Abrupt Change of Command

The leaders of the Soviet Union --Leonid Brezhnev, Nikolai Podgorny, Aleksei Kosygin--were downcast as they stood by the flower-covered bier in Moscow's imposing Trade Union House. While a string orchestra played funeral dirges, thousands of workers, soldiers and bureaucrats filed past the medal-bedecked dais for a last look at the jut-jawed countenance of Marshal Andrei Antonovich Grechko, Soviet Defense Minister and architect of the Kremlin's modern-day military might.

Grechko had died suddenly and unexpectedly at 72 in Moscow of an apparent heart attack. After lying in state for 24 hours, he was interred in the Kremlin wall, the burial spot for Soviet heroes. Grechko had been the chief mover in Russia's shift over the past decade from a primarily defensive military machine built around big, nuclear-tipped missiles to the balanced, varied --and growing--land, air and sea force that now gives sleepless nights to NATO planners, and has become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.

After he became Defense Minister in 1967, Grechko presided over the program of rapid diversification and modernization that catapulted Soviet forces into a situation of overall near parity with the U.S. He reorganized the officer corps, introduced advanced technology to the armored forces, and successfully tested new conventional weapons --notably air defense missiles--in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Probably the Grechko achievement that worried Western commanders most was the strengthening and integration of Warsaw Pact forces.

Grechko Fresco. In Western capitals, the bear-size Grechko (6 ft. 2 in., 220 lbs.) was usually regarded as an archfoe of detente and disarmament. Although his precise role in the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia has long been a matter of debate, many East Europeans are persuaded that he played a decisive part. Grechko apparently argued that Czech Party Chief Alexander Dubcek's political liberalization program was unacceptable from Moscow's point of view and that only a military intervention would keep the country in the Communist orbit. Even today the bullet-riddled fac,ade of Prague's National Museum is known among Czechs as a "fresco `a la Grechko."

But many analysts of Soviet affairs believe that later, Grechko--bending with the diplomatic winds--did not oppose a relaxation of tensions with the West. In 1973, when detente had begun in earnest, Grechko was brought into the Politburo by Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev--a rare honor for any military man. Grechko's appointment was probably intended to reassure Moscow's hawkish factions, but observers believe that Grechko was all along a strong supporter of Brezhnev's policies, including detente.

Grechko's 56-year career in uniform spanned the military history of the Soviet Union. Born to a peasant family in southern Russia, he joined the Red Army at age 16, during the bloody civil wars that followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. He remained in the army, survived Stalin's purges of the military hierarchy in the 1930s and rose to colonel general by the end of World War II. One wartime acquaintance, Nikita Khrushchev, later recalled joking about Grechko's imposing physical stature. "Comrade General," Khrushchev quipped, "please stand back so I can look you in the eye." In 1953, after Khrushchev came to power, Grechko assumed the key post of commander of Soviet forces in East Germany, where he helped put down an anti-Soviet uprising. He easily survived the 1964 ouster of Khrushchev, in part because Khrushchev's successor, Brezhnev, was another wartime associate. A marshal by 1955, Grechko became commander in chief of the Warsaw Pact forces before taking over as Defense Minister.

Tough Guy. No sooner were Grechko's remains deposited in the Kremlin wall than his successor was announced: Dmitri Ustinov, 67, a Politburo member who for some 35 years has been in charge of Russia's armaments industry. Ustinov's appointment surprised Western Kremlinologists, most of whom predicted that Warsaw Pact Commander Ivan Yakubovsky would get the job. Ustinov is the first civilian to head the Soviet military since Leon Trotsky was named Defense Minister in 1918 ("An unhappy precedent," quipped one analyst). The choice of Ustinov, a skilled technocrat, as Defense Minister may reflect Moscow's desire for greater efficiency in the country's mammoth defense establishment.

Certainly no Soviet leader has had more experience than Ustinov in dealing with vast, complex bureaucracies. Born to a working-class family in Samara (now Kuibyshev) in southern Russia, he was Stalin's Commissar of Armaments for most of World War II and, almost ever since, has been czar of the Soviet's military-industrial complex. Ustinov is described by one Western military attache as "a bright, tough guy." He favors heavy military spending and accelerated technological development. In short, he will almost certainly prove a persistent adherent to the main goal established by Grechko: to make the Soviet Union militarily the most powerful nation on earth.

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