The World - News from July 31, 1988

The local Communist Party committee in the Volga River region of Kuybyshev in the Soviet Union removed its leader after demonstrations by thousands of residents demanding his resignation. The news agency Tass said the Kuybyshev committee relieved Yevgeny F. Muravyev of his duties as party first secretary “in connection with his retirement.” Tass did not elaborate on the reason for Muravyev’s removal. But Moscow-based members of the informal political group Democratic Union said that an estimated 40,000 Kuybyshev residents rallied July 21 to demand his ouster. Tass said he was replaced by Veniamin G. Afonin, head of the chemical industry department of the national party’s Central Committee.