Shcherbytsky crony retired from post in Ukrainian SSR

by Dr. David Marples

EDMONTON - The second secretary of the Ukrainian SSR, one of First Secretary Volodymyr Shcherbytsky's oldest cronies, was removed from his position at the December 12 plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Oleksander Tytarenko, 73, was retired and replaced by Volodymyr Ivashko, 56, formerly a first secretary in the Dnipropetrovske Oblast. Mr. Tytarenko had been second secretary since October 1982.

Mr. Ivashko was elevated, somewhat surprisingly, over the heads of existing secretaries in the Ukrainian Politburo, Borys Kachura, Stanislav Hurenko and Yuriy Yelchenko.

Also removed as a secretary of the Central Committee was Vasily Kriuchkov. It appears, however, that he remains a candidate member of the Ukrainian Politburo.

The new second secretary of the CPU joined the Communist Party in 1960. He is a graduate of the Kharkiv Mining Institute and served as secretary of the Kharkiv Oblast Committee for eight years. In 1986 he was elected a secretary of the Central Committee of the CPU and became a candidate member of the Ukrainian Politburo. He lost the former position in 1987.

He became first secretary in the Dnipropetrovske Oblast in April 1987 and in January of this year was elected a member of the Ukrainian SSR Politburo.

Mr. Ivashko is also a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and a deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet.

On December 14, at a plenum of the Dnipropetrovske Oblast Party Committee, N.K. Zadoya was nominated as First Party Secretary, replacing Mr. Ivashko. The nominee was second party secretary in this same oblast.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 1988, No. 52, Vol. LVI

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