ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the origins and development of the special relationship that has united a number of military officers occupying the highest positions in the Soviet military establishment with the faction of the Party most closely identified with N. S. Khrushchev. The special relationship between Khrushchev and his military followers has had a striking impact on their careers, and thus on internal Soviet politics and on international affairs. While Stalin had had to make concessions to the military during the war, he severely curtailed the military's prerogatives and professional autonomy after the war, and instead encouraged the massive reassertion of Party apparatchiks within the armed forces. The Stalingrad Group gained control of the armed forces and acquired political influence through the association with Khrushchev, and its public image and historical record were strongly enhanced by the revision of history.
