Moscow Party Boss Ousted : Grishin May Also Lose His Seat in Politburo

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev replaced another member of the Kremlin’s old guard Tuesday by removing Politburo member Viktor V. Grishin as head of Moscow’s Communist Party organization.

In keeping with his style since he took control of the Communist Party in March, Gorbachev replaced the 71-year-old Grishin with a younger man who has experience in industry--54-year-old Boris N. Yeltsin.

Grishin has served on the Politburo for 24 years and held the prestigious post of party leader in the Soviet capital since 1967. A terse announcement by the news agency Tass said Grishin was replaced “due to his retirement.”

The announcement made no mention of whether he would be dropped from the ruling Politburo. But it appeared likely since Tass omitted the usual expression of thanks for his service and that could indicate Grishin was dismissed in disgrace.

Tass said Grishin was removed at a special meeting of the Moscow party organization attended by Gorbachev. The presence of the Soviet leader at the meeting lent his personal authority to the action, the latest of a series of high-level changes since he came to power after the death of Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko.

There have been persistent rumors linking Grishin to scandals in Moscow’s housing construction industry and that Gorbachev wanted him replaced.

Newspaper reports complained that construction officials were listing buildings as completed in order to meet their plan targets, but they could not be occupied for months until the work actually was finished.

Earlier this year, the Communist Party launched an official investigation of alleged mismanagement in the Moscow building department and ordered watchdog groups established at construction sites around the capital.

Yeltsin, whose background is in construction and engineering, appears to have ties to a group of newly powerful men who come from the Sverdlovsk region of the Ural Mountains, a group that includes Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov and Deputy Premiers Yakov P. Ryabov and Lev A. Voronin.

Yeltsin came to Moscow in July as Central Committee secretary in charge of construction and energy. It was considered likely that he would soon be named a candidate, or non-voting, member of the Politburo.

Since Gorbachev took over as general secretary of the party, two other Politburo members have been removed; Grigory V. Romanov and Nikolai A. Tikhonov. Andrei A. Gromyko was shifted from his powerful position as foreign minister to president, a largely ceremonial post unless it is combined with the leadership of the Communist Party.

Dozens of important party and government officials also have been removed, retired or shifted to other jobs under Gorbachev.

Yeltsin graduated in 1955 from the Ural Polytechnical Institute in Sverdlovsk and served as secretary for heavy industry of the Sverdlovsk regional party committee from 1968 to 1976.

Yeltsin became first secretary in the Sverdlovsk area and held that post until moving up to the Central Committee in July.

Grishin was born in the town of Serpukhov near Moscow. A former train engineer, he was head of the Soviet trade union organization before he was named Moscow party boss in 1967.