FOREIGN NEWS

RUSSIA Proof of Weakness

In Communism's 37 years in power in Russia, leaders have fallen from power in dramatically diverse ways. Some cringingly confessed to being jackals, venal hirelings in the pay of the capitalist enemy. Some went silently to the cellar. Some, like Molotov in his days as premier, stepped uncomplainingly aside and lived on, even rising to high power again. But nobody before had ever fallen as Georgy Malenkov, once the presumed heir to Stalin's dictatorship, fell last week.

He sat before the Supreme Soviet while his startling admission of incompetency was read out: "I . . . request to be relieved." There was a reason for Malenkov's whimper: the regime could not afford a bang. So came his odd confession and the clumsy charade that followed: 1,300 hands raised unquestioningly to accept their premier's resignation.

Immediately, there was a buzz of conversation in the hall. Foreign newsmen leaped out of their seats and headed for the Central Telegraph office in Gorky Street, where they broke the news to the world. The predictable had happened: the struggle for power among the Soviet Communist leaders had broken out.

Around 4 o'clock that afternoon, the Supreme Soviet Deputies trailed back to the Great Hall. This time, stubby Nikita Khrushchev stepped to the rostrum, his bald head gleaming.

"Comrade Deputies, on instructions from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union I submit the proposal to appoint as Chairman of the Council of Ministers . . . Comrade Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin. We all know Nikolai Alexandrovich . . ."

Khrushchev stepped back. The parliament that never says Nyet obediently raised an assenting arm. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.