The immensely unpopular chief of Leningrad's Communist Party has been removed from the post, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced, calling the move a critical step in the democratization of the ruling party.

The official, Yuri Solovyov, was rejected by voters in March elections for the new Congress despite running unopposed. It was an embarrassing vote of no confidence; a majority of voters scratched his name off the ballot.The 60-year-old Solovyov, who had headed the country's second most powerful regional party organization, is also likely to lose his seat on the party's 20-member ruling Politburo.

Gorbachev had gone to Leningrad to oversee the leadership change and announced that Solvyov was being replaced by Boris Gidaspov, a 56-year-old industrial chemist credited with economic innovation.

Voters in Leningrad, the country's second-largest city with 4.8 million residents, rejected virtually their entire party leadership in the historic spring elections for the Congress of People's Deputies.

Solovyov has shared the blame with other Leningrad officials for pollution in the region and for taking a hard line on dissent.

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Gorbachev said the Leningrad party Central Committee's decision Wednesday to retire Solovyov is a critical step in "developing the process of democratization of the internal life of the entire party."

In an extraordinary television interview that included both Solovyov and Gidaspov, the Soviet leader said the decision to change leadership came in response to party dissatisfaction.

The president, who had promoted Solovyov to the Politburo three years ago, said the party is lagging in its efforts to restructure the Soviet Union.

"Many things are not being solved in the proper time, and this is due to the fact that the party itself does not act in time," he said.

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