RUSSIA WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE ? IT WAS IN 1954 THAT NIKITA 
KHRUSHCHEV LAUNCHED HIS GRANDIOSE " VIRGIN LANDS " GAMBLE . PART 
OF THE PLAN WAS TO PLOW UP 32 MILLION ACRES OF 
MARGINAL LAND IN KAZAKHSTAN, AND SETTLE IT WITH COMMUNIST " PIONEERS, 
" WHO WERE TO PLANT AND PRODUCE HUGE QUANTITIES OF DESPERATELY 
NEEDED GRAIN WITHIN TWO YEARS . NIKITA'S SCHEME FLOPPED . THERE 
WAS NOT ENOUGH RAINFALL, AND THE PIONEERS DID NOT TAKE TO 
TRACTOR LIFE ON THE BLEAK FRONTIER . EXCEPT FOR 1958, EACH 
HARVEST HAS BEEN LOWER THAN THE PREVIOUS YEAR'S . WORST YEAR 
OF ALL WAS 1962, WHEN THE VIRGIN LANDS DELIVERED ONLY HALF 
THEIR QUOTAS . NATURALLY, KHRUSHCHEV TAKES NONE OF THE BLAME FOR 
THE FIASCO . THREE YEARS AGO HE FOUND A SCAPEGOAT IN 
KAZAKHSTAN PARTY BOSS NIKOLAI BELYAEV, FIRED HIM FOR HIS " ERRORS 
. " LAST WEEK BELYAEV'S SUCCESSOR, DINMUKHAMED KUNAEV, WAS SIMILARLY BOUNCED 
FOR " LAPSES " IN HIS WORK . FOR GOOD MEASURE, 
MOSCOW ALSO PURGED THE FORMER PREMIER OF THE TERRITORY FROM THE 
LOCAL PARTY'S CENTRAL COMMITTEE . IT WAS PERHAPS NO COINCIDENCE THAT 
NIKOLAI IGNATOV, 61, A ONETIME KHRUSHCHEV CRONY, LAST WEEK ABRUPTLY LEFT 
HIS POST AS A SOVIET DEPUTY PREMIER AFTER ONLY NINE MONTHS 
ON THE JOB . FARM EXPERT IGNATOV HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO 
BE BOSS OF A SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO BOOST FOOD PRODUCTION . 
