Soviet Union Winds of Kremlin Change

Gorbachev's power grows as Gromyko is elevated and Romanov is demoted

Once again, surprise was in the air in Moscow. For the second time in two months, the increasingly confident new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, last week shook the Kremlin with a dramatic burst of changes at the top. Grigory Romanov, the man who some Western analysts believe had been Gorbachev's rival for the Communist Party leadership before the General Secretary's March 11 accession, was unceremoniously dropped from the ruling Politburo. One of the oldest and most familiar Kremlin figures of all, Andrei Gromyko, who has been his country's Foreign Minister for the past 28 years, was raised to the prestigious but...

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