The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1965. Kremlin Moves Confirm Joint Leadership

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30933, 14 December 1965, Page 20

The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1965. Kremlin Moves Confirm Joint Leadership

Mr Mikoyan’s age and illness are sufficient reasons for his resignation from the chairmanship of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, an office which made him President of the Soviet Union for 16 months from July, 1964. In the growing list of changes in Government and Communist Party leadership since Mr Khrushchev was removed from his two offices as party secretary and Prime Minister, Mr Mikoyan’s resignation is nevertheless suggestive of what is happening in the Kremlin. Mr Mikoyan was one of Mr Khrushchev’s close supporters. He was with Mr Khrushchev in the Caucasus when Mr Suslov, the party's senior theoretician, summoned the Central Committee of the party in October last year to vote Mr Khrushchev out of office. Mr Suslov backed Mr Khrushchev in 1957 when he ousted Mr Molotov, one of the leading Stalinists, from the inner circle of the Kremlin after Mr Molotov had attempted to overthrow the Khrushchev regime. Mr Suslov is often regarded as real master in the Kremlin. He certainly shares the summit of power in Moscow; and only Mr Mikoyan has been longer a member of the party Presidium.

Mr Mikoyan apparently retains his membership of the Presidium; so does Mr Shelepin, who seems destined to advance in the Soviet hierarchy in spite of his removal from the chairmanship of the committee which has supervised the execution of party and Government directives. Mr Shelepin was elected to the Presidium only a year ago with Mr Pyotr Y. Shelest. A more significant rise is that of another Ukranian Communist Party leader, Mr Podgorny. The association of Mr Shelest with Mr Podgomy supports the view that Mr Podgorny will be much more than a figurehead in the presidency. Mr Shelepin’s rise is also notable because he is the first former chief of the Soviet secret police since the the late Lavrenti Beria to reach the summit of Soviet power in the party Presidium.

Mr Podgomy, too, was one of Mr Khrushchev’s close collaborators. He has been a member of the party Presidium for five years. He survived Mr Khrushchev’s attack on him in 1961. Mr Khrushchev held him responsible for massive thefts and grain losses in the Ukraine. That period of agricultural set-back and industrial difficulty led to the formation of Mr Shelepin’s watch-dog committee and also to Mr Khrushchev’s reorganisation of the party and Government into two parallel systems for the management of agriculture and industry. Mr Khrushchev’s successors quickly abolished the dual system, which had produced confusion, bureaucratic rivalries, an unwieldy increase in the number of bosses, and a lowering of party prestige. Mr Podgomy sponsored the reunification and the introduction of economic incentives for production. Observers believe that Mr Khrushchev built up Mr Podgomy as a counter-weight to Mr Brezhnev; many viewed him as a rival to Mr Brezhnev after Mr Khrushchev’s removal. Mr Podgomy’s role has since caused speculation about the uneasiness of the collective leadership of Mr Brezhnev as first secretary of the party and of Mr Kosygin as Prime Minister. The last B. and K. partnership broke down in 1958, when Mr Khrushchev accused Mr Bulganin of conspiring in an anti-party plot and took over as Prime Minister.

Changes in the Government and the party have been almost continuous since October, 1964; most have appeared to strengthen the collective leadership arrangement If Mr Podgomy’s promotion means that he will have little opportunity to work in the inner ranks of the party, then Mr Brezhnev’s hand will be strengthened. It is more likely that, as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Mr Podgomy will make his presence felt on Mr Kosygin’s side of Soviet control. In the recent changes the role of the party as a primarily ideological organisation has been restored; and the merging of party with executive government in the direct management of the Soviet Union has been halted. Mr Podgomy’s new role on the executive side confirms these trends and, most likely, will confirm the continuation of the collective leadership of Mr Brezhnev and Mr Kosygin.