Word: politburo
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...19th All-Union Communist Party Conference. Moscow street workers pulled down the festive red bunting and banners that had decorated the Soviet capital during the conference's four days of extraordinarily open debates and disputes. More substantively, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev convened the 13 voting members of the ruling Politburo, who in turn scheduled a plenum of the 307-member policymaking Central Committee for later this month. Its purpose, declared the Politburo, would be "to discuss questions concerning the practical realizations of measures noted in the conference documents...
...that were not enough, Gorbachev repeatedly interrupted other delegates as they spoke, usually to endorse their pro-reform assertions. The General Secretary even provided some moments of comic relief. After Politburo Member Alexander Yakovlev read a note asking delegates to refrain from delivering self-serving accounts of local party activities, Gorbachev leaned back in his chair and deadpanned, "That has the support of the conference, right...
Yarin also called for an end to the Soviet tradition of cloaking the individual responsibilities of ruling Politburo members in secrecy. "We don't know the specific matters each Politburo member is personally responsible for," he declared. In fact, last week's conference produced one important new disclosure along those very lines. At a press conference, Byelorussian Party Chief Yefrem Sokolov confirmed earlier rumors that Politburo Member Yakovlev, a strong Gorbachev supporter, has become chief overseer of party ideology, replacing Yegor K. Ligachev, who is thought to be the Soviet leader's major rival...
Perhaps the best-known political casualty of the Gorbachev era, former Moscow Party Boss Boris Yeltsin, issued a typically brash plea for political rehabilitation. Fired last November for his attacks on fellow Politburo members who showed a lack of enthusiasm for Gorbachev's reforms, Yeltsin portrayed himself as the victim of circumstance. "I believe that my only + mistake was that I chose the wrong time, ((just)) before the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Revolution," said Yeltsin, now a high-ranking construction minister. "I took very much to heart what happened." Showing that he is as combative as ever...
...remarks from Melnikov at the closed-door conclave were the first reported by state-run media that named names and called members of the party leadership on the carpet, including Gromyko, 78, and fellow Politburo member Mikhail S. Solomentsev, 74, who chairs the party's Control Commission...