1H - Political authority and government: Khrushchev’s rise to power | AQA A-Level History

Trace Khrushchev’s consolidation of power after Stalin, explain the aims and limits of de-Stalinisation, and assess how political and Party change altered the dictatorship without ending Communist rule.

Succession and Party power

Khrushchev did not automatically inherit Stalin’s position in March 1953. He rose within a collective leadership whose members controlled different institutions. Malenkov’s premiership gave him governmental authority; Beria’s police power made him dangerous to colleagues; Khrushchev’s strength lay increasingly in the Party organisation. Cooperation could remove a common threat before competition resumed.

Beria was arrested in June 1953 with military support and later executed. Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Party in September. Control of appointments and links with regional secretaries helped him build a network of supporters. This mattered because the Party penetrated the ministries, armed forces and local administration: its machinery provided a route to authority wider than possession of a government title.

Khrushchev also gained influence by associating himself with agricultural improvement, particularly the Virgin Lands campaign launched in 1954. Malenkov’s stronger emphasis on consumer goods became vulnerable to criticism from supporters of heavy industry. In February 1955 Malenkov resigned as premier and Bulganin replaced him. Malenkov’s resignation statement presented the outcome as self-criticism and Party unity, showing how a struggle could be publicly represented as an agreed correction.

Personal ability mattered, but so did the institutions through which it worked. Khrushchev’s reputation as energetic and accessible could help recruit support; the Party apparatus turned that support into votes, appointments and influence.

Consolidation in 1957–58

Khrushchev’s position remained contested after 1955. De-Stalinisation and economic reorganisation threatened older leaders’ beliefs and institutional power. In June 1957 a majority in the Presidium tried to remove him as First Secretary. Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich were leading opponents.

Khrushchev appealed to the larger Central Committee, arguing that the body which elected him should decide his future. Regional Party supporters formed a stronger base there than in the Presidium. Marshal Zhukov helped bring committee members to Moscow. The attempt failed, and the defeated leaders were labelled the Anti-Party Group and removed from senior positions. They lost influence rather than being executed, a significant contrast with Stalin’s treatment of major rivals.

Zhukov’s help did not give the army lasting independence: he was dismissed later in 1957. In March 1958 Khrushchev replaced Bulganin as chairman of the Council of Ministers while retaining the Party leadership. Combining the two posts consolidated his authority, although collective institutions still existed.

Stage	What changed
March 1953	Stalin’s death began collective leadership and rivalry.
September 1953	Khrushchev became First Secretary.
February 1955	Malenkov lost the premiership.
June 1957	Khrushchev survived the attempt to remove him.
March 1958	He combined Party leadership with the premiership.

The sequence shows why dates require interpretation. Holding a post in 1953 was a resource in a struggle; the victories of 1957–58 greatly reduced immediate rivals. Neither means that Khrushchev could disregard colleagues indefinitely.

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1H - Political authority and government: Khrushchev’s rise to power

Succession and Party power

Consolidation in 1957–58

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