Kapto Alexander Semenovich

This article describes the mechanism of the behind-the-scenes displacement of N. V. Podgorny from the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to facilitate the installation in that position of L. I. Brezhnev. First Podgorny received 56 negative votes at a Kharkov Regional Party Conference; then at the XXV Congress of the CPSU (February 24 — March 5, 1976) he lost his post. The displacement was carried out by a troika of fi rst secretaries of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Committee of the party from diff erent periods who, over time, came to occupy time major posts in the party and the state: L. I. Brezhnev, A. P. Kirilenko and V. V. Scherbitsky. These three personally developed the removal operation and carried it out indirectly through a narrow circle of proxies, bypassing the offi cial procedures for resolving personnel issues that existed then in the party.