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Hocus-Pocus. Now it was Malenkov's turn. He may have achieved his victory by means of—of all things—an intricate debate on genetics. This week, linking fact with plausible conjecture, the New York Times's Foreign Correspondent Cyrus L. Sulzberger put together the story. In the summer of 1948, 700 Soviet biologists met in conference to discuss solemnly the theory of Lysenkovism. Geneticist T. D. Lysenko contended that "acquired characteristics"—those attributed to environment—can be inherited. This meant that Communist education could more or less create a new species of human being, and then transmit the features to future generations.
Zhdanov & Co., like most Western scientists, recognized Lysenko's theory for what it is: hocuspocus. But the Malenkovites, themselves the archetypes of a new Soviet Man, backed it to the last chromosome. They proved the better maneuverers.
Death of a Rival. Zhdanov's own son, Yuri, was chief of the scientific propaganda section. Malenkov, with Stalin's backing, forced Yuri to publish a cringing letter of apology for his "sharp and public criticism of Academician Lysenko." Three weeks later, Zhdanov Sr. died, presumably of a heart attack. In January the Kremlin shocked the world by asserting that Zhdanov had been murdered by a group of Soviet doctors, most of them Jews.
Whatever the truth, Georgy Malenkov was certainly the man who benefited most by Zhdanov's death. Anti-Lysenkovians were purged; 300,000 Zhdanovites and "cosmopolitans" were expelled from the party.
Malenkov's star was rising again, this time in a clear sky. In January last year, Radio Moscow proclaimed: "True pupil of Lenin, comrade-in-arms of Stalin ... on your 50th birthday we wish you, dear Georgy Malenkov, many years of health." Georgy Malenkov had arrived.