From the Death of Stalin to the Fall of Malenkov, March 1953–February 1955

The death of Stalin brought no radical change in its wake in the approach to agriculture. The energy of the heirs was consumed in a tense and unrelenting struggle for primacy in party and state. The announcement of 7 March 1953 naming G. M. Malenkov Chairman and L. P. Beria First Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the retention by Malenkov of his position as a secretary of the Central Committee, the merging of the USSR Ministry of State Security into the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs under Beria, placed these two men at the very centre of power in the Soviet state. Between them they controlled, at least on paper, the three organs of power, the government, the party and the security police.