Who did Stalin want as successor(s)?

[Die Neue Zeit]

After all the trauma that was WWII, after the economic recovery efforts, and after the revamping of the Communist Party in 1952, who did Stalin want as successor(s)?

[Panda Tse Tung]

Well he has never stated any names as far as i know, so it remains speculation. I would have said Molotov, but seeing how he was treated in the last 1/2 years that Stalin was alive...

[Marxist]

I thought Berija

[Voice_of_Reason]

I would have said Molotov

If I had to make a guess, that would probably be it. If not him maybe Beria.

[Dimentio]

I have lost the name of the guy who was his favourite, but I think it was one of the guys who later would be the powers behind the throne of Brezhnev.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ Mikhail Suslov (made a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee in 1952) - I see you read The Unknown Stalin by Zhores A. Medvedev (the power of Google Books :D )? ;)

From what I've read (and my musings on "post-WWII Stalinism"), the Politburo was replaced by the larger Presidium to make room for a purge (though most likely not on the scale of the 1930s Great Purges, contrary to Khrushchev's retirement musings). Molotov had fallen out of grace, and Beria was in danger of being replaced.

[Dimentio]

Suslov!

Stalin's favourite as a successor was the young Michail Suslov. If Stalin had lived a few years longer, Suslov might have become the next GenSec.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suslov

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Suslov_Mikhail.jpg