European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 7, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Gorbachev tightens grip on Power stunning moves in Moscow from press dispatches soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev stunned soviet and Western observers alike last week with a series of bold moves which appear to have strengthened his grip on never in postwar history has a soviet Leader moved so fast to consolidate his control of the Gorbachev personally nominated foreign minister an Drei Gromyko As president of the presidium of the supreme soviet a Post that carries the functions of chief of state at a session of the supreme the nominal in doing Gorbachev broke a pattern set by his three immediate All of whom had combined the leadership of the party with the Gorbachev explained that daunting Domestic tasks he has made the Cornerstone of his administration required As general Secretary of the he should concentrate to the maximum on a successful implementation of the charted the nomination of the presidency with warm words of gives the 75yearold career Diplomat an influential position while Clearing the Way for Gorbachev to install one of his own men in the lop foreign policy the rubber stamp parliament unanimously approved the new president and his Eduard who Only the Day before was elevated to the ranks of the ruling politburo after seven years As a nonvoting in addition to shifting and naming Shevardnadze to the Job of foreign Gorbachev last week also dismissed the Man who had been seen As his chief rival among the younger politburo members Grigori Roma the former Leningrad communist party Given the Pace of his personal stunning by soviet Many soviet and foreign observers now expect Gorbachev to make further changes no later than next feb at the 27th communist party my head is one Western Diplomat this Man has been in Power less than four months and he has done More than was done in one just Waits to Sec what will happen they Are closing the door on three decades of foreign another Diplomat the latest move brought to a close Gromyko Brilliant foreign policy career spanning almost half a be ginning on the foreign ministry american desk in 1939 and including 28 years As foreign is a new face on the International although his official duties have taken him to East bloc nations As Well As to Portugal and he is untouched by soviet foreign policy failures such As the 1983 soviet walkout from Geneva arms limitation the Long War in Afghanistan and the declaration of martial Law in considered amiable and a Good pub Lic relations Shevardnadze contrasts sharply with who was known As yet and old Stone face and was a major player in the cold one Western Diplomat said Shevardnadze appoint ment indicated that Gorbachev planned to reevaluate so Viet foreign perhaps to take some of the emphasis away from superpower relations and concentrate on eur Asia and its difficult to say what will happen to but there Doest appear to be a major change on the she Gorbachev and president Reagan will meet for a sum Mit conference 19 and 20 in Shevardnadze is expected to accompany Gorbachev to and also on his official visit to Paris in an indication of the direction Shevardnadze will take May come at the end of during ceremonies commemorating the Helsinki human rights which Secretary of state George Shultz was scheduled to who gained a reputation As a ruthless fighter of corruption As the communist party Boss in is part of Gorbachev new team of he is part of a a new generation of leaders who emphasize toughness and i scarcely know what to expect any one soviet already there Are reports that drunkenness and absenteeism at work has if that is the one a photo soviet Leader Gorbachev Andrei Gromyko at Warsaw pact meeting in Warsaw last has the feeling that anything can it was at a meeting of the Central committee last monday that Gorbachev also ousted his onetime political in Gorbachev supporters Igor Migachev and Nikolai Ryzhkova were catapulted into full membership of the politburo As part of a Long awaited shift from the older generation of leaders who had Clung to Power for the last since coming to Power on March Gorbachev has added altogether four allies to what is now a 13member the decision making and three to the 11member secretariat of the communist party Central the secretariat handles Day today new role for Kremlin survivor Grom associated press Andrei who survived Kremlin purges and leadership changes to be elected to the prestigious but largely ceremonial soviet presidency last has been a glib spokesman for soviet foreign policy and a Stone faced negotiator with Western leaders from Winston Churchill to Jimmy helped establish the soviet american world War ii joined in drafting the sat in on superpower talks that shaped the face of the mod Ern and outlasted Josef Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Yuri Andropov and Konstantin he has reigned Over soviet foreign affairs 28 last Gromyko nominated Mikhail Gorbachev As the new communist party although he had been considered a Brezhnev Gromyko was thought to have switched allegiance in Brezhnev last year in Power to become a Backer of who succeeded Brezhnev after his death under Gromyko Star in March he added the title of first Deputy Premier to his portfolios of foreign minister and member of the Polit the move was seen As simultaneously enhancing his prestige and strengthening Andropov Gromyko generally took a Back seat to the leaders he loyally served during the years that the soviet Union cemented its grip on Eastern Europe and Rose to become a nuclear but Tass once said he took part in the most important foreign political developments of our time and former Secretary of state Cyrus Vance commented that Gromyko had few Peers in the modern world As a the craggy its jaw seemingly permanently set beneath Horn rimmed became instantly recognizable to the outside As he ended a tour As the first soviet ambassador in Gromyko was quoted As saying he hoped he would never return to the United but he did so almost dealing with nine secretaries of state and appearing at the general Assembly to Page 14 the stars and stripes rail against policies in latin the Middle East and and at nuclear arms reduction some observers attributed Gromyko career longevity to his political his apparent failure to make a bid for Power on his own he was not admitted to the politburo inner Circle until the same year As andro Pov and his invaluable diplomatic although he was said to have taken on More influence in Brezhnev declining Gromyko never was considered the forger of soviet foreign policy a role that May have saved him from blame for its he served instead As the articulator of Kremlin positions to the world through his Gromyko