January 25, 1954. Meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee - the main governing body of the party (until 1952 and after 1966 he is more known to us under his usual name - the Politburo). The issue of the future of the Crimean Region of the RSFSR is being discussed. The Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU decides to instruct the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to issue a decree "On the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR membership to the Ukrainian SSR".

It is this decision that will launch a series of decisions of the legislative bodies of the two Union republics and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR that led to the transfer of the Crimea. In Moscow they like to say that this decision is a "gift" to Ukraine of the then first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, who he almost "drank" - and thus deprived the Russian people of his original sacred territory.

But if the reader managed to get through the posts of the KGB of the USSR at that historic meeting, he would have been surprised to note that at a meeting of the presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, not Khrushchev presides, but a completely different person: Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Georgy Malenkov, Stalin's successor.

For a person who does not understand Soviet history, it looks wildly. But this has happened many times. Vladimir Lenin was not the first or general secretary of the Central Committee of the party, but invariably presided over the meetings of the Politburo when he was healthy - because he was chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. And after Lenin's death, he began to preside ... no, not Stalin, and Lenin's successor as head of government, Aleksey Rykov.

When Stalin managed to get rid of Rykov and replace him with his protege Vyacheslav Molotov, he continued the Leninist tradition. And only when Stalin himself became the head of the Council of People's Commissars, he began to preside over the Politburo. At the same time, the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee was virtually eliminated, Stalin became "simply" one of the secretaries. He did not need the highest party position after he took the most important post in the highest Soviet hierarchy.

And it is therefore quite natural that after Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, his successor Malenkov also became chairman of the Council of Ministers. By the way, the posts of the first secretary of the Central Committee did not exist at that time. It was invented for Khrushchev only in September 1953.

And Nikita Sergeyevich began to prepare for the seizure of power. However, in order to realize his intentions, he needed, first, to replace Malenkov with a close person (this will happen only in February 1955, when the head of the government is Nikolai Bulganin), and secondly - to get rid of Stalin's comrades-in-arms and himself become the head of the Council of Ministers (this will happen only in February 1958).

And while in the yard January 1954. What does the new post of Khrushchev mean, few people understand. Malenkov - at the zenith of a career and power. His portraits replace the portraits of Stalin or are next to them. It is he who is perceived as the new leader, the leader of the country. It is he who makes the most important decisions.

And if you open an article about Malenkov, for example, in the Russian-language Wikipedia, you will see that among these decisions is the transfer of the Crimea. Then why does "popular rumor" and Russian propaganda attribute the adoption of this decision to Khrushchev, not to Malenkov? But because after 1957 Malenkov was simply deleted from the history. But Khrushchev remained in it - but not at all as a positive character, exposing the Stalin cult, but as "madcap-corn-mushroom", who took "voluntaristic decisions". And, of course, one of such ill-conceived decisions is the Crimea.

In addition, it is advantageous for Russian propaganda to represent Khrushchev in the form of a written Ukrainian who gave Russian territory to his compatriots. But Khrushchev is a Russian from the Kursk region. In Ukraine, he was sent only in 1938, when the Ukrainian party leadership was destroyed several times in a row - and Khrushchev continued repression.

However, on the basis of Khrushchev's work from 1938 to 1949, he can easily be described as a "cunning Ukrainian" who "stole" from the Russian Crimea. And the fact that before 1938 and after 1949 Khrushchev led the Moscow City Party Committee - to successfully forget.

With Malenkov this will not work out. Malenkov lived and worked in Russia all his life until exile in 1957. Only in Russia. And it was this party and Soviet leader who decided to transfer the Crimea.

It is clear that this was no "gift" then. And Malenkov's personal decision was not there either - Crimea after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars was so in a deplorable state that its restoration was entrusted to the republic with which it is connected by all economic and geographical logistics. Well, just the members of the presidium noticed on the map what Putin did not notice: that Crimea is a peninsula, not an island.

And the leadership of the party made a decision that seemed to be the only correct one. The decision that Malenkov endorsed. And which was later issued by a decree signed by the then chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Kliment Voroshilov and Secretary Nikolai Pegov. And it was voted by all deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the regular session.

And what did Khrushchev do all this time - you ask? Had he not done anything? Of course, I did. I voted "for". As, however, and all the rest.

Original.