Fedorchuk named MVD chief, Chebrikov fills KGB post (12/26/82)

Fedorchuk named MVD chief, Chebrikov fills KGB post

MOSCOW - Vitaly Fedorchuk, who headed the KGB in his native Ukraine for 12 years before being named to succeed Yuri Andropov as all-union head of the KGB last May, has been chosen to head the Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to a December 17 release from the official Soviet news agency TASS.

Mr. Fedorchuk, 64, will replace Nikolai Shcholokov, 72, a close associate of late President Leonid Brezhnev and who had been the minister since 1966, but was not a member of the Politburo.

The KGB post will be filled by Viktor Chebrikov, 59, a deputy chief during much of Mr. Andropov's KGB tenure. Mr. Andropov, who assumed the Soviet leadership following the death of Mr. Brezhnev in November, directed the agency from 1967 to 1982.

As head of the internal affairs ministry, or MVD as it is known by its Russian acronym, Mr. Fedorchuk will oversee the maintenance of public order, the militia and uniformed police, criminal investigations, riot suppression, traffic control and the enforcement of a wide range of regulations having to do with the right of residence is different places, internal travel and issuance of emigration permits.

The appointment of a career KGB officer to head the MVD is seen by many as an attempt to shore up a long-time rift between the two agencies with many overlapping security functions requiring a measure of coordination. Over the last 30 years the Kremlin leadership has kept the two agencies at a careful distance, according to The New York Times.

The separation of the functions was a protective measure ordered by the Kremlin a few months after the execution in 1953 of Lavrenti Beria, a loyalist of Stalin who used his control of the secret police and their uniformed counterparts to further the dictator's reign of terror. In recent years, the KGB has become the more powerful of the two agencies.

A career intelligence officer, Mr. Fedorchuk held the post of KGB head in Ukraine from 1970 until 1982. He gained a reputation there as a ruthless opponent of political dissidents and as a hard-liner on issues such as Communist ideology and the rise of the Solidarity free labor union in Poland, which he attributed to "anti-Soviet" agitators.

Since taking over the chairmanship of the KGB in Moscow, this reputation has been confirmed. There has been a nationwide crackdown of dissidents; international telephone calls have been sharply cut back, and a range of other measures curbing contacts between Soviet citizens and foreigners have been adopted. One of these, instituted in recent weeks, was a ban on the export of any Soviet book without a special permit.

Mr. Fedorchuk was born in Ukraine in December 1918. He served in the Soviet armed forces in World War II and has belonged to the Communist Party since 1940.

The new minister is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR, but he has not been elevated to a similar post in the national party's central committee. TASS reported, however, that he has been promoted from the rank of colonel general to that of general of the army.

Less is known about Mr. Chebrikov, who is said to be a close associate of Mr. Andropov. Also born in Ukraine, Mr. Chebrikov was graduated from a metallurgical institute as an engineer after serving five years in the army.

Mr. Chebrikov, who joined the party in 1944, served for many years after the war as a party activist in his home town of Dnipropetrovske, where Mr. Brezhnev was once party chief.

In 1967, he moved to Moscow to take over personnel matters in the KGB. One year later, he was appointed by Mr. Andropov as one of six deputy chairmen.

The recent appointments are interpreted by Western analysts as signaling an attempt by Mr. Andropov to consolidate his power.

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