MELNIKOV'S REMOVAL IN THE UKRAINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91T01172R000200180001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 14, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 17, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

0 04i0 7VPQ8cff -0 17' '100
ZOO
25X1 25X10110
f1 ! July 1953 o
Document No. ----I------------- 25
N. Change In Class.
,r~// fl Ce~!ass< ied ohy No.
` = 1110
Ti: TS S C
25
Dolls:
0000
MELNIKOV'S REMOVAL IN THE, UKRAINE
I
25
Office of Current Intelligence
?r,CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
25
DOS review(s) completed.
20 4&V2U- G&CWQ 7W
"0001V
/I.W'00
 25X1
Approved For Rase 2004/03/22 : CIA-RDP91T01172R0002 0180001-1
MELNIKOV'S REMOVAL IN THE UKRAINE
Ukrainian personnel shifts following the death of Stalin
culminated in the purge of L. G. Melnikov from his position
as First Secretary of the Ukrainian Party on 12 June. In view
of his membership on the USSR Party Presidium and his close
relations with other members of that body, he was the most
important Soviet leader to have been removed since the death
of Stalin.
There were few advance indications of Melnikov's ouster to
be found in the Ukrainian governmental reorganization. On 10 April,
the Ukrainian SSR began to reorganize its governmental structure
in accordance with the USSR reorganization of 15 March; this
process continued throughout the months of April and May.
The 10 April reorganization included the consolidation of several
ministries in line with the All-Union ministerial consolidation.
Among others, the Ministries of Internal Affairs and State
Security were merged into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs
under the direction of P. Y. Meshyk, a reported MGB associate of
L. P. Berta. On 23 April, the Ukrainian Minister of State Control,
A. P. Pirogov, was replaced by K. S. Karavaev. An important
personnel change on 30 May provided what is perhaps the first
indication of an impending high level personnel reversal in
the Ukraine. On that date, the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet appointed
A. Y. Korneichuk First Deputy Chairman of the R3publican
Council of Ministers, and released Deputy Chairman of the
Council of Ministers Yeremenke from his position "in connection
with his appointment as Chairman of the Ukrainian Industrial
Council Administration."
The new Deputy Premier, Korneichuk,, was an official and a
writer who had previously been quite prominent in Party and
State affairs, but who had been criticized on several occasions
for having allowed "bourgeois nationalist" tendencies to appear
in his writings. Both he and his wife, the Polish born writer
V. Vasilevskaya, had been criticized on this account by
Melnikov himself at the 17th Congress of the Ukrainian Communist
Party in September, 1952. At that time, Melnikov had stated
that Korneichuk and his wife were both guilty of "gross ideological
defects and deviations from historical truth...in their libretto
of the opera 'Bogdan 1 melnitski'."
While generally adhering rather closely to the line laid down
by the Moscow press, Ukrainian papers during this period reflected
Approved For Release 00180001-1 25X1
 Approved For ReI~
several interesting trends which help put Melnikov's removal in
perspective. In one respect, the tjkrainian press did not follow
the Moscow line; following the death of Stalin and until 13 March,
the Soviet press generally, led by Pravda and Izvestia, began to
give Malenkov a buildup similar to that used for Stalin. As
mentioned above, the new Soviet Premier was liberally quoted in
every issue, and quotations from his speeches were set in a
boldface type previously reserved for similar quotations from
Stalin. On 13 March, the central press, and partihularly Pravda,
abruptly stopped this practice in favor of the new, collective '
approach to the Soviet leadership. The Ukrainian press, however,
continued to give exceptional treatment to Malenkov at least
until the end of March. This may have been an indirect declara-
tion of allegiance to him by the Ukrainian Party under Melnikov's
leadership. The halting of this procedure by the Ukrainian press
may have been due to pressure on the part of an anti-Malenkov
faction in Moscow. On the other-hand, it may have occurred at
the personal request of Malenkov, assuming that he was in accord
with the collective leadership line for the time being.
In early June, Ukrainian papers began to feature articles
which foreshadowed the removal of Melnikov on the 12th of that
month. On 5 June, the official Ukrainian newspaper apox.orized
in a front page editorial for its'own "smear" of the Ukrainian
Ministry of. Health on 20 February, during the height of the
vigilance campaign. The February article had castigated the
Health Ministry for tolerating unethical' practices, employing
professionally incompetent practitioners, and failing to eliminate
nepotism, bureaucracy and corruption in certain hospitals. Most
of the officials singled out in the article had Jewish names.
The 5 June editorial stated that the previous article had "smeared
a large group of honest health officials and reflected erroneous
views incompatible with national policy, the Communist Party and
Soviet ideology."
This was a clear repudiation of an anti-Jewish article; it
was traceable to the reversal of the doctors' plot in early
April. Additional criticism of "violators of the Soviet
nationalities policy" arose in short order in connection with
newspaper criticism of the training of Party propagandists.
On .3 June, Party officials were scored for not having paid
proper attention to the theoretical training of propagandists
and for having delegated responsibility for the selection and
training of propagandists to lower Party organization rather
than maintaining centralized control in these matters.
25X1
Approved For Release .17i'lRE" ~! 31 T01 00180001-1
25X1
 Approved For Re
On 11 June, the official newspaper, in a more extensive
criticism, charged that anti-Marxist viewpoints were creeping
into propaganda material, and that propagandists were not
speaking to the workers "in that language which is most com-
prehensible to them." This latter charge was to figure the
next day as one of the chief reasons for the expulsion of
Melnikov.
