Even his function within the Communist hierarchy and his relationship to Mao were unclear.

Pravda offered Soviet citizens a rare look today at the purging of Boris N. Yeltsin by his peers in the Communist hierarchy.

In the last decade, the Communist hierarchy has once again moved to send their children to the best schools abroad, only now to the United States.

Others refer to him admiringly as "No. 6," to indicate where he stands in the Communist political hierarchy.

This spontaneous outpouring was an implicit challenge to Vietnam's conservative Communist hierarchy, which believes in carefully choreographed political expression organized from the top down.

Also in the wings are members of the old Communist hierarchy who have been adept at switching allegiance to the National Salvation Front.

"Only fools die for ideals," he wrote in an old song that enraged the Communist hierarchy.

The same events have fueled a sharp debate within the Communist hierarchy over the desirability of wider external relations and internal political reform.

Mr. Yakovlev's role in this new insurgency movement caused the Communist hierarchy to recommend his expulsion from the party on Thursday.

Forgoing such perquisites of power was not behavior typical of East Germany's Communist hierarchy.