Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-07-07
Zhukov's Rise

Of the latest political purge in Moscow
has to do with the rise Of Marshal Georgi
X. Zhukov, Soviet Defense Minister The
rise has been fairly steady ever since the
death Of GeneraliSSimo Stain, who in the
late 1940s refused to let him visit Amer
lea and assigned him to obscure military
commands that took him completely out
Of the limelight as possible rival.
This obscurity remained in force un-
til Georgi Malenkov, who had become
Premier in 1858 when the old tyrant
passed away, suddenly resigned" in 1855
to yield ONCE to Nicolai Bulganin. There
after, under the new collective leader
ship" featuring Nikita Khrushchev as
first among equals" Marshal zhukov was
restored to prominence and elevated to
the posts Of Defense Minister and alter
nate member (nonvoting) Of the 11-man
PreSidium of the Central Committee of
the Soviet Communist Party. The eleva-
ton spoke for itself as measures of two
significant things: ~ His striking up
ward movement on the Kremlin'S ladder
of personal prestige and (2) the Red
Army'S growing influence on the internal
politics of the USSR.
And now Marshal Zhukov is higher
on the ladder than ever before. At any
rate, while Messrs. Molotov, Kaganovich
and Malenkov have fallen to new depths
OF disgrace, he has scared to full men,
bership in the all-powerful PreSidium, the
Soviet Unions top echelon of dictatorship,
where apparently his voice and his vote
will henceforth be exceptionally strong.
In fact, according to some expert readers
OF the tea leaves of Russian politics, there
are signs that he must be reckoned with
today as his country's No. 2 leader, rank
ing just below Mr.. Khrushchev. And by
the same token, because he Is a tremen-
douSly popular war hero in the USSR, and
because the military seems to be rather
Solidly behind him, it is plausible to as
sumo that the Red armed forces-which
are reputed to be relatively conserva-
tive and leery Of hotheaded Communist
zealotS-are likely to play an unprece-
dentedly big role in the shaping and con-
troll OF Moscow's policies.
All this lends extra interest to past
speculation about the contest for power
within the Kremlin. The speculation,
which events seem to have confirmed, has
conferred on the idea Of a split existing
between the Stalinists led by Mr.. Molotov
and the sotcalled -Stalinists led by
Mr.. Khrushchev. At the moment the
latter group appears to have scored a
complete triumph. But what II the tri-
umph is actually less than complete?
What If the inner Soviet struggle con-
tinues? What If new forces develop, or
old ones revive, to challenge the revamped
collective leadership? In such circum-
stances, given some fresh internal dead
lock or political crisis, might not the
situation tempt the Red Army to estab-
lsh a military dictatorship?
This possibility, even though it may
be very remote, underscores the signifi-
canoe Of Marshal Zhukov's rise. More
over, leaving aside all such considerations,
his new prominence raises other interest
ing and perhaps promising questions.
And not the least of these is whether his
past close and friendly association with
President Eisenhower might not have a
wholesome effect on Soviet relations with
the United States and the West in general.