The U.S.S.R.'s perennial agricultural crisis has once again taken its toll in fall guys. This time the Kremlin abruptly removed Vladimir Matskevich, 63, as Minister of Agriculture. A two-time loser, Matskevich had been fired from the same job in 1960 for "mismanagement," then shunted off to be chairman of Nikita Khrushchev's much criticized "virgin lands" project before being restored to the agriculture ministry five years later. Earlier this month Izvestia reported that Sergei Shevchenko, the ministry official in charge of farm machinery, had also been discharged for "violating state discipline"—Soviet jargon for quarreling with the boss or gross incompetence. Sovietologists...
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