Both Linked With Periods of ‘Stagnation’ and ‘Corruption,’ Tass Says : Names of Brezhnev, Chernenko Ordered Off Public Buildings

MOSCOW — The government has ordered the removal from all public buildings of the names of former leaders Leonid I. Brezhnev and Konstantin U. Chernenko, including the houses in which they once lived, the official Tass news agency reported Thursday.

Tass said the decision was made in response to letters and public appeals to authorities and the press.

It was decided “to drop the names of Leonid Brezhnev and Konstantin Chernenko from all the names of factories, administrative regions, institutions of learning and organizations,” the news agency said.

Memorial plaques are also to be removed from former homes of the two men, both of whom Tass said were linked with periods of “stagnation” and “corruption” that preceded President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s present-day program of reforms.

The decision was made jointly by the Communist Party Central Committee, the Council of Ministers and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the highest state body.

Earlier Reversion

Under an earlier decision, a city on the Volga River bearing Brezhnev’s name had reverted to its former name of Naberezhnye Chelny.

Two squares in Moscow and Leningrad and a cosmonaut training center honoring the man who governed the country from 1964 to 1982 had also been renamed.

Most criticism of stagnation and corruption has concentrated on Brezhnev’s term in office. But recently criticism has focused on the government of Chernenko as well.

Soviet media have made clear that Chernenko’s 13 month-rule as Kremlin chief, from February, 1984, to March, 1985, is regarded as a brake on the anti-corruption campaign launched by Brezhnev’s immediate successor, Yuri V. Andropov.

In a decision similar to Thursday’s, Chernenko’s name was removed last month from a passenger ship.