MOLOTOV'S NEW POSITION PUTS END TO OBSCURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100140063-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 19, 2000
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: November 22, 1956
• Content Type: NSPR

N O V 2 2) 1056 tit- S_r;4TF0TL
M? uu Approved For Release 2000/06/05: CIA-RDP70-00058,R0 . 01400
Circ.: e. 345,684 CPYRGHT _X . e X51-5
S. 477,285
Front Edit Other
Page Page Page
CPYRGHT
because he could sit through
weeks long talks and still say
"no" a little more often and more
firmly than anybody else.
His real name is Scriabin. His
pseudonym Molotov derives from
the Russian word "molot," mean-
ing, hammer.
A stubborn, plodding, methodi-
cal man, he often was ridiculed
by Stalin but remained doggedly
faithful to the dictator.
Resigned Ministry June I
Molotov resigned as foreign
Date:
Molotov's New Position
CPYRGHT. Puts End to Obscurity
Some Observers Call
New Post a Big One;
Washington Says He
Is Just an Auditor
had
fate CIA Predictia the
vd+}r~C~flA"c I 1o or a He 13 yearshad. Be-,
nied a
be he had
that olotov's apparent demotion i f been premier for
12 years
.
n keeping, they said, with a pre After Stalin's death there, were
nief of the central intelligene1 !f in the Soviet hierarchy. In Oc
vos xngeies before the worts at t confess- publicly to an idoalogical
lairs council. !error on an obscure point in a
United States officials in Was r Dulles, whose job is to forese speech made seven months be-
ington and western sources i soviet intentions and leadershi fore.
Europe. were divided Thursday of Changes, said then about Molo 'He was omitted from the So-
the meaning o fiov: viet delegation when party sec-
V. M. Molotov' i `Certainly a Stalinist at heart reta,ry Khrushchev and Premier
e m e t g e n c c must have viewed recent (de Bulganin.went to Belgrade to
from obscurit. taiinization) events with make amends to President Tito
to the post o eavv heart and with the knowl for expulsion of Yugoslavia from
Soviet ministe Edge that the recent deviations o the eorninfon'n i, 1948. Molotov
of state control which he has been open I y ac
The ro - - had incurred "it's bitter enmity
pea cused are a prelude to hisgradua i in that quarrel.
e observe the s (
gard retirement from the duties of hi When Khrushchev exploded
as one t of cos . office." the an i-Stalin campaign in Feb-
sioderaneb1e i co No Policy Duties ruary, Molotov remained aloof
S.
portance, whil Molotov's new r o l e in th from it. His foreign policy wag
Uni t e d State Kremlin hierarchy, it was said criticized. by A. I. Mikoyan, So-
officials regar will have no real policy makin viet trade expert, as "ossified."
V. M. Molotov ed the positioi duties unless the charter of th Son of a Shopkeeper
as not a majo ministry he takes over is co His last major performance as
one and said that Molotov woul pletely revamped, a move whic
be little more than an auditor o they consider unlikely. Russia's "no" man was at the
the Soviet government's finance. The e officials were frankl Geneva foreign ministers' confer-
Ministry Second Rate? puzzle by the contrasting inter ence in November, 1955, which
Likewise, they disputed into pretations placed on Molotov' negated the hopes for good will
pretations t h a t the new nos new job. They noted, however that had been raised by the pre-
that many Europeans had expect vious four power "summ.it" con-
meant a victory for Molotov' ed the old line Stalinist to gra ference attended by President
hard, Stalinist line. more power in the wake of the Eisenhower.
Instead, they said, Molotov ha policy reversals suffered by Ru Molotov himself had contribut-
now been given a second rat sia in Poland and Hungary. ed to the illusion of Soviet good
ministry which hitherto has co Most American officio s, ho will during the "new look" pe-
centrated on auditing gover ever, have insisted all along tha riod. On a trip across the United
ment financial accounts and se there was no evidence tha States he posed in a 10 gallon
ing to it that government dire Khrushchev was slipping in hi hat.
tives are carried out. There is n post as "chairman of the board The son of a shopkeeper, he
sign that.the job has been broa of the Kremlin leaders, despit began his revolutionary activity
ened and given more authorit the central European setbacks, at 16. At 25 he had known sev
1
rison a-4-
1 d f
a
erm s o
sault in Soviet policy, including s
the conclusion of a nonaggres-1
sion pact with Nazi Germany
which freed Hitler's hands for
the starting of World War II.
After engaging in postwar con-
ferences, he was relieved of his
foreign ministry post in 1949 by
Stalin. But he remained deputy
premier and returned to the for-
eign ministry after Stalin's death.
If Khrushchev is to be believed,
Molotov was marked for thej
blood purge in Stalin's last years.
In 1952 or 1953, Molotov's wife,
who was of Jewish o' igin, came
uiier serious party criticism and
was arrested. She had once been i
head of the cosmetics trust and
the fish ministry. She was re-
ported freed soon after Stalin's
death.
;
p
p
they said. Molotov Old Bolshevist . er
Molotov almost certainly, i He helped organize Pravda,
the view of these authorities, ha Old Bolshevik Molotov wa met Stalin and corresponded with.'
now been knocked out of the ru once Soviet ' premier and twic ! Lenin abroad on, party matters.
ping as a possible successor t, I foreign minister. After the Russian revolution.
party chief Nikita S. Khrushche A little over a year ago lie wa he became a secx?etary of the par-
,,
a succession some western dip! ty's central comriiittee and helped
were forecasting. hinting 4t retirement by suggest, Stalin overcome l'rotsky and es-
mats The to his colleagues in an inter tablish the dictatorship. In 1930
The officials cautioned, ho
ever, that more information an national conference that it. wa he became 'premier.
' 11 t une 11
t
v
wa
o
y
g
rme we ga
e
y
further udy waxild b cess n9nn0J9g1A nP e t
before r~air~ I Ii A o?Q ',C611 RQAr9UWd~QiW0140063-6
could be yawn from Molotov Stone Pants" from western di nov as foreign minister in 1.939-
new assignment. lomats in postwar negotiation That was the signal fora some'