861.00/11–949: Airgram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
A–1113. The fact that Malenkov instead of Molotov delivered the keynote address on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the October revolution (Embtel 2791, November 7) tends to serve as confirmation of the former’s growing prestige in top Party circles. Moreover, the speech was delivered with an assurance and an air of authority—there were on the whole few appeals to the higher authority of Lenin and Stalin—commonly associated only with Stalin himself.
But it would be too hasty to conclude that Molotov’s apparent position as number two in the Party hierarchy is about to be challenged by Malenkov. Pictures of the Politburo that have been posted around Moscow in connection with the November 7 celebration indicate that Molotov is still comfortably holding his own in Party ranks: a typical lineup finds 11 pictures under that of Stalin, with Molotov’s centered directly beneath. His name is also mentioned first in the Pravda account of the celebration. Also it may be worth recalling that at the Tolbukhin funeral1 Molotov and Malenkov headed the pallbearers but it was Molotov who finally pushed the urn of ashes into its niche in the Kremlin wall.
Malenkov may have been chosen over Molotov, who delivered the preceding two anniversary addresses, primarily because of his speaking ability. Malenkov is far superior as a speaker to Molotov, who tends to stammer under tension. Furthermore, the assurance with which Malenkov delivered his speech should be regarded primarily as an indication of how the Party genuinely regards the achievements of socialism during the past year in both the domestic and foreign fields. The extent to which it also reflects Malenkov’s personality and prestige is more difficult to assess. It is hardly conceivable in any case that the speech was not carefully scrutinized by a number of Party leaders if not by Stalin himself.
[The final paragraph, which is omitted, listed the positions of the leaders as they lined up on Lenin’s mausoleum for the march through [Page 675] the Red Square on November 7. A few absences were noted, but nothing unusual was observed.]
- Fedor Ivanovich Tolbukhin was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, who accepted the surrender of the Germany Army at Stalingrad, died in Moscow on October 17, 1949, while he was troop commander of the Transcaucasus military region.↩