Yeltsin Ousted; Called Reform in Soviet Too Slow

MOSCOW —  Boris N. Yeltsin, a protege of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev who had criticized the slow pace of reform, was removed today as Moscow party boss, state-run television said.

He was immediately replaced by Politburo member Lev N. Zaikov, who is the Communist Party Central Committee secretary responsible for defense industries.

Yeltsin, 56, was brought to Moscow by Gorbachev and had been an ally of Gorbachev’s reconstruction program, known as perestroika.

A Western diplomat said after Yeltsin’s ouster: “My first reaction to this news is that it indicates a weakening of Gorbachev’s influence.

Yeltsin, the reform-minded leader of the Moscow city Communist Party, was fired for “major shortcomings” in his leadership of the capital’s party organization, a state television news reader said.

He was removed at a meeting of the Moscow party’s policy-making committee.

Yeltsin’s political future came into question after he accused the party’s highest organs last month of not pursuing reforms with sufficient vigor.

Gorbachev Also Present

Gorbachev spoke at the Moscow party meeting that sacked Yeltsin, Soviet television said. It did not give details of his speech.

Yeltsin had been party leader in Moscow since December, 1985. His removal makes it certain that he will be removed from his post as a non-voting member of the Politburo.

Most foreign analysts of Soviet affairs, and many Muscovites, saw Yeltsin as the boldest and most outspoken proponent of reform in the Kremlin leadership.

But Soviet officials disclosed earlier this month that many members of the Central Committee, the party’s policy-making organ of about 300 people, had criticized him in October for his attacks on the party’s top organs.