Foreign News: How the Deed Was Done

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Five months ago. when Nikita Khrushchev was engaged in mortal political battle with Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich, it was Marshal Georgy Zhukov who came to Khrushchev's rescue in a crucial session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Angered by this intervention, a civilian member of the committee, so the story goes, hotly demanded of Zhukov: "Have you brought your tanks with you?" Replied Zhukov: "If tanks are needed, I will lead them."

Nikita was grateful then. But from that moment on, Nikita Khrushchev must have known Zhukov had to be destroyed. For if Zhukov could throw his tanks behind Khrushchev, he could also, at some future date, throw them against Khrushchev.

The Unwary Traveler. But not even Khrushchev dared move precipitately against the most popular man in Russia and its greatest living hero. Not until early last month did Khrushchev feel ready to make his move. Then, with all the fanfare due Zhukov's rank as Defense Minister and a member of the Presidium that rules the Communist Party, the unsuspecting marshal was shipped off on a state visit to Yugoslavia—a trip that was scheduled to last two weeks but was suddenly extended to three when Zhukov unexpectedly got orders to proceed from Yugoslavia to Albania.

While the leonine hero of the U.S.S.R. plodded dutifully through Russia's least prepossessing satellite, the military press back in Moscow, on an unseen cue, began to publish editorials pointedly attributing Russia's World War II victory not to its generals but to the "indispensable leadership" of the Communist Party. Political commissars throughout the Soviet armed forces held protest meetings to complain that their authority had been so undermined by line officers that the political education of Soviet troops was being neglected. On the day before Zhukov finally returned, Khrushchev held a meeting with the top brass of the Moscow military district—a meeting at which he apparently disclosed his intention of ousting Zhukov from the Defense Ministry.

No More Promotions. Clearly, Khrushchev planned to kick Zhukov upstairs to some such post as Deputy Premier, thus depriving him of control of the armed forces but at the same time avoiding the risk of a public showdown. Communist newspapers in Europe blossomed out with obviously inspired stories that the marshal was slated for "an important new post." On the afternoon of Zhukov's return to Moscow, Tass and Radio Moscow reported his arrival with all the flowery detail they reserve for VIPs.

Zhukov went straight from the airport to a meeting of the Presidium. By late that afternoon it was clear that he had refused to accept the proffered "promotion," and that the showdown Khrushchev had hoped to avoid was under way. So lengthy was the debate that Khrushchev and other Presidium members who had accepted invitations to an Iranian embassy reception were twice obliged to postpone the hour of their arrival. When they finally did show up, all that came out of the Presidium was the curt announcement that Zhukov had been replaced as Defense Minister by Marshal Rodion Malinovsky. The Tass account of Zhukov's arrival shrank to three lines in next morning's edition of Pravda.