Moscow’s old men have taken root in the Kremlin

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 17

Moscow’s old men have taken root in the Kremlin

The Soviet Union is to be guided towards the last decade of the twentieth century by the oldest government it has ever had. The work facing the new Government is acknowledged to be exceptionally challenging and important. It must prepare a new five-year plan, starting in 1986, that is supposed to switch the economy to more modern lines. It is also commited to reforming the system of planning and management, the very guts of the Soviet economic system. But the leadership has reappointed 78-year-old Nikolai Tikhonov, the oldest Soviet Prime

Minister ever, and the “new” Government he then chose is, except for one or two minor shuffles, unchanged from its predecessor. Its Presidium, or Cabinet of 14, has an average age of over 68; more than half are over 70. This was not unexpected, just as Konstantin Chernenko’s election as President was not unexpected. Mr Chernenko, at 72, became the oldest man to be elected Soviet President, just as in February he was the oldest man to become General Secretary of the Communist Party. The election of a President and the choice of a new Government

are infrequent events, yet there was little feeling of anticipation in Moscow. The pulse even of foreign Kremlin-watchers scarcely quickened. The excitement of the brief Andropov era might never have been. Two questions arise. Would it have been different if Yuri Andropov had still been alive? And does it matter? It is believed, though it cannot be proved, that Mr Andropov would have wanted a newer-look government. Mr Tikhonov has had years of experience around the heights of government bureaucracy, but he was brought to the

MARK FRANKLAND in Moscow on how the “new” Soviet Union Government comprises men with an average age of 68, and half of whom are over 70.

very top by the late Leonid Brezhnev. His brief then was to keep things running and not, as it became under Mr Andropov, to supervise significant changes. It seemed likely that Mr Andropov was grooming Vitali Vorotnikov, the newest Politburo member and Premier of the Russian Republic, for Mr Tikhonov’s job. Mr

Vorotnikov is only 58, and until two years ago he was an apparently reluctant and frustrated ambassador in Cuba, well out of the Kremlin mainstream. Certainly it is hard to believe that Mr Andropov would have left the rest of the Government virtually untouched, as Mr Chernenko and Mr Tikhonov have done.

But does it matter that a quarter of all Ministers and state committee chairmen are 70 or over? Some of them are clearly phenomenally hardy, capable, and experienced. The oldest of them, Yfim Slavsky, Minister of Medium Machine Building, was born in 1898 and has held the post for 29 years. His blandly named department runs part of the nuclear weapons industry. One doubts that he would be kept in such a job if there was anything lacking in his performance. Yet 20 years ago, just after they had removed Khruschev, the party

leadership, at the time mostly still under 60 years old, decided that no one would hold a senior party or government post beyond the age of 70. Mr Andropov gave signs of wanting to tackle the problem of an old generation that hangs on to office party because the country has no tradition • of honoured retirement for politicians. Mr Chernenko seems ready to return to the easygoing Brezhnev way of letting old men grow older behind their desks. The emergence of the 53-year-old Mikhail Gorbachov as the “Second Secretary”—an approximate des-

cription, for there is no such title—is no guarantee that Mr Andropov’s initiatives will be sustained. By proposing Chernenko first for the party leadership, and then for the Presidency, Mr Gorbachov was doing what Mr Chernenko had done the year before for Mr Andropov. But if Mr Andropov had lived longer, Mr Chernenko would probably never have succeeded him, and not just for reasons of age. The longer Mr Chernenko rules, themore likely is Mr Gorbachov’s heir apparency to be challenged by others. Copyright—London Observer Service.