How was Georgi Malenkov more powerful than Khrushchev and Beria?

Question by : How was Georgi Malenkov more powerful than Nikita Khrushchev and Lavrenti Beria after Josif Stalin’s death?
Malenkov was in charge of the CPSU Secretariat, and Khrushchev was in charge of the CPSU Presidium. Wasn’t the Presidium more powerful than the Secretariat.

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Answer by Jay
Beria had made many enemies was hated and feared in equal measure. There were quite a few Stalin loyalists who had their wives or other family members arrested and sometimes shot, consequently he had few friends. Add onto that his questionable morals – a stream of attractive young women were picked up, raped and then they too were executed once he had had enough of them. Once his patron Stalin had gone he was pretty much alone.

Stalin surrounded himself with sycophants, people who wouldn’t or didn’t dare threaten him and Malenkov falls into this category. A safe pair of hands who if he had any ambition it was to serve Salin. After WWII Malenkov bided his time and crawled up the ladder by being a safe and trusted par of hands and in Stalin’s last few years he took over many of Stalin’s jobs on the Secretariat, meaning that he was unofficially doing many of the jobs that Stalin undertook. Beria and Kruschev were a step away from this role and so naturally Malenkov was not just best positioned after Stalin’s death but also was the ideal choice for anyone to ally themselves with. Any potential successor needed Malenkov’s support or they needed him well out of the way. It took Khruschev two years to wheedle his way into power after first having become General Secretary and then marginalising Malenkov by criticising the slow pace of reforms and his closeness to Beria. By this time Beria was dead, having been arrested and executed. No one missed him.

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