On March 6, 1953, Georgy Malenkov was elected to replace the deceased Stalin as Prime Minister of the USSR and General Secretary of the CPSU.
He was born on January 8, 1902 in Orenburg, Russia. Some of his paternal ancestors were of Bulgarian origin. They were settlers from Ohrid and held high positions in the Russian Imperial Army. Malenkov graduated from a classical gymnasium during the Russian Revolution, then joined the Red Army in 1919 and became a member of Lenin's Bolshevik Party in 1920.
After the start of World War II, he was elected a member of the State Defense Committee. After the war, he was tasked with dismantling the Third Reich's military-industrial complex and transferring it to the USSR.
In 1946, Malenkov was nominated as a candidate member of the Politburo. Although he fell out of favor at the expense of his opponents - Andrei Zhdanov and Lavrenty Beria, he quickly regained Stalin's sympathy after Zhdanov's death. Beria soon allied himself with Malenkov, organizing the murder and sending to labor camps of all of Zhdanov's allies. In 1948, Malenkov became secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. In order to test Malenkov as a potential successor, Stalin gradually withdrew from the Central Committee and assigned most of his responsibilities and tasks to him. In 1952, Stalin even abolished the position of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.
Thus, Georgy Malenkov managed to become Stalin's undisputed successor after his death. Under pressure from the party leadership, he was forced to resign as General Secretary of the CPSU. Thus, Malenkov opened the way for the party's rise to power of Nikita Khrushchev.
The two politicians jointly led the USSR for two years.
In February 1955, Malenkov was forced to resign. In 1961, he was expelled from the CPSU and exiled to Kazakhstan. In 1968, he was allowed to return to Moscow. He distanced himself from public life. Georgy Malenkov died on January 14, 1988.