Boris S Yeltsin

The Soviet Communist Party realigned its top policy-making body Tuesday, retiring nearly a quarter of the members of its Central Committee and bringing in younger supporters of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his reform program. Dozens of older officials associated with the late President Leonid I. Brezhnev--figures such as former Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko--and his now discredited policies were effectively purged in the move. The changes are meant to free Gorbachev from the restraints imposed by conservative criticism in the committee and to allow him to act more decisively.

The Soviet Communist Party realigned its top policy-making body Tuesday, retiring nearly a quarter of the members of its Central Committee and bringing in younger supporters of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his reform program. Dozens of older officials associated with the late President Leonid I. Brezhnev--figures such as former Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko--and his now discredited policies were effectively purged in the move. The changes are meant to free Gorbachev from the restraints imposed by conservative criticism in the committee and to allow him to act more decisively.

The Soviet coup that alarmed the world for three days generated millions of words around the globe. Here is a selection: "The policy of reform initiated by M.S. Gorbachev, conceived as a means to ensure the dynamic development of the country and the democratization of the life of society, has, for a number of reasons, come to a dead end." -- The coup leaders, in their first appeal to the Soviet people. 'Clouds of Terror' "Soldiers, officers and generals!