RUSSIA: Number 2 1/2

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"We who follow the Marxist teaching," he urged, "must study our contemporary experience . . . incorporate it into day-by-day practical leadership . . . The war has forged new people, new personnel capable of pushing the work ahead." He advised all comrades: "Avoid getting into a rut, and stop living by old formulas . . .

"We have people, rightly called bookworms, who have quotations from Marx and Engels ready for every occasion and every pretext. Instead of laboring to think up something new or studying experience, they have one answer: 'No, that was not said by Marx,' or 'Engels said something else.' If Marx could rise from the grave and see such a follower (if this term is permissible), he undoubtedly would immediately disown him."

Down & Up. This speech turned out to be "erroneous." It seemed to be a bid for power by Malenkov and the younger men brought forward by the war. The Old Bolsheviks cracked down. The late Andrei Zhdanov, who was then a close rival of Malenkov for advancement in the party hierarchy, saw how to turn Malenkov's blunt words against him. In a ringing call for orthodoxy, intellectual Zhdanov retraced the party line afresh. In the game of Bolshevik parchesi, Malenkov had to move back several spaces.

He lost his job in Stalin's private secretariat. He found himself stuck in a secondary role in the Agricultural Administration. He dropped from fourth to ninth in Politburo listings (Zhdanov moved up from eighth to fourth). For his fling in ideological heresy, Malenkov was properly penitent and rueful, and on the next throw he moved forward again. In 1947, at the birth of the Cominform in Poland, Zhdanov, the party theoretician, had to share leadership with Malenkov, the party organizer.

A year later, perhaps from shock, worry, and a fall from favor because of the rise of Titoism, Zhdanov died. At once Malenkov more than made up his lost ground. In the process, a blight fell upon the fortunes of outstanding Zhdanov men.

Most striking was the complete disappearance of N. A. Voznesensky, an amiable younger member of the Politburo, in charge of five-year planning. Voznesensky, something of an opportunist, had switched from Malenkov's camp to Zhdanov's. In March 1949 Voznesensky was fired. For a while, slighting and insulting references to him appeared in the Russian press. After that, it was as if Voznesensky had never been. For example, a recently published popular Soviet history book omits his name from a wartime list of Politburo members. George Orwell's "Ministry of Truth," which rewrote history to suit the doctrine of Nineteen Eighty-Four, was not more thorough than the erasers of Voznesensky.

Prospects. In listings of Politburo members, Malenkov has now bounced up to third place behind Stalin and Molotov. And there are hints, not conclusive by any means, that 48-year-old Georgy Malenkov, more than the older (60) Molotov, is being groomed to succeed Joseph Stalin.