Communist Party Boss Fired in Moldavia : Soviet Union: The new chief apparently has a mandate to stabilize the republic, where nationalism has erupted.

The Communist Party leader in the Soviet republic of Moldavia was replaced Thursday after long-simmering nationalist unrest flared into violence over the weekend in what the government took as a threat to Soviet rule there.

Semyon K. Grossu, the last party leader of a Soviet republic appointed under the late President Leonid I. Brezhnev, was “relieved of his duties in connection with his transfer to another job,” the official Tass news agency reported.

The Moldavian Communist Party’s policy-making Central Committee named Pyotr K. Luchinsky, 49, in his place as first secretary. He apparently has a mandate to stabilize the increasingly volatile political situation in the republic and restore popular confidence in the party’s leadership.

Moldavian nationalists had campaigned hard for Grossu’s removal, accusing him of holding back political and economic reforms in the republic. The nationalists clashed with police Nov. 7 during anniversary celebrations for the Russian Revolution and then, far more violently, last weekend.

Grossu, 55, who held the post for nine years, dealt toughly with Moldavia’s resurgent nationalism until recently. Dissidents demanding protection of the Moldavian culture and language, which is akin to that of neighboring Romania, were routinely jailed, and even local historical societies were closely watched lest they foster Moldavian nationalism.

But Moldavia’s growing restiveness, a reflection of the upsurge of nationalism around the periphery of much of the old Russian Empire, brought the formation earlier this year of the Moldavian Popular Front. There were continuing demonstrations against “Russification” of the republic and also counter-protests, including strikes at railway terminals, by the Russian and Ukrainian minorities.

Grossu’s removal became only a matter of time, according to Soviet journalists in Kishinev, the republic’s capital, after he and other leaders were chased from the reviewing stand during the anniversary parade Nov. 7. The demonstrators filled Victory Square and climbed over the tanks and other military vehicles to prevent the Red Army from taking part.

Three days later, angry crowds of more than 6,000 surrounded the Moldavian Interior Ministry to demand the release of those arrested during the earlier protest. They stoned the police, burned police cars and set fire to the ministry. According to official figures, 215 people were injured in the melee.

The Moldavian government then banned all public gatherings and imposed other emergency measures, including the detention of people believed to be agitators. The central government airlifted about 2,000 internal security troops to Kishinev to maintain order.

The Moldavian government said the riot last Friday night had all the appearances of a “dress rehearsal” for an uprising against Communist rule. The government described it as “an open battle for power, an attempt to overthrow the legitimate leading organs of the republic and to change the political structure of our society.”

The Moldavian Popular Front had called for a general strike in Kishinev, beginning Wednesday, to demand the removal of Grossu and other leaders, but instead it urged the restoration of order after talks with the Moldavian president, Mershea Snegur.

Luchinsky is a Moldavian who served as second secretary of the Tadjikistan Communist Party after working in Moscow and earlier as a party official in Moldavia for 12 years. In a brief television interview, he said confidence in the party has to be restored quickly.

“It is now fashionable to criticize the party, for it proceeds with perestroika (restructuring) very slowly,” Luchinsky said. “This is an area where party members must use all their ability and their own belief in the party to reassure the people. It is necessary to unite the sound forces of the republic if we are to solve its numerous problems.”

In Moscow, the party’s ruling Politburo questioned leaders of the Lithuanian Communist Party for nearly eight hours Thursday about plans to form an independent party--Communist in name but not subordinate to Moscow--in the Baltic republic.

Afterward, Juras Pozela, a member of the Lithuanian party’s leadership, said, “We have not changed our positions.”