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In these events there was room for genuine ideological difference. Was not the process of destalinization, crudely set off by Khrushchev, proceeding too quickly? Had not Khrushchev's rough peasant hand, thrust into the delicate balance between independent Yugoslavia and the dependent satellites, been a contributing factor in the revolt? Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich got their chance to rally allies in an attack on Khrushchev at the December plenum of the Central Committee and thus delay their own fate. The ostensible issue in the plenum was a party plan, pushed by Khrushchev, for decentralizing Soviet industry (a plan which decreases the power of the Moscow ministries and gives more power to the regional party bosses). Malenkov's technocrats, their jobs in jeopardy, came to his side, and Khrushchev was forced to modify his plan.
But Khrushchev also had allies. Zhukov and Serov, at the army and police level, Mikoyan and Suslov, at the political level, ruthlessly crushed the Hungarian outbreak. At a February plenum of the Central Committee, Khrushchev was able to make a full comeback with his industrial plan. The fate of Malenkov & Co., if it had ever been in doubt, now seemed certain. But there was still one desperate play to make.
Early in June it was decided that Khrushchev should attend the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad. Immediately, Molotov began maneuvering. According to one version, he invited Zhukov to his dacha, appealed to him for army support at an extraordinary Presidium meeting, citing the danger to the whole defense setup if Khrushchev's reckless policies prevailed. (Zhukov instead privately tipped off Khrushchev that a plot was brewing.) Then Malenkov, Molotov or Kaganovich (one or all three) demanded a meeting of the Presidium. Khrushchev is said to have agreed, but when the Presidium met on June 17 or 19, three full members were absent. The opposition challenged Khrushchev's right to preside, and on a vote he was denied the chair. It was taken by Bulganin. Then the opposition launched an attack on Khrushchev's policies, charging him with Trotskyist and rightist peasant deviations. Translated out of Communist jargon, this meant that Khrushchev's foreign policy was too adventuresome, and his opportunistic farm policy would breed a new crop of rich kulaks.* Some Communist sources say that Khrushchev was at one point voted out of his party secretaryship by a combination of Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Bulganin and Voroshilov. Other sources say that he stalled any formal vote and insisted that he could legally be removed only by the full 130-odd-man Central Committee. In the Central Committee, Zhukov showed that he was backing Khrushchev, and everyone else took cover; the opposition was crushed by a unanimous vote.