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Bulganin's government

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Bulganin's government

16th Government of the Soviet Union
Date formed8 February 1955 (1955-02-08)
Date dissolved27 March 1958 (1958-03-27)
People and organisations
Head of stateKliment Voroshilov
Head of governmentNikolai Bulganin
Deputy head of governmentVyacheslav Molotov
No. of ministers74
History
Election1954 legislative election
PredecessorMalenkov II
SuccessorKhrushchev I

The former government of Georgy Malenkov was dissolved on February 8, 1955, and Bulganin succeeded Malenkov as premier of the Soviet Union that day.[1][2] He was generally seen as a supporter of Khrushchev's reforms and destalinisation. In July 1955, he attended the Geneva Summit, with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, French Prime Minister Edgar Faure, and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden. He and Khrushchev travelled together to India, Yugoslavia and in April 1956 to Britain, where they were known in the press as "the B and K show"[3] or "Bulge and Crush". In his memoirs, however, Khrushchev recounted that he believed that he "couldn't rely on [Bulganin] fully."[4]

During the Suez Crisis of October–November 1956, Bulganin sent letters to the governments of the United Kingdom, France, and Israel threatening rocket attacks on London, Paris, and Tel Aviv if they did not withdraw their forces from Egypt. In a letter to Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion, Bulganin wrote, "Israel is playing with the fate of peace, with the fate of its own people, in a criminal and irresponsible manner; ... which will place a question [mark] upon the very existence of Israel as a State."[5] Khrushchev, in his memoirs, admitted the threat was designed simply to divide Western opinion, especially since at the time he did not have enough ICBMs to launch the rockets, and in any case he had no intention of going to war in 1956.

Bulganin with Khrushchev and Chinese Marshals Peng Dehuai and Ye Jianying

But by 1957 Bulganin had come to share the doubts held about Khrushchev's policies by the opposition group (which Khrushchev and his supporters labelled the "Anti-Party Group") led by Vyacheslav Molotov. In June, when the dissenters tried to remove Khrushchev from power at a meeting of the Politburo, Bulganin vacillated between the two camps. When the dissenters were defeated and removed from power, Bulganin held on to his position for a while, but in March 1958, at a session of the Supreme Soviet, Khrushchev forced his resignation.[2] The government of Nikolai Bulganin was dissolved following the Soviet legislative election of 1958. Nikita Khrushchev was elected as the next Premier by the Politburo and the Central Committee following the election.

