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After lurking around for months I decided to finally sign up. I have penchant for things Soviet and this questions been gnawing at me.

The question is this- what if Khrushchev was unable to outmaneuver Georgi Malenkov and he stayed First Secretary? From my research it seems that that the Politburo would not stand for someone also being Premier, so would get it? Maybe Bulganin or Molotov?

I think this an interesting POD because I am curious about what he would do in regards to
-how would address the housing shortage, with cheap housing like Khrushchev or limited, quality Stalinist structures or something else?
-would he empty the gulags?
-would there be something like, maybe a limited Khrushchev Thaw in terms of press and literature?
-would he attempt the Virgin Lands Campaign or something ambitious like the Siberian River Reversal or more massive canal projects in Central Asia?
-would he shift to consumer goods rather than heavy industry?
-how would he treat the legacy of Stalin?
-How would he conduct foreign policy? Is the Hungarian Uprising and Sino-Soviet split going to prevented or more preventable?
-Who does he keep by his side? Who’s likely to backstab him? Who goes bye-bye? Who stagnates?
-Would he attempt to reorganize or reform the bureaucracy?

I am curious because I read an account of him in Inside Russia Today (1957) by John Gunther Harper.
“Malenkov was all odds the Soviet chieftain best liked by the foreign diplomatic corps in Moscow, during the period of his prime ministership and after. Khrushchev, people said, was a checkers player; Malenkov was a chess player, Khrushchev led with a fist, Malenkov a mind. He had a broad range of thought, did not seem to blinded by ideology, and was sophisticated; I heard observers in a good position to know say that he was the only leading Russian who comprehended the western point of view, and with whom Europeans could talk on European terms.”
“…Malenkov lost his prime ministership, partly at least, by reason of a dispute over consumer goods. He wanted, with certain reservations, to give the people more in the forms of pots and pans and the like, whereas Khrushchev at that time insisted on keeping most emphasis on heavy industry. Malenkov’s chief achievement as prime minister, in which Khrushchev shared, was the evolution my which Russia is no longer ruled overly by terror, although it certainly still exists. He put the old-line cops out of business, even though his own history was inextricably mixed up with them.”

Also curious to know if anyone has this book or what they think or it, I have no idea of its rarity, I picked it up for a dollar at the goodwill store I volunteer at. Would anybody be interested in a Malenkov USSR timeline?
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