No Khrushchev, who succeeds Stalin?

Simple premise, Khrushchev dies during the Great Patriotic War. Who leads the USSR assuming Stalin dies on schedule in 1953?
 
A temporary Malenkov-Beria alliance is the obvious answer. The question is whether, without Khrushchev, Malenkov and the rest of the Presidium can successfully maneuver to arrest Beria as in OTL.
 
Beria might be in charge for a bit, but he was universally hated so I can't see him lasting long. My money is on Malenkov, Suslov or Molotov.

Although there might have been some "ov-s" I might have missed
 

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Beria was part of the ruling clique after Stalin, but got purged.
 

RousseauX

Donor
It's not gonna be Beria because literally everybody else hated him and he gets shot regardless of whether Kruschev exists or not
 
Assuming Beria gets deep-sixed, I would think that lessens the chance of Zukohv,s involvement. Assuming there,s some sentiment for at least a decoupling from The Stalinst Style, I would think that delegitmizes Molotov and Kaganovich to an extent. That leaves Malenkov (a BTS sort) and my dark horse, Mikoyan (he of the 'could walk across Red Square during a rainstorm and not get wet' reputation). He too was a BTSer, but had roused Koba,s ire and so wasn't perhaps quite so tainted by the stench of Josif and so more palatable in any environment where deStalinization was getting any sort of purchase. Then again, would it if K. wasn't around?

Just saw the POD was K. buying it during the war. So the butterflies have more time to flap. Maybe then the Leningrad Circle doesn't,t get eradicated and Kutzenov (sp?) somehow survives to become a player? Or even that the particular,s of the endgame of the GPW are changed.
 
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Depends. Who with potential has Stalin not had killed before 1953?

Something to remember about Khrushchev.

He was able to stay around in no small part because he was willing to humiliate himself for Stalin's amusement. Stalin reportedly loved to order Khrushchev perform that traditional Russian dance (can't remember what its called) where the dancer leans way forward on sharply bent knees. The dancing put so much strain on Khrushchev's calves that and due to his weight he looked absolutely ridiculous while doing it. It was said Stalin would nearly fall down laughing while watching.
 
Depends. Who with potential has Stalin not had killed before 1953?

Something to remember about Khrushchev.

He was able to stay around in no small part because he was willing to humiliate himself for Stalin's amusement. Stalin reportedly loved to order Khrushchev perform that traditional Russian dance (can't remember what its called) where the dancer leans way forward on sharply bent knees. The dancing put so much strain on Khrushchev's calves that and due to his weight he looked absolutely ridiculous while doing it. It was said Stalin would nearly fall down laughing while watching.
The dance has many names in Russian, including prisyadka (literally, "the squat") and kozachok (the cossack)
 
Malenkov is the most likely, since he was Stalin's heir apparent in many ways (for instance Stalin let Malenkov take a lot of the workload of the General Secretary).
 

RousseauX

Donor
Would Lazar Kaganovich have a chance?
Yes, pretty much everyone inside Stalin's inner circle had a chance, Beria and Khrushchev however were the only two who were actively gunning for the leadership position while everyone else was trying to go for some kind of 1920s style collective leadership. But collective leadership never worked out for a Communist party during the cold war era so chances are someone wins the power struggle in the end and it would be iron lazar.
 

RousseauX

Donor
Also it's not gonna be Zhukov because the Marxists really took the term "Bonapartism" seriously and the party had too much control over the red army. Plus Zhukov had plenty of rivals like Koniev inside the army.
 
Would Lazar Kaganovich have a chance?

No. If nothing else, his being Jewish would be a major handicap. And besides, Malenkov at the 19th Party Congress had virtually been named Stalin's successor (he delivered the report in the name of the Central Committee--this had formerly been Stalin's responsibility).

Indeed, in OTL for about the week after Stalin died, it seemed that Malenkov had supreme power; he was Prime Minister and was listed first among Presidium (Politburo) members and Party secretaries. Probably his biggest mistake was to have a photo published showing him with Stalin and Mao Zedong (actually it was from the signing of the 1950 Sino-Soviet treaty and there were a great many other officials there, who were cropped out). This no doubt alarmed the other presidium members and led them to curb his power by removing him from the Secretruat and making Khrushchev the leading party secretary.

(Of course such faked photos were nothing new in Soviet politics; but whereas Stalin cut out people from photos who had been disgraced and usually shot, Malenkov made the mistake of cutting out people who were still alive and powerful...)
malenkov-mao-stalin.jpg
 
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