was defeated at the next Presidium plenums by a majority against him, and not long after, Khrushchev and Malenkov started to plan Beria's fall from power.

Malenkov, while losing his secretaryship, was still Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and remained so until 1955.

With new acquired powers, Khrushchev was able to appoint associates to the leadership in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia and Moldavia ( modern Moldova ), while Malenkov, in contrast, was able to appoint an associate to leadership only in Moscow.

By August 1954 Malenkov's role as de facto head of government was over ; Nikolai Bulganin began signing Council of Ministers decrees ( a right beholden to the Chairman ) and the Presidium gave in to Khrushchev's wishes to replace Malenkov.

Malenkov was called of revisionism because of his wishes to prioritise light industry over heavy industry.

At the same time, Malenkov was accused of being involved in the Leningrad Affair which led to the deaths of innocent party officials.

Malenkov spoke twice to the plenum, but it failed to alter his position, and on 8 March 1955 he was forced to resign from his post as Chairman of the Council of Ministers ; he was succeeded by Nikolai Bulganin, a protege of Khrushchev dating back to the 1930s.

Stalin's death on 5 March 1953 prompted major changes in the Soviet leadership and in March 1953, Voroshilov was approved as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ( i. e., the head of state ) with Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party and Georgy Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union.

He was briefly a part of the ruling " troika " with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov.

This was the beginning of Beria's alliance with Malenkov, which later became of central importance.

Sebag-Montefiore does not dispute the possibility of an assassination by poison masterminded by Beria, whose hatred for Stalin was palpable by this point, but also notes that Beria never made mention of poison or confessed to using it, even during his later interrogations, and was never alone with Stalin during the period prior to his stroke ( he always went with Malenkov to defer suspicion ).

His close ally Malenkov was the new Prime Minister and initially the most powerful man in the post-Stalin leadership.

Khrushchev opposed the alliance between Beria and Malenkov, but he was initially unable to challenge them.

When Beria finally realized what was happening and plaintively appealed to Malenkov to speak for him, his old friend and crony silently hung his head and refused to meet his gaze.

A Troika was established immediately after Stalin's death, consisting of Malenkov, Beria, and Molotov, but ended when Malenkov and Molotov deceived Beria.

* 13 March – 26 June 1953: After the death of Joseph Stalin power was shared between Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Malenkov, and Vyacheslav Molotov.

One cannot but wonder whether these doubts about the success of Khrushchev's agricultural policy have not at least something to do with one of the big surprises provided by this Congress -- the obsessive harping on the crimes and misdeeds of the `` anti-party group '' -- Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich and others -- including the eighty-year-old Marshal Voroshilov.

Georgy Malenkov warned him that if policy direction were not corrected immediately, there would be a catastrophe.

The events in Germany convinced conservatives and supporters of Beria such as Molotov, Malenkov and Bulganin that his policies were dangerous and destabilising to Soviet power ( his policy towards the nationalities was seen as a threat to the unity of the USSR itself ).

* January 27 – The Soviet government changes all place names honoring Molotov, Kaganovich and Georgi Malenkov.

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.

In 1957 the Central Committee fired Malenkov from jobs in the Soviet government, cancelled his Kremlin privileges, special food perks and financial allowances.

Mikoyan remained in the government after Stalin's death, in the post of Minister of Trade, under Malenkov.

Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich and Shepilov-the only four names made public-were vilified in the press and deposed from their positions in party and government.

Khrushchev's ulterior motivation, however, was to legitimize and help consolidate his control of the Communist party and government, power obtained in a political struggle with Stalin loyalists Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgy Malenkov.

Within days of the events in Germany, Khrushchev persuaded the other leaders to support a Party coup against Beria ; Beria's principal ally Malenkov abandoned him.

This event also illustrated the new nature of Soviet politics — the most decisive attack on the Stalinists was delivered by defense minister Georgy Zhukov, and the implied threat to the plotters was clear ; however, none of the " anti − party group " were killed or even arrested, and Khrushchev disposed of them quite cleverly: Georgy Malenkov was sent to manage a power station in Kazakhstan, and Vyacheslav Molotov, one of the most die-hard Stalinists, was made ambassador to Mongolia and later the Soviet representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (, Georgij Maksimilianovič Malenkov ; 8 January 1902 – 14 January 1988 ) was a Soviet politician, Communist Party leader and close collaborator of Joseph Stalin.

Golubtsova and Malenkov never officially registered their union and remained unregistered partners for the rest of their lives ; such status allowed them to receive twice as many perks from the Soviet system.

In 1957 Mikoyan refused to back an attempt by Malenkov and Molotov to remove Khrushchev from power ; he thus secured his position as one of Khrushchev's closest allies.

The central Soviet strongmen at the time were Lavrentiy Beria, head of the Ministry of the Interior ; Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ); and Georgi Malenkov, Premier of the Soviet Union.

After Khruschev removed most of the old Stalinists, like Molotov and Malenkov from the party, Voroshilov's career began to fade.

Stalin gave Malenkov the most important task-building nuclear missiles in collaboration with Lavrentiy Beria.

Malenkov was appointed Chief of the Soviet Missile program, his first deputy was Dmitri Ustinov, a 33 year-old rocket scientist who later became one of the most powerful Soviet Defense Ministers.

When Stalin died on 5 March 1953, Malenkov was the most important member of the Secretariat, which also included Nikita Khrushchev among others.

The most famous troika was the one that ruled the Soviet Union briefly in the period immediately following Stalin's death: Georgy Malenkov, Lavrentiy Beria, and Vyacheslav Molotov.

Stalin spoke only briefly, and for most of the proceedings sat in silence while Nikita Khrushchev and Georgy Malenkov delivered the main speeches.

Stalin had talked of Zhdanov being his successor but Zhdanov's ill health gave his rivals, Lavrentiy Beria and Georgy Malenkov, an opportunity to undermine him.