Gorbachev Tightens His Grip on Power With Politburo Changes

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev tightened his grip on power Wednesday with the removal of an old-guard Brezhnev ally from the Politburo and the naming of one of his own top aides as a non-voting member.

As expected, Dinmukhamed A. Kunayev, former Communist Party leader of Kazakhstan, was dropped from the ruling body, where he had served since 1971. Kunayev, 75, was a close associate of the late Leonid I. Brezhnev, the target of scathing criticism from Gorbachev at a two-day Communist Party Central Committee meeting that ended Wednesday night.

Rioting broke out in Alma Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, when Kunayev, an ethnic Kazakh, was replaced last month by Gennady V. Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, as Kazakhstan’s party boss. Kunayev’s departure followed extensive criticism about corruption and inefficiency in the republic, where Russians now outnumber Kazakhs.

Gorbachev’s chief public relations adviser, Alexander N. Yakovlev, 63, was selected as a candidate (non-voting) member of the Politburo. He heads the propaganda department of the party’s Central Committee.

Two other pro-Gorbachev officials were named party secretaries, putting them in charge of the day-to-day operation of the party apparatus--powerful positions in the Soviet system.

They are Nikolai N. Slyunkov, 57, party leader in Byelorussia and a non-voting Politburo member, and Anatoly I. Lukyanov, 56, chief of an administrative department at the Central Committee.

In addition, party secretary Mikhail V. Zimyanin, a 72-year-old conservative ideologue, was retired “on health grounds”--a term often used as a euphemism for being fired.

The survival of the last close ally of Brezhnev on the Politburo--Vladimir V. Shcherbitsky, 68, party chief of the Ukraine--apparently was a tribute to his strong standing with party members in that republic, Western analysts said.

The Ukraine party was criticized sharply by Yegor K. Ligachev, the second-ranking Politburo member, for not doing more to raise farm output.

Changes made Wednesday--the first since the party congress nearly a year ago--left the Politburo with only 11 full members and eight non-voting members.

The Central Committee session, which heard an unprecedented proposal by Gorbachev on Tuesday for secret ballot elections of senior party officials, was the first in seven months.