Brezhnev-Era Holdover Loses Senior Soviet Post

One of the last Brezhnev-era holdovers in the top ranks of the Kremlin lost his power base Tuesday in a move apparently orchestrated by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Officially, Dinmukhamed A. Kunayev was pensioned off at his own request as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan. But he almost certainly was fired from office, and undoubtedly he will soon be dropped from the ruling 12-man Politburo, on which he has served for the last 15 years.

Kunayev, who will be 75 next month, was marked for political extinction at least a year ago as part of Gorbachev’s drive to bring younger men to the top and combat corruption and sloth in high places. But Kunayev, along with Ukrainian leader Vladimir V. Shcherbitsky, 68, the Politburo’s most senior members, managed to cling to power through the big Politburo shake-up that took place after the 27th Communist Party congress last March.

Gennady V. Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, was named to succeed Kunayev as party first secretary in Kazakhstan, a surprise move. Kunayev is a Kazakh, and while Kazakhs are now an ethnic minority in the republic, it has been traditional to name a Kazakh as party boss and an ethnic Russian as second secretary.

The late Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev served as second secretary in Kazakhstan before he was elevated to the Politburo and thereafter named general secretary of the Soviet party. Brezhnev served as Soviet leader from 1964 until his death in 1982.

Energetic Gorbachev Supporter

Kolbin, 59, is an energetic supporter of Gorbachev’s domestic policies. He caught the Kremlin chief’s eye with his performance as first secretary in the city of Ulyanovsk, the home town of V. I. Lenin.

Among his achievements, Kolbin wrote a series of articles about the need for economic and social reorganization. He championed Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol drive and provided alternative leisure-time activities for his region.

The official news agency Tass said that Kolbin began working in a factory at age 15 in the last days of World War II.

“Nearly 20 years of factory work helped shape Kolbin’s high business, moral and political qualities,” the news agency said, adding that he entered party work in 1959. In 1975, he was named second secretary of the party in Georgia and has been a member of the party Central Committee since 1981.

Kazakhstan, which is larger than Texas, Alaska and California combined, accounts for an eighth of the entire Soviet land area but has only 16 million people. It is the second largest of the Soviet Union’s 15 constituent republics, the largest being the Russian federated republic.

Kazakhstan’s party leaders have come under strong attack from Moscow in recent months on charges of corruption and inefficiency.

In one incident, the republic’s public transport minister, Anatoly R. Karavayev, was arrested on bribery charges. Last August, senior Kazakh officials were held responsible for a shortfall in farm production, and a year ago three members of the republic’s Politburo were dismissed.

Kunayev, a Brezhnev protege, survived the denunciation of the Brezhnev era at the party congress early this year, even though Gorbachev fired hundreds of lower-ranking officials associated with the late leader.

Less than four years ago, Brezhnev presented his friend “Dimash” Kunayev with the Order of Lenin and honored him with a third Gold Hammer and Sickle as a Hero of Socialist Labor.

At that time, Brezhnev said Kazakhstan had achieved “outstanding success” in the development of its economy, and he cited “steady growth in grain production.”

On Tuesday, in the Kazakhstan capital of Alma Ata, the party Central Committee accepted Kunayev’s resignation without a word of thanks, indicating that he was out of favor.