Soviet Union Rehab Job

In Stalin's day, a disgraced party official received a show trial and a bullet in the head. In more recent times, Kremlin power brokers who fell from grace languished in obscure retirement. But last week Boris Yeltsin, who had lost his job as head of the Moscow Communist Party in spectacular fashion only seven days earlier, was appointed first deputy chairman of the State Committee for Construction, a government position that carries ministerial rank. While that represents a demotion, Kremlin watchers could not recall any previous Soviet official's being vilified and sacked from a top job, then re-emerging so quickly in another high post. Yeltsin's firing was also unusual in that it provoked some rare public protest, including a demonstration by supporters in Moscow's 1905 Square that was broken up by police.

Although he will almost certainly lose his nonvoting seat on the ruling Politburo, the former Moscow party chief is expected to remain on the policymaking Central Committee. In his new post he will hold the No. 2 position in a department responsible for one of the most important yet trouble-prone sectors of the Soviet economy. Yeltsin will help oversee large- scale construction projects, a field in which he specialized when he was a young engineer assisting in the development of the industrial center of Sverdlovsk.

Some Kremlinologists speculated that Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev used the new appointment to signal that he was very much in charge. But the Soviet % leader also seemed anxious to reassure ordinary citizens that Yeltsin's discharge had been warranted. In a widely publicized speech to senior party leaders at week's end, Gorbachev did not mention Yeltsin by name but criticized officials whose management decisions "bring society to a fever" and "unnerve people" -- charges that were leveled by many against the abrasive Moscow party chief during the meeting that preceded his downfall. Gorbachev also threatened to "part company" with those who resist his perestroika (restructuring) program, a not so subtle threat to punish opponents of his policies in the party.

Soviet officials last week confirmed rumors that Yeltsin had suffered more than a political ailment. Several days before his ouster, he entered a cardiac unit of an elite Moscow hospital for treatment of "heart trouble." But Chief Foreign Ministry Spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov insisted that "his illness is not a serious one." In any case, Yeltsin was well enough to leave the hospital two weeks ago, albeit reportedly against his doctors' wishes, and attend the party meeting during which he was fired. Having swallowed that bitter pill, Yeltsin returned to the hospital for further medical care.