Politburo Member Aliyev Out; Last Brezhnev Protege

The Communist Party Central Committee today dropped Geydar A. Aliyev from the ruling Politburo and sent him into retirement “for reasons of health,” Tass press agency reported.

“The plenary meeting satisfied the request of Geydar Aliyev regarding his release from responsibility as a member of the Politburo, in connection with his departure on pension for reasons of health,” Tass said.

Aliyev, 64, was absent from the last plenary meeting of the Central Committee in June, triggering speculation that he was ill or out of favor with the Kremlin hierarchy led by Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The former head of the Azerbaijan security police was the last man to rise to the party’s top body under the patronage of late President Leonid I. Brezhnev.

He had been a Politburo member since November, 1982.

Aliyev’s departure leaves the Politburo with 13 members, only one of whom is non-Slavic--Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who is Georgian.

Although Aliyev was considered an early supporter of Gorbachev, the industries for which he was responsible have been performing poorly and have repeatedly been criticized by the state-run media.

In addition to missing the last Central Committee gathering in June, Aliyev was absent from the session that month of the Supreme Soviet as well as from a major Central Committee conference on production of consumer goods--one of the two economic sectors for which he was responsible. Transport industries was the other.

Aliyev is the fifth Politburo member to be removed since Gorbachev came to power in March, 1985. The others are Grigory V. Romanov, Viktor V. Grishin, Nikolai A. Tikhonov and Dinmukhamed A. Kunaev.