Rocket Commander Replaced, Kremlin Says

A Defense Ministry spokesman Thursday reported the removal of the commander of Soviet rocket forces in what may be part of a top-level military shake-up.

The spokesman, Gen. Nikolai B. Chervov, announced that Marshal Vladimir F. Tolubko, 70, one of a dozen deputy defense ministers and head of the Soviet Union’s nuclear missile units since 1972, has been removed. He identified Tolubko’s replacement only as “another talented and able military leader” who would be named later.

Chervov refused to confirm or deny widespread reports that Marshal Nikolai V. Ogarkov, who lost his job as military chief of staff last September, has made a comeback and has been named commander of the Warsaw Pact forces, replacing Marshal Viktor G. Kulikov.

“We do not have such information,” the spokesman said with a smile, in response to questions about Ogarkov’s rumored assignment.

Gorbachev Meeting

In the Soviet lexicon, that answer is neither a denial nor a confirmation of the reports that were published in the Western press after Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with military commanders on July 11 during a trip to Minsk.

There has been speculation that Gorbachev wants a thorough shake-up of the military command to put new life into the upper ranks of the armed forces and will replace aging or inefficient military leaders with younger, more dynamic men.

Seeming to confirm that speculation, the military spokesman also announced that 77-year-old Marshal Alexei A. Yepishev has been replaced as head of the armed forces’ political directorate by a former deputy, Gen. Alexei D. Lizichev, 57. Lizichev, who has already taken over his new job, had been a senior staff officer with the 400,000 Soviet troops in East Germany until mid-July.

Another recent change was the promotion of Gen. Pyotr G. Lushev, 61, former head of the Moscow military district, to commander of Soviet forces in East Germany.

Ousted by Chernenko

Ogarkov, 67, was unceremoniously removed as chief of staff and first deputy defense minister last September by the late President Konstantin U. Chernenko. He was transferred to what was described only as “other work” and for a time dropped out of sight.

There has never been an official explanation of why Ogarkov was ousted or any announcement of his new duties. Western diplomats speculated that he may have had a personality clash with then-Defense Minister Dmitri F. Ustinov, one of the most powerful members of the Politburo until his death last December.

Other Western analysts said he may have opposed the decision to resume nuclear arms control talks with the United States despite deployment of new U.S. nuclear missiles in Western Europe.

Ogarkov has been regarded by Western military analysts as a hard-line officer who advocated greater spending on arms to fend off a perceived threat from the United States.

He had called for a greater emphasis on conventional arms on grounds that nuclear arsenals on both the U.S. and Soviet sides were so great that neither could strike first without receiving an unacceptable retaliatory blow.

Ogarkov, a hard-driving officer who publicly defended the Soviet Union after it shot down a Korean Air Lines passenger plane in September, 1983, was once regarded as a possible minister of defense.

Published reports have said that when Ogarkov replaced Kulikov, 62, as head of the Warsaw Pact forces, Kulikov was named to head one of Moscow’s military academies. As head of the Warsaw Pact forces, Ogarkov would hold one of the Soviet Union’s three top military positions and would regain his position as first deputy defense minister.