But Mr. Paleckis, the Lithuanian ideology chief, said that once the furor died down, Moscow continued to have contacts with the republic's Komsomol leaders.

Gorbachev's Exhortations Instead, hard-liners are seeking a more symbolic victory, the replacement of Vadim A. Medvedev as the party's ideology chief.

On Monday, Mr. Starkov was summoned before Vadim A. Medvedev, the party's ideology chief, and told to resign.

Captain Valeroso is known as the ideology chief of the underground organization.

Kurt Hager, the ideology chief under Mr. Honecker, said that Professor Schumann's report had hurt him.

"It will not be long," said Juozas Jarmalavicius, the ideology chief of the republic's Communist Party, speaking for the committee, whose members were otherwise not identified.

Gyorgy Aczel, the liberal-minded ideology chief, spotted the talented regional boss and took him under his wings.

They have bashed Vadim Medvedev, the ideology chief, for failing to concoct a compelling new vision to keep the public sufficiently brainwashed.

Mr. Ligachev was ideology chief, a job traditionally held by the party's No. 2 man, and he has been seen as Mr. Gorbachev's principal rival.

He has also served as the Central Committee's ideology chief and as head of the country's trade union federation.