New Power Struggle In Soviet Regime

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30603, 20 November 1964, Page 10

New Power Struggle In Soviet Regime

(N.Z. Prest Association —Copgrtpht) MOSCOW, November 18. The new changes at the top of the post-Khirushchev Soviet regime suggest a power struggle between Liberalisers and (.on. over the course of the Soviet economy, according to Associated Press.

Clash and compromise seem to have played a part.

Younger generation technocrats are making their influence strongly felt.

There are signs that the younger men eventually will emerge with the Lion’s share of political authority, but the struggle is not over. The younger men seem impatient to remove some of the restraints on Soviet economic development, even to the point of experimenting with capitalist methods. This could lead one day to an upsurge in East-West trade, more economic independence for eastern Europe and aggavation of the dispute with the Chinese.

The Communist Party central committee made these appointments on Monday: Alexander N. Shelepin, aged 46. and Pyotr Y. Shelest, aged 56, to full membership in the party’s ruling presidium, and Pyotr N. Demichev, aged 46, to alternate presidium membership. The committee dropped Vasily I. Polyakov, aged 58, a Khrushchev farm expert, from

the secretariat, and dismissed Frol R. Kozlov, who is sick, from the presidium, thus eliminating one conservative voice from the top of the apparatus. Shelepin’s rise was predictable. As former chairman of the state security committee, and chairman of the party and state control committee, Shelepin probably played a significant role in unseating Nikita Khrushchev as Premier and first secretary of the party. Youngest Member Shelepin, a deputy premier, now may be moving close to the top rung of party leadership, possibly eventually as deputy to the first party secretary, Leonid I. Brezhnev. Shelepin’s rise and the advancement of Demichev to alternate presidium membership can encourage new generation leaders anxious to build the consumer economy despite resistance from hard-line conservatives and the military. Shelepin, who was the youngest member of the

secretariat, rose through the Young Communist League. He was its first secretary-ib> chief —from 1952 to 1958, before becoming chairman of the state security apparatus and the party control commission. Demichev is closely associated with the chemical industry, a hope of the younger men for sharply stepped-up consumer production. These appointments seem to enhance the positions of younger generation leaders, like the presidium member, Dmitry Polyansky, aged 57, an able administrator with wide experience. Polyansky and Shelepin now are men to watch. The moves can strengthen the party leadership in its direction of the Soviet economy. Both Shelepin and Polyansky probably support Brezhnev and the new premier, Alexei N. Kosygin. Their influence could be decisive. industrial Priority But the appointments of Shelepin and Demichev are balanced by elevation of Shelest, aged 56, to the presidium. A metallurgist who has been first secretary of the party in the Ukraine, Shelest’s background suggests sympathy for the military’s idea of continued priority for heavy industrial development. Probably Shelest was supported for advancement from alternate member status in the presidium by Nikolai V. Podgorny, aged 59, an influential Ukrainian who is a member both of the presidium and

the secretariat. Podgorny seems to be a pro-heavy uv dustry conservative who. with Shelest, night oppose sharp shifts in the development of the economy. Dismissal of Polyakov from the secretariat probably is attributable to Khrushchevs farm failures and the party s

anxiety to make a fresh start in attacking agricultural problems. It is noteworthy that the central committee annulled Khrushchev’s reorganisation which divided the party apparatus into farm and industry specialists. This divided authority and spread confusion.