GORBACHEV APPOINTS 3 TO SOVIET POLITBURO, STRESSES NEED FOR BROAD ECONOMIC CHANGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040014-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: April 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040014-9
WALL STREET JOURNAL
85
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Ott 1l~ u^ r' '
Stresses Need forB road Economic Change
9
24 Apr
INTERNATIONAL
Gorbachev Appoints 3 to Soviet Politburo
By DAVID IGNATIUS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MOSCOW-Soviet leader Mikhail Gor-
bachev added three of his supporters to the
ruling Politburo, preparing the way for
what he asserted will be a broad program
of economic change.
The Soviet news agency Tass an-
nounced the appointments yesterday, fol-
lowing a plenary. meeting of the Commu-
nist Party Central Committee. The
changes provide the clearest evidence yet
that Mr. Gorbachev is firmly in control of
the Soviet leadership and is moving
quickly to build a party structure that can
carry out his policies.
Mr. Gorbachev, in a speech yesterday
to the Central Committee, underlined his
intentions to press for domestic political
and economic changes. "Revolutionary
changes are needed" in the Soviet econ-
omy, he said.
The Soviet leader also announced the
date of the political event-the party's five-
year congress-that Western analysts con-
tend will provide the broad political base
for his efforts. He said the congress will
begin next Feb. 25 and will adopt a new
party program and set of rules, adding dis-
cipline and ideological clarity to an organi-
zation that has seemed to stumble in re-
cent years. The session also will appoint a
new central committee; at least half the
members probably will be new.
Less-Rigid Planning
changes," he predicted. The analyst also
said that Mr. Gorbachev is moving toward
consolidating his power, but that "more
things have to happen" before the process
is completed.
The new Soviet leader also sharpened
his criticism of the Reagan administra-
tion, saying that the U.S. refusal at the Ge-
neva arms talks to consider limits on
space weapons "violates" the agreement
last January that led to the resumption of
negotiations. However, Mr. Gorbachev
didn't give any indication that the Soviets
intend to break off the talks.
The new full members of the Politburo
are Viktor a ri ov, 61 years o , t e
head of the hub, the secret ponce; Yegor
Ligac ev, 64, the man responsible for
maintaining discipline in the party appara-
tus; and Nikolai Ryzhkov, 55, a technocrat
who heads the party economic department.
All three, like Mr. Gorbachev, are re-
garded as members of the new generation
of leaders who rose to prominence during
the brief tenure of Soviet leader Yuri An-
dropov.
Also, Soviet Defense Minister Marshal
Sergei Sokolov, 73, was named a candidate
member of the Politburo. Mr. Ligachev
and Mr. Ryzhkov both skipped this inter-
mediate status by jumping to full member-
ship of -the ruling body.
Yesterday's appointments strengthen
the basic coalition-of the party, the mili-
tary and secret police-that has dominated
the Politburo in recent years. As Marshal
Sokolov has only a non-voting candidate
membership, however, the military ap-
pears to have been cut down a notch and is
currently a junior partner in the coali-
tion.
Mr. Gorbachev can now count on a solid.
seven-man majority in the expanded 13-
member body, composed of members ap-
pointed in the 1980s. Moreover, he appears
to have consolidated power without offend-
Mr. Gorbachev sketched his economic
goals yesterday. He called for less-rigid
economic planning, more independence for
Soviet enterprises, improved management
techniques, increased emphasis on con-
sumer products and service industries, and
a "retooling" of the economy to install ad-
vanced technology.
Many Western officials doubt Mr. Gor-
ing the party's Old Guard.
bachev can achieve such ambitious
changes, and nobody expects him to depart "Gorbachev is carrying out the Andro-
from the basic structure of state socialism pov game plan, but he is doing it in a way
and tight Communist political control. that maintains the party's established con-
But his speech yesterday was a signal ventions, ' says Thane Gustafson, the di-
to the Soviet party apparatus that he is ' rector of Soviet studies for Georgetown
willing to consider extensive economic ex- i University's Center for Strategic and Inter
tional Studies
na
q
slow andYalong-the-established-path type.
perimentation..
In Washington, a Reagan administra-
tion analyst said he expected the Soviet
leader to proceed cautiously. "There won't
uick dramatic changes. It'll be
bean
"He's making changes," Mr. Gustafson
adds, "but there aren't any harebrained
schemes, and there isn't any overnight re-
form." ,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040014-9