Nikolai Talyzin; Ousted Official Helped Launch Perestroika

Nikolai Talyzin, 62, who helped Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev launch his perestroika economic reform program only to be demoted later by the Soviet leader. Talyzin was chosen by Gorbachev in 1985 after spending five years as Soviet representative to the communist trading bloc Comecon. He served as head of the State Planning Commission and was a non-voting member of the Communist Party Politburo until 1988, when Gorbachev moved him to the obscure Bureau for Social Development. The Soviet chief fired Talyzin in late 1989 and stripped him of the Politburo position. Talyzin served as Soviet deputy minister of communications from 1965 to 1975 and was communications minister until 1980. On Wednesday in Moscow after what the Soviet news agency Tass described as a “grave illness.”