On 12 June it was announced that Melnikov had been discharged
from his post as First Secretary of the Ukrainian Party by the
Central Committee of the Ukrainian Party. Melnikov was accused
inter alia of having allowed "distortions" of the Soviet
nationalities policy in the western areas of the Ukraine.
Among these distortions was the virtual replacement of the
local by the Russian language in several schools, and the
appointment of officials who were not drawn from the local
population. The plenum of the Central Committee appointed
A. I. Kirithenko to replace Melnikov as First Secretary, the
first Ukrainian to occupy this position since 1938 with the
exception of Kaganovich, who had been born in Kiev and who had
held the post for a brief period in 1947. The Central Committee
also appointed A. E. Korneichuk to the thirteen-man Bureau of the
Ukrainian Central Committee.
Criticism was levelled at the Ukrainian Council of Ministers,
headed by Premier D. S. Korotchenko and on 13 June Ambassador
Bohlen reported from Moscow that
Korotchenko had been removed from office. Korot-
c en o s ouster has not been confirmed but there were other
indications that the Ukrainian Council of Ministers was being
reorganized. It was announced that V. G. Bondarchuk, Deputy
Chairman of the Ukrainian Council of Ministers, was released
from his post "in connection with his transfer to a scientific
post," and on 18 June another Deputy Chairman, Baranovsky, was
released from his duties "in connection with his passing fully
for work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR."
Other changes in the Ukraine included the dismissal of officials
in both the Kiev and Lvov Soviets,
The removal of Melnikov was of importance from several points
of view. First of all, it seen to reflect on the position of the
USSR Presidium faction headed by G. M. Malenkov and N. S. Khrush-
chev. Melnikov had been Second Secretary of the Ukrainian Party
directly responsible to Khrushchev when the latter served as First
Secretary of the Ukrainian Party from 1947 to 1949. He had also
taken a prominent part at the 19th Party Congress, which was
generally believed to have been a Malenkov affair, and he had
25X1
25X1
Approved For Re ase 2004/03/22 : CIA-RDP91T01172R00 200180001-1'
25X1
 Approved For ReId
been elected to the top USSR Party Presidium following the Congress.
He had also been a member of the Caucus of Representatives of Dele-
gations, which proposed the composition of the governing bodies of
the 19th Congress, and had been elected a member of the Congress
Secretariat. This was interesting because many of the prominent
members of the Caucus, and particularly of the_,Congress Secretariat,
have either been purged or demoted or have disappeared from public
prominence since the death of Stalin. Melnikov also had taken a
rather prominent part in the Soviet vigilance campaign, which
derived much of its ideological inspiration from 1+ lenkov's speech
at the Party Congress, and he had faithfully reflected Malenkov's
views on party discipline, policy and procedures.
It was speculated at the time that Melnikov's ouster was
instigated by L. P. Beria, since his removal 'was the third instance
of a Party purge on charges of promoting excessive Russification
directly related to changes in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The first such instance. revolved around the Interior Ministry's
reversal of the doctors' plot, which included the dismissal from
the Party Secretariat of Former MGB Minister S. D. Ignatiev. The
mid-April purge in the Georgian SSR included the installation of
a new Interior Minister believed close to Beria, and included
charges that the previous MGB Minister had framed'loyal Georgians
on charges of non-existent nationalism.) Finally, the governmental
changes in the Ukraine had brought to the Interior Ministry of that
Republic an official believed to be loyal to Beria. Subsequent-
Party criticism in the Soviet Republics of Latvia and Lithuania,
also included charges
that previous administrations in ose republics had violated the
correct nationalities policy;.
There were suggestions that the removal of Melnikov might be
followed by further difficulties within the Soviet Party hierarchy.
M. D. A. Bagirov, Premier of Azerbaijan, was another proponent of
a strict Russification policy. He had received unusual prominence
in the 6 March reorganization, when he had by-passed twenty-two
An indication that these two reversals were instigated by the same
source was found in an 8 May editorial in the official Georgian
newspaper which linked Ryumin, the MGB official charged with pri-
mary responsibility for the doctors' plot, and Rukhadze, the
Georgian Security Minister, on a common charge of attempting to
foment racial hatred among the Soviet peoples.
- 4 -
25X1
25X1
Approved For Rel 00180001-1 25X1
 pproved For Rel
members of the October Party Presidium and was made one of the four
alternate members of the new group. Following his installation as
Premier of Azerbaijan, he had paid fulsome personal tribute to
Malenkov. This was in contrast to the Georgian reorganization
when Bakradze, the new Georgian Premier,had singled out Beria for
praise. It was also in contrast to the current line on "collegial"
leadership then in vogue.
In addition to the above, it was also believed that Melnikov
would be relieved of his membership in the Party Presidium. In
order for this to be accomplished legally, another meeting of the
USSR Party Central Committee would be required, as in the case of
the dismissal of Ignatiev from the Party Secretariat. It is not
known whether this has taken place, although on 27 June Melnikov,
along with Beria and M. D. A. Bagirov, failed to attend the opera
with the Party Presidium at the Bolshoi theater. The fact that V. A.
Malyshev, the new Minister of Transport and Heavy Machine Building
appeared with the group suggested that he had replaced Melnikov.
25X1
Approved For Rel4ase 2004/03/22 : CIA-RDP91T01172R000400180001-1
25X1