With the arrest of Beria and the marginalization of revisionist elements such as Voznesensky and Khrushchev, the revisionist and bureaucratic forces at the top of the CPSU have basically lost most of their power and political influence, leaving only the "Siberian faction" led by Manturov and the "Old Guard" with Molotov, Voroshilov and others as the backbone still exist in the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee and the Politburo of the Central Committee.

With the cooperation of the "Siberian faction" and the "Old Guard," the political situation in the Soviet Union began to become stable, the administrative efficiency was greatly improved because of the political stability, and many constructive plans were well implemented and implemented, so that the pace of development and construction of the Soviet Union was greatly improved.

If the Soviet Union in the 1930s was a regional power in Eastern Europe, what was the Soviet Union in the 1950s? Apart from the words "international superpower" and "world's first-rate power", I am afraid that there is no more suitable word to describe this extremely powerful country.

At that time, the Soviet Union was the only country other than the United States that possessed nuclear weapons, and it was also the country with the largest number of land and air forces and the most advanced equipment, and its land military strength was already invincible, and its air force strength was much stronger than that of the United States, but its naval strength was still not comparable to that of the United States, which had dozens of aircraft carriers.

Even so, the Soviet Union was undoubtedly in the first place in the world in terms of comprehensive military strength, and no country could afford to provoke the Soviet Union, at least such a powerful military force was enough to defend the revolutionary achievements of the Soviet Union, and at the same time to maintain the Soviet Union's position as the big brother of socialism and the hegemon of Eurasia.

Although the Soviet Union is still temporarily lagging behind the United States in terms of economic aggregate, degree of development, and some technologies, the gap between the two countries has already narrowed markedly, and if the momentum of development is maintained, the Soviet Union's economic aggregate will one day surpass that of the United States.

The rapid development of the economy was accompanied by the improvement of the quality of life of the people, and when the people's lives were better, their satisfaction with the Soviet government naturally increased, and with the help of the Soviet propaganda machine, the Soviet people were full of confidence in the communist and Marxist-Leninist road, and the voices of doubt and opposition to the communist road were also reduced to a degree that could be ignored.

But while the Soviet Union was rising, Stalin's health was getting worse and worse, and by 1952 he was unable to handle government and party affairs. In desperation, he had no choice but to leave most of the matters at hand to Manturov and Molotov (Manturov was in charge of the party in his capacity as second secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, while Molotov was in charge of government/administrative affairs in his capacity as first deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of Ministers). ）。

From then on, Manturov and Molotov became the de facto heads of the Soviet party and government apparatus, respectively, and the Soviet Union effectively entered a new era (although Stalin still had the power to abolish Manturov and Molotov). ）。

However, Stalin's health did not improve, and in March 1953 he suffered a severe stroke, paralyzing his right hand, losing sensation in his legs, losing the ability to speak, and severely impaired his heart and breathing activities.

Even though the Politburo called the best doctors in the Soviet Union to treat Stalin, it still failed to reverse Stalin's condition, and finally the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, who had been in power for 30 years, died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by hypertension and atherosclerosis.

Stalin's death was a relatively serious blow to the Soviet people. After all, Stalin's prestige was very high, his contribution to the country and the people was great, and most of the Soviet people had already worshipped him as an idol and a hero.

Several high-ranking members of the Central Committee of the CPSU (including Manturov and Molotov) wrote in newspapers mourning Stalin's death, and their rhetoric was without exception an affirmation of Stalin's merits, while also acknowledging that "Stalin, like ordinary people, made some mistakes, but these mistakes were insignificant in comparison with his merits." Manturov also wrote that "he will seriously and objectively deal with all the problems left over from the Stalin era and improve the imperfections." ”

In order to express regret over Stalin's death, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union announced that all party and government institutions in the country would fly their flags at half-mast to mourn, and many European socialist countries issued similar orders in order to express their loyalty to the "big brother of the Soviet Union" or simply express their admiration for Stalin, and also sent high-level party and government officials to attend Stalin's funeral.

At the funeral, Manturov, who was regarded as Stalin's successor, personally "went into battle" with Ponomarenko, Andreyev, Pegov, and other relatively young secretaries of the Central Committee and members of the Politburo, and personally carried Stalin's coffin under the watchful eyes of reporters and party and government representatives from many countries. (At the funerals of Kirov and Kalinin that year, Stalin also carried the coffins of Kirov and Kalinin as the supreme leader and Molotov, Voroshilov and other Politburo members.) ）

Such actions were enough to prove their respect for Stalin in front of the general public, and also indicated that the future course of the USSR would not change much, and later at the Central Plenum, Manturov's speech confirmed this.

On the podium, Manturov stressed the need for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a whole to adhere to the Marxist-Leninist line, carry forward the spirit of Stalin, and live up to the expectations of the leaders of Stalin, Lenin, and other revolutionary martyrs, including the Red Army fighters who bought their blood for victory during the October Revolution, the Russian Civil War and the Great Patriotic War.

He made a historic presentation on the principle of the "Four Cannots", namely, "The blood of revolutionary martyrs must not be shed in vain, the efforts of the revolutionary leaders (in this case, Lenin and Stalin) and the heroes of socialist labor must not be wasted, the revolutionary masses (in this case, the proletariat) must not be separated, and no revolution must be allowed to fall into the hands of any capitalist forces." These vigilant principles would later become the most common slogans in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and one of Manturov's most famous quotes.

In addition to this, he also published the principle of "four self-confidences", emphasizing that all members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union should "adhere to self-confidence in the road, theory, system and culture." Party members are required to persistently follow the road of Marxism-Leninism and march toward the goal of communism.

As expected, in the elections that followed, Manturov was elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee with 100% support, Molotov became the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Ministers, and Voroshilov, as in history, was elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The three of them jointly govern as the leader of the ruling party, the head of government, and the head of state (vacant), respectively, and the Soviet Union has entered the era of the "troika".

But then, Manturov succeeded in consolidating the state security and anti-counterterrorism apparatus into the "National Security Council" (КГБ, or KGB) under his own leadership, and re-established the National Defense Committee (similar to the Central Military Commission), which he himself chaired.

Since then, Manturov has successfully seized control of the party, military, and national security and anti-counterterrorism departments, and has successfully surpassed Molotov and Voroshilov in personal power to become a veritable "leader of the party and the state".

Under Manturov's leadership, the Soviet superpower continued to develop with a strong momentum, and the revisionist and bureaucratic forces in the country were gradually eliminated by the personnel organs, propaganda organs, and anti-counter-terrorism organs that he used in his hands, and removed any internal factors that might lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

This great country has also survived as a superpower, and Manturov's successors, such as Yegor Ligachev, lived up to his expectations and succeeded in bringing the Soviet Union to the advanced stage of socialism and finally communism.

(Yegor Ligachev served as first secretary of the Novosibirsk Oblast Party Committee when Manturov came to power, and historically served as second secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1985 to 1990. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he founded the Communist Party of Russia, adhered to the communist line, persisted in the struggle, and is still alive today. ）