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Gromyko, 109 Top Soviets Resign in Gorbachev Purge : 11 Closely Linked to Brezhnev

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From Times Wire Services

Former Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko and 109 aging members of the Communist Central Party Committee were forced out today in what was viewed as a major political victory for Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Eleven of the senior figures removed from the top Kremlin councils had been closely linked to Gorbachev’s disgraced predecessor, Leonid I. Brezhnev.

Clearly strengthening Gorbachev’s position and the future of his perestroika reform program, the Communist Party’s Central Committee approved the resignation of more than a third of the members of the policy-setting body who cited “reasons of health and other personal reasons.”

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The announcement of what was effectively a purge of Old Guard figures was made at a news conference by Kremlin ideological chief Vadim A. Medvedev.

24 Promotions

A list of the resignations issued later by Tass press agency showed that they included 11 who served for long periods under Brezhnev as full or junior members of the ruling Politburo or as party secretaries.

They included Gromyko; Brezhnev’s party control chief, Mikhail S. Solomentsev; his last premier, Nikolai A. Tikhonov; his first vice president, Vasily V. Kuznetsov, and his ideological aide, Boris N. Ponomaryov.

Replacing the departing figures as full members of the committee were 24 promoted from the body’s candidate or non-voting ranks, some of whom have won notice as strong public advocates of reform.

They included physicist and vice president of the Academy of Sciences Yevgeny Velikhov, former diplomat and party foreign affairs expert Valentin Falin and one-time journalist and now think-tank chief Yevgeny Primakov.

‘Life Goes On’

In a speech to the one-day committee session that voted the changes, Gorbachev declared:

“Life goes on. Perestroika, apart from economic, social and political decisions, is being accompanied by personnel changes.

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“There is a very serious regrouping of forces within the party and within society as a whole. This is dictated by new tasks,” he said, according to a summary of the speech issued by Tass.

Medvedev said the 110 presented a joint letter to the Central Committee declaring that “high pressure activity in taking part in perestroika “ was essential from members of the body.

Because they were beyond retirement age and had already left other posts they had held, they had to move out of the committee as well, the ideological chief quoted them as saying.

“This should be regarded as a serious and important milestone on the course of perestroika, “ Medvedev told the news conference. “It shows our party is realistically assessing its work and is quite critical of its own activities.”

Among other departing figures once close to Brezhnev, who is now accused officially of leading the country into social and economic stagnation and rampant corruption, were former republic party chiefs and military leaders.

The party figures included a one-time Azerbaijan party chief and later deputy Soviet prime minister, Geydar Aliyev, now often accused in the Soviet press of corrupt practices, and Armenian Communist Party chief Karen Demirchyan, ousted from that post last year.

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