Protege of Gorbachev Selected to Head Warsaw Pact Forces

Marshal Viktor G. Kulikov, commander in chief of Warsaw Pact forces since 1977, stepped down Thursday in the latest phase of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s shake-up of the Soviet military.

Kulikov, 67, will be replaced by Gen. Pyotr G. Lushev, 65, a first deputy defense minister and a former commander of Soviet troops in East Germany, the official news agency Tass said.

A Russian traditionally holds the top military post in the seven-state, Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

Soviet and Western military analysts had predicted Kulikov’s departure as part of a shake-up linked with Gorbachev’s recent announcement of a 10% cut in the 5-million-strong Soviet armed forces.

New Staff Chief

It came less than two months after another long-serving soldier, Marshal Sergei F. Akhromeyev, 65, was replaced as chief of staff of the Soviet armed forces by a rising star, Col. Gen. Mikhail Moiseyev, 49.

Kulikov will become a general inspector at the Soviet Defense Ministry, Tass said.

Lushev has risen rapidly in the military hierarchy under Gorbachev. He champions ideas on military theory and arms control that are seen as close to Gorbachev’s own heart.

His writings stress themes such as increased discipline, decentralization of command and control, “restructuring” of military personnel policies, conventional as opposed to nuclear warfare and arms control proposals involving denuclearization.

Born in October, 1923, Lushev joined the Red Army in 1941, the year of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi invasion.

After commands both in East Germany and the Soviet Union, he was promoted to general in 1981 and took over as commander of the Moscow military district, a much sought after post that provides proximity to the political leadership.

Lushev benefited from a military shake-up in July, 1985, about five months after Gorbachev’s succession, moving up to become commander in chief of the group of Soviet forces in East Germany, one of the most important commands.

Just over a year later, in August, 1986, Lushev became the third of the country’s first deputy ministers of defense.

Before Thursday’s appointment, he was already considered No. 4 in the Soviet military hierarchy behind Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov, Chief of Staff Moiseyev and Kulikov.