First Secretary Shelepin (PJW)

"First Secretary Shelepin" is an excerpt from The Dancing Bear: The Soviet Union in the 1960s, written by historian Robert Conquest and published in 1977.

First Secretary
Brezhnev could not have predicted the speed at which Shelepin worked. Brezhnev planned a gradual consolidation of power, first by planting his various cronies in offices, and then removing Shelepin's and Kosygin's power bases. Gromyko's death and the KGB's initial suspects being "Ukrainian fascist-terrorists" definitely made him move faster, but not even Brezhnev could predict what happened next.

In February, KGB agents placed Brezhnev under house arrest. Apparently, their "investigation" had concluded that Brezhnev had directed his Ukrainian cronies to kill Gromyko because the Foreign Minister was colluding with Kosygin for reforms. Shelepin, executing with the same rashness he did with Krushchev, executed Brezhnev, making him the first of the Troika to die.

Shelepin was very charismatic and knew what words to say and when to say them, so when he explained his actions to a rather intimidated Presidium, they bowed their heads. Suslov, as per an agreement with Shelepin, then introduced a motion to choose the next First Secretary. Shelepin believed himself to have finally won when he was named head of the Soviet Union.

Shelepin's first order of business was working to ferment worldwide revolution. He was very interested in the Portuguese project which would take up most of his time in the spring. This, along with the defection of KGB Chairman Vladimir Semichastny to Suslov, left him in the dark as to what was really happening behind the scenes.

Suslov was still plotting. When informed of Shelepin's plan to arrest Brezhnev, Suslov also allowed that to go through; he didn't predict his execution, but that was still one less competitor and, additionally, he could rally more behind him now. While they were all Stalinists, no one actually wanted a Stalin in charge. Semichastny was now firmly on Suslov's side, along with other members of the Soviet government fearing further purges, most importantly Kosygin and Dmitry Ustinov. Suslov agreeing with Shelepin to name him First Secretary was merely in the interest of feigning allegiance to the man, along with buying more time to finish his plot.

Shelepin, in his haste to establish power and his foreign policy, did not notice his supporters drying up beneath him. Shelepin's plans to send funding to subversive and communist movements worldwide, rather than increase army spending, turned the army against him. Suslov knew he needed the army on his side; he got through to them through Ustinov, the Chairman of the Military Industrial Commission. In exchange for Marshal Nikolay Krylov's Moscow Military District divisions, Ustinov promised greater industrial and armament programs for the army.

With the army's support secured, Suslov then worked to get the KGB on his side. At the start of 1961, Semichastny had only been the head of the KGB for a few months, with many senior leaders still loyal to former chairman Shelepin. That changed as Shelepin's failures in directing foreign policy became apparent. Shelepin hoped to attain a large number of worldwide revolutions at the same time, something that was difficult to achieve because all these rebellions competed for resources, and not all of them deserved resources.

Communist insurgencies in Latin America were the first looked at by Shelepin. His support of Bolivia failed because supplying resources there was far too difficult; support of Venezuela failed because the United States had already gotten there first; support of Colombia failed because, truthfully, the KGB did not wish to work with the "red narcotic empire" of the jungles. Semichastny was working to reform the KGB, filling it with idealistic university graduates, and the appeal of working with the Colombians was non-existent among them.

While, of course, there was the huge success in Portugal and some minor ones in Africa, it was not enough for the KGB, especially after Shelepin suggested working with the Chinese in southeast Asia. The KGB - nor Suslov - wanted to cooperate with the Chinese, as that would suggest they were equal leaders in the communist vanguard, not just Moscow. So, with most of the KGB turning away from Shelepin and to Semichastny, Suslov at last had the support he needed to bring down the First Secretary.