also was known for his offt Decuff speaking ability and his Talent at handling the world press with a mixture of vitriolic rhetoric and sarcastic but perhaps Gromyko most important work came at bargaining tables from Yalta to Geneva where he helped negotiate everything from Allied War strategy to the Salt a meeting Between Gromyko and Secretary of state George Shultz led to a reopening of the arms control talks now being conducted in Gromyko has earned a reputation for Tough Ness and endurance that has won him respect in the Kremlin and other seats of Power around the who often heaped insult on once said in his if i Tell him to sit on an hell stay there and but he wont Gromyko was born july to byelorussian he joined the communist party in and first studied economics but switched to a foreign ministry whose ranks had been depleted by stains Dur ing world War Gromyko took Over the ministry Section and was appointed ambassador to washing ton in at he was the youngest ambassador in soviet but he proved his expertise by helping put together an Alliance against nazi Germany Between the soviet Union and the United Gromyko career took him to Potsdam and where one Story says Churchill threw Cigar stubs at a photo Veteran Diplomat Gromyko is switching to the prestigious but largely ceremonial him after he repeatedly whispered into stains ear that he should demand Germany unconditional the Kremlin sent Gromyko to the United states after world War ii for the talks that drafted the he became the first soviet ambassador to the fledgling world teaching the americans the word yet As he delivered 26 Security Council vetoes in two Gromyko served As ambassador to Britain from he also continued a relatively slow Rise through the party ranks with an appointment As a nonvoting member of the Central Khrushchev appointed Gromyko foreign minister in 1957 and his unflappable countenance continued to serve him in Good Stead As he helped the Kremlin leaders turn the soviet Union into americas equal As a world military and political two Days before the cuban missile crisis erupted in october Gromyko calmly told the president John Kennedy that there were no soviet missiles in while he presented his poker face to the Many of those who knew Gromyko said his stoic features masked a Sharp among the anecdotes that became favourites with journalists was his reply when asked if hed enjoyed breakfast one Gromyko Khrushchev and who assumed Power follow ing Khrushchev ouster in took an Active role in foreign travelling abroad and sending other men As personal envoys outside the soviet but there seemed Little doubt that Gromyko was often consulted by soviet leaders and trusted to make critical policy during the Power struggle to succeed Gromyko is said to have joined defense min ister Dmitri Ustinov in helping Andropov unlike others at the top of the Kremlin there have been few rumours about Gromyko one notable exception was in september when he slumped at the podium of the general Assembly and had to be escorted from the Gromyko returned 55 minutes later and finished the surprising Rise for a Tough unknown georgian from press dispatches Eduard the georgian communist party Boss chosen to succeed an Drei Gromyko As foreign is virtually unknown outside the soviet he has a reputation domestically As an articulate party official in the Mold of Mikhail the Choice for foreign minister surprised Shevardnadze has had Little experience in beyond leading a few delegations Shevardnadze reputed crackdown on ram Pant georgian corruption and pioneering of some eco nomic experiments Mark him As a supporter of Gorba chess Campaign for discipline and limited his relative Lack of foreign experience also leaves the Way Clear for backed by the Veteran Gromyko As to play the most important role in Mak ing any new foreign policy an elegant Man with a reputation for toughness and he could be expected to introduce Gorba chess relatively More open style into foreign the Blu eyed georgian was first considered a candidate for promotion when Gorbachev became communist party Secretary in succeeding Konstantin but who had alternate or non voting membership in the ruling politburo since was passed Over when three Clear Gorbachev Kab chief Viktor Chubrikov and Central committee secretaries Nikolai Ryzhkova and Yegor were promoted to full politburo membership in last Shevardnadze was made a full politburo member at a meeting of the More than 300member Central the supreme or National named him foreign minister in Gromyko was named foreign minister in 1957 but did not become a politburo member until Shevardnadze has hosted conferences for third world nations in the georgian capital of Tbilisi and headed some communist party delegations on visits most recently to Algiers last he has also travelled to Portugal and he has spent almost All his life in the georgian communist rising through the Komsomol communist youth league and serving from 1965 to 1972 As georgian minister of internal he became the republics party Leader in a Western Diplomat said after Shevardnadze was named foreign minister that the Choice left room for a continued foreign policy role for Shevardnadze is an articulate Man who can handle the nuts and bolts while Gromyko takes care of the really important said the who requested that he not be Shevardnadze was born in the Village of Amati near the Black sea coast West of he became a communist party member in 1948 after two years As a Komsomol instructor and Rose to become a full member of the georgian party Central committee in it was during his spell As Interior minister that Shevardnadze Drew the National attention necessary for any soviet party career to georgians Are notorious in the soviet Union for Cor who had a reputation for person Al played a key role in one of the republics most infamous tales of nepotism and the Case involved Otari a onetime Driver who was said to have become a a personal Friend of a former soviet general he used that connection to protect his numerous illegal economic Deal As Interior Shevardnadze gradually and successfully moved against Laz Shvili in he was then made party and continued the in the Shevardnadze has overseen a number of economic experiments most notably the development of regional agricultural Industrial complexes that have drawn National the regional complexes Combine agricultural and Industrial activities of a Region under one economic administration in a Way that has also been advocated by Gorbachev since he took Shevardnadze has also Given rein to the georgian entrepreneurial spirit by allowing enterprises such Asse elected restaurants to run on semiprivate lines in the past two a photo Eduard Shevardnadze seen As supporter of Gorbachev Campaign for limited july the stars and stripes Page 15