Convulsion in the Kremlin

Once again change convulsed the Kremlin. Moscow announced tersely that Marshal Georgy Zhukov, first soldier of the Soviet Union, "has been released from his post" as Defense Minister. Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, 59, was named in his place. That was all. There was not even the customary suggestion of "other duties" for the famed Red army leader.

Inner Alliance. At 60, Zhukov has already risen higher than any other professional officer of the world's most powerful army. The Soviet Union's most authentic popular hero, he is the general who saved Moscow, led the counteroffensive that relieved Stalingrad, conquered Berlin and briefly ruled it jointly with his U.S. opposite number, General Dwight Eisenhower. But Stalin was jealous of his popularity, banished him to provincial posts for six years. Within 24 hours after the tyrant's death, Zhukov was called back to Moscow.

Zhukov soon formed an alliance with Khrushchev. He may have helped him depose Malenkov as First Party Secretary. When the showdown with Beria came, it was Zhukov who ordered the army's tanks into the heart of Moscow to paralyze Beria's police. Elevated to Defense Minister, Zhukov was the man who ordered Soviet tanks into Budapest ("liquidating fascism," he called it) to crush the Hungarian rebellion for Khrushchev. Last June, when the Malenkov-Molotov-Kaganovich forces mustered a majority in the Presidium, it was. Zhukov who saved Khrushchev by throwing the army's support to him. As a reward, he was named to the Presidium itself, the first professional soldier ever to sit in the ruling body of the Communist Party.

Getting Tito's Goat. Jovial and blunt, Zhukov was the man in the top Soviet hierarchy that Westerners liked best; even Ike Eisenhower spoke of him as a friend. In the Soviet Union he was popular beyond a dictator's dreams. Shortly after his elevation to the Presidium, he went off to Leningrad, received a popular ovation rarely seen in the Soviet Union. There he made a speech denouncing the ousted trio as "monsters . . . who have lost their right to be ministers and even members of our great Communist Party" --stronger language than Khrushchev himself had used. Soon there was learned speculation that Zhukov was the real power in the Kremlin, might even be getting ready to take over from Nikita Khrushchev himself.

Early this month, first stopping off for a talk with Khrushchev in the Crimea, Marshal Zhukov boarded the cruiser Kuibyshev for a long-planned visit to Yugoslavia and Albania. Clad in rough green hunting suit, he went shooting mountain goats with Tito (he bagged four, Tito one). Though Tito took the step of establishing diplomatic relations with East Germany while he was in the country, Zhukov seemed unconcerned about such political matters. In his one big speech he boasted of "our first-class modern arms, including atomic and hydrogen weapons . . . the intercontinental ballistic rocket." Barging slowly through Albania, he inspected the key Soviet-bloc naval base at Valona and told a group of gold-star mothers: "The imperialists are trying to unleash another war, but we, if necessary, can strike a stronger blow."

On Saturday his TU-104 brought him back to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, where Marshal Malinovsky and other armed forces officials--but no high-ranking Communists--were on hand to meet him. Six hours later TASS issued its bulletin. Fifty minutes after that Radio Moscow broadcast the report as the 15th item in its evening news program.

Faithful Servant. The man who replaces him as Defense Minister is a lesser Soviet war hero, usually ranked fifth in the Red army hierarchy after Marshals Zhukov, Konev, Vasileysky and Sokolovsky. Malinovsky is stubby, barrel-chested and almost two years younger than Zhukov. He fought with a Czarist brigade beside U.S. troops at Saint-Mihiel on World War I's Western front, hurried back after the Revolution to help form soldiers' Soviets in Siberia.

In World War II, Malinovsky commanded the armies that drove the Germans from his native Ukraine, where his friend Nikita Khrushchev was political commissar. In 1945 he was transferred to the Far Eastern front, directed Soviet forces in the brief war against the Japanese in Manchuria, told Chinese Communists that if the U.S. "put out a hand" to interfere with them, "we will cut it off." Staying on as Soviet commander in the Far East, he presumably masterminded the Korean invasion of 1950, moved back to Moscow last year. For Khrushchev he will be a faithful servant rather than rival.

As Defense Minister, Zhukov was scheduled to preside over next week's grandiose celebration of the Revolution's 40th anniversary in Moscow. Masses of the latest military gear are already marshaled under canvas near Red Square. Red luminaries from all over the world, headed by Red China's Mao Tse-tung, are on their way to Moscow. What function would Zhukov be assigned now?

The only job which would give Zhukov more power than he already wields is Khrushchev's. Any other position--President, Premier, or manager of an electric power station--would be no promotion.

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