 In the postwar period , Molotov 's power began to decline . A clear sign of Molotov 's precarious position was his inability to prevent the arrest in December 1948 for " treason " of his Jewish wife , Polina <unk> , whom Stalin had long distrusted . Molotov never stopped loving his wife , and it is said that he ordered his maids to make dinner for two every evening to remind him that , in his own words , " she suffered because of me " . According to a close collaborator of Molotov , Vladimir <unk> , at the beginning of 1949 the Israel minister plenipotentiary , Golda Meir , visited the Soviet Union ; she met privately with Polina , who had been her schoolmate in St. Petersburg . Immediately afterward , Polina was arrested and accused of ties with Zionist organisations ; she was kept one year in the Lubyanka , after which she was exiled for three years in an obscure Russian city . Molotov had no communication with her , save for the scant news that Beria , whom he loathed , told him . She was freed immediately after the death of Stalin . According to <unk> , Molotov said of her : " She 's not only beautiful and intelligent , the only woman minister in Soviet Union ; she 's also a real Bolshevik , a real Soviet person . " In 1949 , Molotov was replaced as Foreign Minister by Andrey Vyshinsky , although retaining his position as First Deputy Premier and membership of the Politburo . 
