CONSEIL DE L'ATLANTIQUE NORD NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL ZZZ

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1 CONSEIL DE L'ATLANTIQUE NORD NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL ZZZ I N 1. X I. M l'i.a I R I- I1 $ COCY ORIGINAL: ENGLISH 7 th March, 1955 NATO RESTRICTED DOCUMENT AC/5Ii-D( 55)2 WORKING GROUP ON TRENDS OF SOVIET POLICY NIKOLAI ALEK3AHDROVICK BULGARIN Note "by the Secretary The attached biographical notes prepared by the Political Division on Nikolai Aleksandrovich Eulganin have already been distributed to delegations. However, for the convenience of members of the '"'orking Group on Trends of Soviet Policy, they are now reproduced in the v Zorking Group series of documents. 2. As previously notified, a meeting of the Working Group will be held on Wednesday, 9th Karch at 3.30 p.m., to examine this paper. (Signed) LUCILLE M. PEART Palais de Chillot, Paris, XVIe.

2 RESTRICTED IOth February, FROM THE ASSISTAIT? SECRETARY GENERAL TOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS The attached staff study on the recent events in Moscow, which has been prepared in the Political Division, is beinr distributed to delegations 'Tor information only". Additional copies may be obtained upon request. G-. COS'^LLI

3 NIKOLAI. AL EKSANDROVICH BÜLC-ANIN N. A. Bul^anin, who succeeded G-.M. Lfclenkov in the office of Chairman of the Council of Ministers (i.e. Premier) of the USSR on February 8, 1955, has always been, and apparently remains, primarily a Party functionary whose value to the leadership resides in his administrative abilities. IYhile he has been closcly associated with the armed forces since the earlier Dhasos of his career were spent in administrative'posts in industry and finance. He is not a professional military man. His rôle, in -this sphere has been that of Party watch-dog over the high command. It would be incorrect to regard him as a representative of the armed forces or of the high command. The opposite is true: he is the Party f S delegate for military affairs. Consequently, any talk of "an increase in the influence of the army", in connection with Bulganin t S appointment as Soviet premier, would bc misleading. Bulganin has always served in subordinate posts under the immediate supervision of his Farty superiors. He has never ^pxercised the sort of relatively unsupervised responsibility which Khrushchev, for example, possessed during his period in the Ukraine. Until there is evidence to the contrary, hc must be regarded as Khrushchev's placeman in the Premiership. The salient known facts on the life and career of N.A. Bulganin are set out below. June.II, ^ - 21 Born in Nizhniy-Novgorod (now Gorkiy) on the Volga River. The Great Soviet Sncyclopedia (BSS) says hewas "born in the family of a worker" and that he was educated "in a technical high school" (Realschule). According to other sources he was the son of an accountant in a factory and attended a commercial high school. The latter account is the more probable of the two. Joined the Bolshevik Party between the February ("bourgeois") - and the October ("proletarian") - revolutions. "Shortly after the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution", in the words of the BSE, Bulganin entered the secret police (Cheka). He was occupied with "leading work""in the Cheka from 1918 to He is believed to have served both in Nizhniy-Hovgorod and Moscow, and is reported to have participated in the suppression of a separatist movement in Turkestan."" In these years, according to BSE, Bulganin held "leading posts" in the Supreme Council of th* National Economy, the organ which planned and directed the work of'the state-controlled sector of the Soviet economy during the ueriod of the New Economic Policy (NEP). Bulganin become director of the Moscow Electrical Factory in 1927, at the beginning of the Five-Year Plan era. The Factory fulfilled the tasks assigned it under the First Five-Year Plan in two and a half years, and "was transformed into one of the strongest

4 January, 1931 January, 1934 July, « enterprises in the country" (BSE). As a result of his successes in this work, he is said to have "become -î protégé of L.?ï. Karanovich. a member of the Political Bureau (Politbyuro) of the Central Coraaittee of the Soviet Connunist Farty and First Secretary of the Moscow Committee of the Party. Bulganin was "elected" Chairman of the Moscow Council (Soviet) of Workers' Deputic: -!, a post roughly comparable to that of mayor in a,'cstcrn city. In this post. Bulganin was subordinate first to Kaganovich, whe, as the Party boss, held the real responsibility for'the conduct of affairs in Moscow, and then to Khrushchev, who was first ( ) Second Secretary cf the Moscow Party Committee, and then ( ) Kaganovich t S successor as First Secretary. Bulganin remained Chairman of the Moscow Council until Bulganin was "elected" a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. Bulganin was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (i.e. Premier) of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (RSFSR), the largest of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union. This is a secondary governmental post*. In 193*, Bulganin was promoted to the-post of Vice- Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (i.e.cabinet) of the USSR, another, slightly higher, secondary governmental post. He was one of large number of such Vice Chairmen. In 1938, also, he became chief of the Directorate of the State 3ank (Gosbank) of the USSR. During the autumn of 1941, Bulganin was occupied in organizing the civilian side of the defence of Moscow, the Party direction of which was exercised by A.S. Shcherbakov, a Politbyuro member. Following the defence of Moscow, Bulganin, with the rank of Lieutenant-General, was appointed a member of the Military Couneil of the Western Front. His duties» In his "Communist Party Officials: A Group of Portraits" (in Russian - Research Program on the USSR, New York City, ), Michael Kitaeff indicates that, during his occupancy of this post, Bulganin was concerned with the direction of agricultural affairs in the Russian Republic. Discussing the career I.A. Benediktov, now Minister of Agriculture of the USSR, Kitacff writes (p.67): "Benediktov t S acquaintanceship with Berman and Bulganin relates to approximately this same period. 3uicanin, a former, and experienced, Chekist ^I.o. socret policeman/, was once again called up from the 'jtv-sorv^1 ^I. c. of tho"chekaj and covertly began to restore order in the agricultural organs. However, he knew hew to stay in the shadows. He didn't get himself talked about". Benediktov became Vice-Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR in 193Ô, and served there under Bulganin until the latter received his next appointment.

