Russian Seniorities Studied

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31031, 11 April 1966, Page 9

Russian Seniorities Studied

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

MOSCOW, April 10. When Mr Leonid Brezhnev, the Russian Communist Party Chief, read out the names of the party’s new 11-man Politburo on Friday this was the order he followed: Leonid Brezhnev. Alexei Kosvgin Nikolai Podgorny, Mikhail Suslov. Gennady Voronov, Andrei Kirilenko, Alexander Sheleptn, Kirill Mazurov, Dmitry Polyansky. Pyotr Shelest and Arvit Pelsche. In the days of Josef Stalin such lists were considered invaluable in deciding who stood where in the Soviet hierarchy at any given time. Today, observers cautioned against attaching too much significance to the order of the list However, they pointed

out that if it had been compiled according to the time each member had already spent in the party’s inner “Cabinet,” Mr Polyansky should have been included above Mr Kirilenko. If the order of the list has any real significance for the Kremlin’s present order of precedence, then Mr Polyansky one of the Politburo’s youngest members, appears to have suffered a slight demotion. On the same basis, Mr Shelepin, the former youth and secret police boss, who is regarded by many observers here as a rising star, does not appear to have made any special progress towards the top. The second echelon of the ruling body, the candidate members, were announced by Mr Brezhnev in the following order: Pyotr Demichev (head of

the party’s ideological commission), Viktor Grishin (trade union chief), Vasily Mzhavanadze (party chief in Georgia), Sharaf Rashidov (party chief in Uzbekistan), Dmitry Ustinov (defence specialist), Vladimir Shcherbitsky (Ukrainian Prime Minister), Dinmuhamed Kunaev (party chief in Kazakhstan) and Pyotry Masherov (party chief in Byelorussia). This list adheres strictly to order of precedence in seniority membership of the Politburo's auxiliary body, from which Mr Leonid Yefremov, who had been closely associated with the former Kremlin Chief, Mr Nikita Khrushchev, was dropped. The 11 secretaries of the central committee, in charge of the party's day-to-day administration, were named as follows: Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail

Suslov, Alexander Shelepin, Andrei Kirilenko, Pyotr Demichev, Dmitry Ustinov, Yuri Andropov (who runs Kremlin relations with foreign ruling Communist parties), Boris Ponomarev (who runs relations with foreign non-ruling parties), Ivan Kapitonov (in charge of party cadres), Fyodor Kulakov (agricultural expert) and Alexander Rudakov (industrial specialist). An official communique on the central committee meeting which appointed the Politburo gave the list of members in alphabetical order—normal Kremlin procedure under the present leadership. Some observers said this made it mare likely that Mr Brezhnev’s list had a certain significance in showing the relative standings within the Politburo.