Notes on the Khrushchev Ouster

JAMES BURNHAM

2)The. circumstances of the ouster confirm the fact that Nikita Khrushchev had never been a supreme No. 1 in the sense that Stalin was. During the post-Stalin contests that polished off Beria, Malenkov, Molotov and Bulganin, the Party’s Central Committee became the seat of power. K. was the Committee’s man, a kind of Chairman of the Board. As occupant of the top posts in both Party (Secretary) and governmental hierarchy (Premier), K. was “chief executive officer” (as corporation reports put it), but dependent on the support of the Committee majority. One reason for the decision to get rid of him—hinted at in Pravda’s references to K.’s “com-mandism”—may have been a tendency on his part, common enough in chief executive officers, to act like his committee’s boss instead of its representative.

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James Burnham

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JAMES BURNHAM

2)The. circumstances of the ouster confirm the fact that Nikita Khrushchev had never been a supreme No. 1 in the sense that Stalin was. During the post-Stalin contests that polished off Beria, Malenkov, Molotov and Bulganin, the Party’s Central Committee became the seat of power. K. was the Committee’s man, a kind of Chairman of the Board. As occupant of the top posts in both Party (Secretary) and governmental hierarchy (Premier), K. was “chief executive officer” (as corporation reports put it), but dependent on the support of the Committee majority. One reason for the decision to get rid of him—hinted at in Pravda’s references to K.’s “com-mandism”—may have been a tendency on his part, common enough in chief executive officers, to act like his committee’s boss instead of its representative.