5 -3- there were those of top-level political commissar, insuring Party control over the military command. Later during this period, h^ served also as member of the Military Councils of the Second Baltic end First Byelorussian Fronts. Novernfcer 22, 1944 August, 19½ 1946 March, 1947 Bulganin was recalled to Moscow, given the rank of General of the army, and became'a member of the State Committee of Defence, or war cabinet. (Other members: Stalin, Chairman; Molotov, Vice-Chairman and in charge of tank production; Beria, member in charge of the production of arms and ammunition; Malenkov, member in charge of the production of airplanes and aviation motors; Mikoyan, member in charge of organising the supply of foodstuffs, fuel and other quartermaster supplies to the Red Army; L.M. PIaganovich, member in charge of transportation; K.Y.E. Vcroshilov; N.A. Voznesenskiy: - the Committee was dissolved on September 4, 1945). On the Committee, he rcplaccd Voroshilov, who was sent to the Soviet Far East to prepare for the USSR's participation in the war against Japan. Bulganin simultaneously "became Vice-People's Commissar (i.e. Vice-Minister) of Defence of the USSR, a post he retained until Bulganin is reported to have been sent to Lublin, Poland, to direct the work of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKO'N). the Soviet-sponsored puppet government of "liberated" Poland." Bulganin became a member of the Organizational Bureau, and a candidate-member of- the Political Bureau, of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. Bulganin was given the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, succeedcd Stalin as Minister of Zirmed Forces of the USSR- 5 and bo came one of the Vice-Chairmen of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. February, 194? Bulganin became a full member of the Pclitbyuro of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. May 1, 1948 March, 1949 October March, 1953 Bulganin for the first time delivered the traditional speech on Red Square before the military march-past of the May Day parade. Bulganin resigned his post of Minister of Armed Forces, which was assumed "by Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilycvskiy, but remained a Vice-Chairman of ; the Council of Ministers with over-all responsibilityj' for military and defence matters. ' Bulganin became a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, the successor organ to the Politbyuro. He retains this post to the present time. After Stalin's death, Bulganin became one of the four First Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers, * The "People's Commissariats" were re-named "Ministries" on Karch 15, The People's Commissariat of Defence became the Ministry of Armed Forces when Stalin gave up the post. -3-

6 -4- May 1, 195J-! May 30, July September 29 - October 17, October 17-30, November 7, February 6, 1955 and Minister of Defence, in the Government formed "by G.M. Malenlcov (the other three: Beria, also Minister o'f Internal Affairs; Molotov, also Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Kaganovich, without other portfolio). In 1949, the Ministry of Armed Forces had been broken down into two Ministries: those of War (i.e. of the Army and Air Force; and of the Navy. These were now re-united in the Ministry of Defence. Bulganin took the May Day parade across JRed Square, delivering the traditional pre-parade speech. Bulganin took the parade across Red Square commemorating the 300th annivorsay of the re-unification" of the Ukraine with Russia, delivering a speech before the march-past. Bulganin went to-warsaw to participate in the celebration of the ninth anniversary of the Lublin Manifesto, and delivered a speech (July 21) at the ceremony marking the event. (This tends to confirm the report that Bulganin* directed the work of the Polishf Committee of National Liberation in August, 1945). Bulganin was a member of the Soviet Governmental Delegation, headed by Khrushchev, which went to Peking to participate in the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Republic, and to negotiate the Sino-Soviet agreements of October,. (Mlkoyan was another member of this delegation). Following its stay in Peking, the delegation visited Nanking, Shanghai, Hanchow, Canton and Hankow, before returning to Peking on October 10. The remaining merriders of the delegation left Peking to return to Moscow on October 13. Khrushchev, Bulganin and Mikeyan, however, visited Port Arthur, Dairen, Anshan, Mukden, Changchun and Harbin, before leaving the CPR. Khrushchev, Bulganin and Mikoyan arrived in Vladivostok. They visited the naval port of Nakhodka and toured the Maritime Region, of which Vladivostok is the capital. Thereafter, Khrushchcv and Bulganin visited Komsomolsk, Sovetskaya' Gavan (another naval base), and rejoined Mikoyan on the island of Sakhalin. Ihe three then went to Khabarovsk, Chita, Irkutsk and Sverdlovsk, all of which are Siberian cities. Khrushchev, Bulganin and Mikoyan returned to Moseow on October 30. Bulganin took tho march-past in the parade across Red Square celebrating the 37th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, and delivered the traditional pro-parade speech. Bulganin was nominated by First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Corrmunist Party N.S. Khrushchev to replace Malenkov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and was unanimously confirmed in the -oost by the vote of a joint session of the Supreme Roviet NF of THP the TTSSB. USSR. prepared: February 9, t