Unhitching Podgorny from the Troika

The first announcement that the President of the Soviet Union had been stripped of power was not even the lead item on Radio Moscow's 5 p.m. newscast. After a droning, ten-minute report last week on a speech by Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev came a terse sentence: "At a plenary meeting of the Central Committee Nikolai Podgorny was relieved of his duties as a member of the Politburo." Next morning Pravda buried the news in the 26th paragraph of a 29-paragraph story on the meeting. Kremlinologists expect that Podgorny, 74, will be formally ousted from the presidency when the Supreme Soviet, the U.S.S.R.'s rubber-stamp parliament, gathers later this month.

Even by Kremlin standards, it was an ignominious end to the career of a stolid, dutiful party leader who had served for 17 years in the 15-man Politburo. As chief of state for nearly twelve of those years, he had been hitched to Brezhnev and Premier Aleksei Kosygin in the ruling troika. Even Nikita Khrushchev, who was ousted from his posts as Party Chief and Premier at the age of 70, was ushered out more gracefully. The official 1964 bulletin declared that he had resigned "in view of advanced age and the deterioration of his health."

The news of the shake-up puzzled Kremlinologists. In March, Podgorny had made well-publicized state visits to Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique (TIME, April 4). There had been no advance notice of the Central Committee meeting needed to legalize a top-level change. On the very day of Podgorny's dismissal, Pravda had front-paged a proclamation bearing his name. Moreover, neither Podgorny's health (visibly robust) nor his advanced years have offered any cause for speculation. By contrast, both Brezhnev, 70, and Kosygin, 73, suffer from ailments that often provoke retirement rumors.

The full story of Podgorny's dismissal may remain forever behind the scrim that veils the Kremlin's backstage dramas. Still, specialists hurried to put together plausible reconstructions. With hindsight, it seemed likely that Podgorny had somehow managed to arouse Brezhnev's ire, but that the row between them did not involve matters of high-level policy. Having yielded all real power to Brezhnev a decade ago, Podgorny had settled cheerfully into the highly prestigious but largely ceremonial post of chief of state. That, some experts thought, had been his downfall.

By their accounts, Podgorny stood in the way of Brezhnev's wish to add the presidency to the host of new titles, honors and decorations that he has garnered since his birthday in December. "It may have been that Podgorny dug in his heels and refused to go," says British Sovietologist Leonard Schapiro. Podgorny may also have opposed one of Brezhnev's pet projects: a new constitution, which is scheduled to be made public this week. The first since 1936, the constitution is believed to call for the Party Chief to be President as well. Brezhnev has long fumed that, unlike many East bloc leaders, he is not entitled to the full protocol honors due a head of state when he travels abroad.

The unhitching of Podgorny from the troika may also have been Brezhnev's first step in breaking up the ruling hierarchy. Also dismissed last week was Konstantin Katushev, 49, once the youngest member of the powerful Secretariat of the Central Committee, who was believed to be on a meteoric rise. Katushev apparently lost favor for having organized last June's summit meeting of Europe's Communist parties, at which several party bosses flaunted their independence from Moscow. His replacement is Konstantin Rusakov, 68, a Brezhnev protege with long experience in Eastern Europe who may have better luck in dealing with Moscow's wandering comrades in the Communist world.

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