In an article in the previous issue of this journal, A.V.Sushkov observes that a full study of the causes of the "Leningrad Affair" does not exist. He focuses on two accusations that were leveled against the Leningrad leaders: their attempts to create a Russian communist party or a RSFSR bureau within the all-union party's Central Committee, and their falsification of the results of elections to the city and provincial committees in December 1948 at a conference of the Lenin-grad party organization. This article examines these little-studied aspects of the "Leningrad Affair" and demonstrates that they did not cause the removal of the Leningrad leaders so much as they provided a justification to do so.