Ministries

[edit]
Ministry Minister Took office Left office
Chairman of the Council of Ministers Nikolai Bulganin 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
First Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers Vyacheslav Molotov 8 February 1955 4 July 1957
Lazar Kaganovich 8 February 1955 4 July 1957
Anastas Mikoyan 28 February 1955 27 March 1958
Maksim Saburov 28 February 1955 5 July 1958
Mikhail Pervukhin 28 February 1955 5 July 1958
Joseph Kuzmin 3 May 1957 27 March 1958
Deputy chairman of the Council of Peoples' Commissars Vjatsheslav Malyshev 8 February 1955 26 December 1956
Aleksei Kosygin 8 February 1955 26 December 1956
Aleksei Kosygin 5 July 1957 27 March 1958
Georgi Malenkov 9 February 1955 4 July 1957
Ivan Tervosyan 8 February 1955 30 December 1956
Avraam Zavenyagin 28 February 1955 1 January 1957
Vladimir Kucherenko 28 February 1955 25 December 1956
Pavel Lobanov 28 February 1955 9 April 1956
Mikhail Khrunichev 28 February 1955 25 December 1956
Vladimir Matskevich 9 April 1956 25 December 1956
Dmitri Ustinov 14 December 1956 28 March 1957
Minister of Agriculture Ivan Benediktov 8 February 1955 18 October 1955
Vladimir Matskevich 19 October 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Automotive Industry Stepan Akopov 8 February 1955 23 July 1955
G. Strokin 23 July 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Aviation Industry Pjotr Dementev 8 February 1955 14 December 1957
Minister of Chemical Industry Sergei Tikhomirov 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Coal Industry Aleksandr Zasyadko 8 February 1955 2 March 1955
Aleksandr Zademidko 2 March 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Commerce Dmitri Pavlov [ru] 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Communications Nikolai Psurtshev 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Construction Nikolai Dygai 8 February 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Culture Georgi Aleksandrov 8 February 1955 22 March 1955
Nikolai Mikhailov 23 March 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Defence Georgy Zhukov 8 February 1955 26 October 1957
Rodion Malinovsky 26 October 1957 27 March 1958
Minister of Ferrous Metallurgy Aleksandr Sherementjev 8 February 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Finance Arseni Zverev 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Fish Industry Aleksandr Ishkov 8 February 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Food Industry Vasili Zotov 8 February 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov 8 February 1955 1 June 1956
Dmitri Shepilov 1 June 1956 15 February 1957
Andrei Gromyko 15 February 1957 27 March 1958
Minister of Foreign Trade Ivan Kabanov 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Geology Pyotr Antropov 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Health Maria Kovrigina 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Heavy Machine Building Nikolai Kazakov 8 February 1955 18 July 1955
Konstantin Petukhov 18 July 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Education Vjatsheslav Yeljutin 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of the Interior Sergei Kruglov 8 February 1955 1 February 1956
Nikolai Dudorov 1 February 1956 27 March 1958
Minister of Justice Konstantin Gorshenin 8 February 1955 31 May 1956
Minister of Machine Building Pyotr Parshin 8 February 1955 21 January 1956
Nikolai Smelyakov 21 January 1956 10 May 1957
Minister of Medium Machine Building Vjatsheslav Malyshev 8 February 1955 28 February 1955
Avraam Zavenyagin 28 February 1955 21 January 1956
Nikolai Smelyakov 21 January 1956 10 May 1957
Mikhail Pervukhin 10 May 1957 24 July 1957
Yefim Slavski 24 July 1957 27 March 1958
Minister of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Pjotr Lomako 8 February 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Oil Industry Nikolai Baibakov 8 February 1955 25 May 1955
Mikhail Yevseenko 25 May 1955 10 May 1957
Minister of Electric Power Stations Georgi Malenkov 9 February 1955 4 July 1957
Aleksei Pavlenko 4 July 1957 27 March 1958
Minister of Railways Boris Beshchev 8 February 1955 27 March 1958
Minister of Radio Industry Valeri Kalmykov 8 February 1955 11 December 1957
Minister of State Farms Aleksei Kozlov 8 February 1955 2 March 1955
Ivan Benediktov 2 March 1955 30 May 1957
Minister of Transport Machines Construction Sergei Stepanov 8 February 1955 10 May 1957

Committees

[edit]
Committee Chairman Took office Left office
Chairman of State Commission f.Perspektive Planning Nikolai Baybakov 25 May 1955 3 May 1957
Josif Kusmin 3 May 1957 10 May 1957
Chairman of the State Planning Commission Maksim Saburov 8 February 1955 25 December 1956
Mikhail Pervukhin 25 December 1956 30 April 1957
Chair of State Committee for State Security (KGB) Ivan Serov 8 February 1955 27 March 1958

Copied content from Nikolai Bulganin; see that page's history for attribution

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Governments of the RSFSR and the USSR (1918–1964)". elisa.net. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  2. ^ a b Powaski, Ronald E. (1997). The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917–1991. New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195078500.
  3. ^ Pratt, Julius William (1965). A History of United States Foreign Policy. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 470. ISBN 978-0-13-392282-0.
  4. ^ Khrushchev, Nikita (2006). Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, Volume 2: Reformer (1945–1964). University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 238. ISBN 0271028610.
  5. ^ "7 Exchange of Letters- Bulganin- Ben-Gurion- 5 and 8 November 1956". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel).
Government offices
Preceded by Governments of the Soviet Union
8 February 1955 – 27 March 1958
Succeeded by