At that meeting, the three main conspirators were dubbed the Anti-Party Group, accused of factionalism and complicity in Stalin's crimes.

In 1957 he was nearly removed from office by the Anti-Party Group.

Georgy Malenkov, a leading member of the Anti-Party Group, worried that the powers of the First Secretary were virtually unlimited.

The first attempt to depose Khrushchev came in 1957, when the Anti-Party Group accused him of individualistic leadership.

Molotov and his associates were denounced as "the Anti-Party Group" but, notably, were not subject to the physical repressions that marked the Stalin years.

His connection, support and work in the Anti-Party Group was mentioned in encyclopaedias published in 1973 and 1974, but eventually disappeared altogether by the mid-to-late-1970s.

In 1957, a failed attempt to depose Khrushchev was run by Malenkov, Lazar Kaganovich and Vyacheslav Molotov, known as the Anti-Party Group.

The following year Khrushchev defeated a concerted Stalinist attempt to recapture power, decisively defeating the so-called "Anti-Party Group".

Later, in 1957, Pervukhin joined the Anti-Party Group in a bid to remove Khrushchev as First Secretary.

Khrushchev ousted the so-called Anti-Party Group from the Presidium and ultimately from the party and, in 1958 became Premier while retaining the position of First Secretary.