Office of the Historian

861.002/3–1649: Telegram

The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kohler) to the Secretary of State

confidential
Moscow, March 16, 1949—2 p. m.

671. Concerning Voznesensky’s1 removal reported Embtel 643, March 14,2 Embassy recommends cautious interpretation this move. On basis present information arguments supporting possibility his transfer work of greater importance away from Moscow and possibly outside USSR in our opinion nearly as forceful as those supporting opposite thesis current complete disfavor. Main factors to consider seem to us:

(a)
Date removal coincides Molotov-Mikoyan shifts; also Voz-nesensky continues be called “Comrade.”
(b)
Announcement made different manner than above and timed coincide printing Varga letter (Embtel 651, March 15, 1949). Voz-nesensky member Academy Sciences and undoubtedly supporter Ostrovitianov in Varga attack.
(c)
Voznesensky also removed as deputy Chairman, Council Ministers as was Kruschev3 when transferred to Ukraine.
(d)
He was formerly associated with Leningrad group—Zhdanov4 and Popkov.5
(e)
Voznesensky leading Soviet theoretical and practical economist since first appointment chairmanship Gosplan 1938. Was obviously chief economic coordination for Supreme War Council and responsible top planning postwar economic policy. His book6 was keynote and foundation literature this subject.
(f)
Internal economic policy this period characterized by wartime and early postwar trend toward large-scale decentralization ministerial control—a policy sharply reversed in 1948. Also statistical check and reporting results economic plan development removed from Gosplan control last half 1948. According Soviet figures plan on balance proceeding satisfactorily though disproportions and difficulties particularly transport, capital construction, and petroleum believed significant.
(g)
Aims external economic policy i.e. achieve tight economic control satellites, utilize external resources, obtain required foreign equipment and reestablish strategic reserves deficit materials, together with maximum disruption ERP probably also sponsored by Voznesensky.
(h)
He possibly responsible underestimation force and consequences western reaction particularly as concerns latter elements under (g).
(i)
He has appeared regularly in public throughout 1948 and at Lenin anniversary Moscow meeting January 22, 1949. Embassy observer believes his book quoted in some Supreme Soviet speeches though preliminary check indicates such quotes removed from press reports.
(j)
Complex problem connected phase two (Embtel 212, January 27, 1948 [1949]7) economic integration and development satellite economy under Council Mutual Aid8 will require constant attention of top economist with full authority.

Kohler
  1. Nikolay Alexeyevich Voznesensky had been dismissed from his positions on March 5. Important among them had been his chairmanship of the State Planning Commission (Gosplan) since 1938. He was also a Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, a full member of the Politburo (since 1947), and during the war he had been a member of the State Defence Committee. For a time after his removal his whereabouts were unknown, but he was subsequently arrested and shot in 1950 on Stalin’s orders. He was rehabilitated at the XX Congress of the Communist Party in February 1956.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev had occupied high party and governmental positions in the Ukrainian S.S.R. since 1938.↩
  4. Andrey Alexandrovich Zhdanov had been an outstanding Marxist theoretician and propaganda specialist. For many years he had been the controlling Communist Party official in Leningrad. Concerning his death on August 31, 1948, see Foreign Relations, 1948, vol, iv, pp. 916–918.↩
  5. Peter (Pyotr) Sergeyevich Popkov, among other positions, was Secretary of the Leningrad Committee of the Communist Party.↩
  6. The War Economy of the U.S.S.R. during World War II.↩
  7. Ante, p. 1.↩
  8. Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CEMA), a Communist grouping being formed for the economic integration of the Soviet bloc of states.↩