WORLD : Mayors of Moscow, Leningrad Join Yeltsin in Quitting Party
The mayors of Moscow and Leningrad today joined populist Boris N. Yeltsin and leaders of the reform bloc of the Communist Party by quitting the party in the first split since the time of Lenin.
Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov and Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak issued a statement today saying they are quitting the party because of its inability to offer a realistic program for transition to a new society.
“Recognizing all the responsibility before the people and history, we have taken a decision in the situation that arose to leave the Communist Party in order to help create a multi-party system,” said their statement, released at the Moscow City Council.
The dramatic events came as Mikhail S. Gorbachev was wrapping up a personally victorious 28th party congress with adoption of new party rules and the election of new members of the Central Committee.
Delegates today, the last day of the congress, voted by secret ballot on the approximately 420 nominees for the Central Committee. Gorbachev was scheduled to deliver a report on the congress after the votes were tallied.
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