On June 18, June 1957, the leaders of the group – Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich – were joined at the last minute by Foreign Minister [[Dmitri Shepilov]], whom Kaganovich had convinced that the group had a majority. Although they did not have a majority in the entire [[Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Presidium]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] Central Committee, they had a majority of the Presidium's 11 full members, <ref>{{Cite book |last=Tompson |first=William J. |url=http://archive.org/details/khrushchevapolit0000tomp |title=Khrushchev—a political life |date=1995 |location=New York City |publisher=St. Martin's Press |via=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-312-12365-9| page=179}}</ref> who were the only ones that could vote.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huskey |first=Eugene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mKcazy5JDCgC&q=albeit+as+a+candidate&pg=PA38 |title=Executive Power and Soviet Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Soviet State |date=1992 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-1-56324-059-1 |page=38 |language=en}}</ref> In the Presidium the group's proposal to replace Khrushchev as First Secretary with [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Premier]] [[Nikolai Bulganin]] won with 7 to 4 votes in which [[Georgy Malenkov|Malenkov]], Molotov, Kaganovich, Bulganin, [[Kliment Voroshilov|Voroshilov]], [[Mikhail Pervukhin|Pervukhin]] and [[Maksim Saburov|Saburov]] supported and Khrushchev, [[Anastas Mikoyan|Mikoyan]], [[Mikhail Suslov|Suslov]] and [[Alexei Kirichenko|Kirichenko]] opposed,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kramer |first=Mark |date=1999 |title=Declassified Materials from CPSU Central Committee Plenums. Sources, Context, Highlights |journal=Cahiers du Monde russe |volume=40 |issue=1/2 |pages=271–306 |jstor=20171129 |issn=1252-6576}}</ref> but Khrushchev argued that only the plenum of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] could remove him from office. At an extraordinary session of the Central Committee held on June 22, Khrushchev argued that his opponents were an "anti-party group".
Khrushchev had the approval of the military, headed by Minister of Defense [[Georgy Zhukov]]. At that [[plenary session]] of [[Central Committee of CPSU|Central Committee]] Zhukov supported Khrushchev, and used the military to bring in supporters of Khrushchev to convince people to support him. He made a bitter speech, accusing the group of having blood on their hands over Stalin's atrocities. He even went further saying that he had the military power to crush them, stating: "The Army is against this resolution and not even a tank will leave its position without my order!".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Afanasyev |first=Y. N. |title=Нет другого пути |trans-title=There Is No Other Way |language=ru}}</ref> In the end of the power struggle, Khruschev was reaffirmed in his position as First Secretary.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1956-2/the-anti-party-group/ |title=The Anti-Party Group |first=Lewis |last=Siegelbaum |authorlink=Lewis Siegelbaum|date=2015-06-19 |website=Seventeen Moments in Soviet History |language=en-US |access-date=2020-09-29}}</ref>
