Party Helm Kept

                Moscow Chief Thus Unites Jobs Stalin Once Combined

                By Max Frankel

                Special to The New York Times

                Moscow, March 27 -- Nikita Sergeyevich
                Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet
                Union today. Thus he has emerged as the
                undisputed leader and chief spokesman of this
                nation in name as well as fact.

                The Soviet legislature, the Supreme Soviet,
                dutifully and unanimously elected Mr. Khrushchev
                chairman of the Council of Ministers- the Premier-
                to succeed Marshal Nikolai A. Bulganin, who
                submitted his resignation.

                The Supreme Soviet was told at once that the new
                Premier would remain First Secretary and
                therefore leader of the ruling Communist party.

                Thus were joined again at the top the two
                hierarchies that direct the affairs of more than
                200,000,000 Soviet citizens and lead the
                1,000,000,000 persons of the Communist camp.

                Advanced in 5 Years

                They were united in the ebullient and energetic
                person of Mr. Khrushchev, the 63-year-old
                former mine mechanic, who in the five years since
                Stalin's death has emerged from the collective
                leadership and advanced to overwhelming
                responsibility and power.

                Mr. Khrushchev has now succeeded to the posts
                that Stalin had formally combined. He is not only
                the acknowledged architect of all Soviet foreign
                and domestic policies but the leader of the
                disciplined party ranks and the extensive
                ministerial apparatus that administers and enforces
                the policies.

                The momentous change in the Government was
                effected quickly and in strict forms of
                parliamentary procedure. There was no debate on
                the move and even before the full weight of the
                switch was apparent Premier Khrushchev began a
                two-hour-and-forty-minute dissertation on
                agricultural reforms.

                Choked With Emotion

                He uttered only a few words of acceptance, words over which he appeared
                choked with emotion:

                "With your decision," he told the 1,378 Deputies, "you have just expressed
                great confidence in me and have done me great honor. I shall do everything to
                justify your confidence and shall not spare strength, health or life to serve
                you."

                His agricultural speech contained only one general comment that might be
                taken as an inaugural promise. "We shall conquer capitalism," Mr.
                Khrushchev declared, "with a high level of work and a higher standard of
                living."

                Mr. Khrushchev was placed in nomination for the premiership by Marshal
                Kliment Y. Voroshilov only a few minutes after the marshal was elected to a
                second full term as titular chief of state.

                The fate of Marshal Bulganin and the other ministers of the Government was
                not resolved at today's session. The ousted Premier had turned in a written
                resignation for the entire Cabinet. In short order this resignation was accepted
                and a resolution approving the Government's conduct over the last four years
                was adopted.

                Marshal Bulganin, seated behind Mr. Khrushchev, applauded his successor
                generously. The retiring Premier was in the second row, among the lesser
                members of the party's Presidium.

                As far as is known, Marshal Bulganin remains a member of the Presidium, the
                nation's policy-making body, but what Government job, if any, he will receive
                was not made known.

                In the seat of honor, front and center among the nation's rulers on the stage of
                the Great Kremlin Palace, was Marshal Voroshilov, the chairman of the
                Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. On his right in order sat Mr. Khrushchev's
                former right-hand man in the Ukraine, and Mikhail A. Suslov, also a party
                secretary.

                Gromyko to Speak on Tests

                Ranged behind them, under a huge statue of Lenin were the other party
                leaders and many Government officials. It appeared that Mr. Khrushchev
                would wait at least until Saturday before naming the other men in his Cabinet.

                Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko was listed by name in the Supreme
                Soviet agenda for a report at the end of the session on the "banning of nuclear
                and thermonuclear weapons tests." This signaled his reappointment as Foreign
                Minister and also set off a new wave of speculation among diplomats. They
                believe that the new government may make a radical and attention-winning
                foreign policy move.

                As Premier Mr. Khrushchev will no longer share the spotlight in Soviet
                international dealings. He has supplanted the man with whom he shared the
                Soviet seat at the 1955 heads-of-government conference in Geneva. At the
                next such conference, which Mr. Khrushchev has asked to be held next June,
                he would speak as Premier.

                Has Formulated Policy

                In fact Mr. Khrushchev is thought to have dominated this nation's foreign
                policy-making for some time. But in deference to the collective leadership
                principle and the divided administrations of party and government, Mr.
                Khrushchev was accompanied by Marshal Bulganin on most of his celebrated
                foreign tours, from London to Rangoon.

                On the eve of the election that led to today's shuffle of the government, Mr.
                Khrushchev had suggested the likelihood of a daring foreign policy maneuver.
                He said in that campaign speech that the day might not be far off when the
                nuclear powers would have to heed the disarmament plea of the peoples of
                the world and consider even unilateral steps such as the cessation of weapons
                production.

                There was no evidence today of any major shift in Soviet policies. On the
                contrary, Premier Khrushchev, in passing at once to the consideration of his
                plan to reorganize collective farms and machine-and-tractor stations, picked
                up where Mr. Khrushchev, the party secretary, had left off.

                Despite widespread curiosity in recent weeks about the composition of the
                new Government and the wild speculation among foreign observers here,
                stability, continuity and confidence were the keynote of today's proceedings.

                In his speech nominating Mr. Khrushchev, Marshal Voroshilov said that in
                recent years, meaning since the death of Stalin, whose "mistakes" Mr.
                Khrushchev had been the first to impress upon the party, the Soviet people
                had been implementing "Leninist ideas."

                He alluded once to the successful routing by Mr. Khrushchev last summer of
                the "anti-party plotters" - Georgi M. Maienkov, Vyacheslav M. Molotov and
                Lazar M. Kaganovich. Progress since then has been even more certain and
                now the party is realizing "a majestic housing program," the Chief of State
                declared.

                "An outstanding role in all these achievements," he asserted, "belongs to our
                dear Nikita Sergeyevitch Khrushchev."

                In international relations, Marshal Voroshilov said, the party and Government
                are "holding the initiative" and all the people of the world know Mr.
                Khrushchev as a "firm, untiring champion of peace."

                "And we are proud that at the head of our party is a man who so boldly and
                so insistently is leading us to communism, Marshal Voroshilov continued. "His
                untiring labors, his talks with statesmen and journalists have considerably
                added to the circle of our friends and have raised our authority in international
                life."

                Then, lowering his voice, Marshal Voroshilov read more quickly. He wanted
                to point out at the same time, he said, the "exceptionally fruitful work" Mr.
                Khrushchev had been doing as First Secretary of the party's Central
                Committee. "The authority of our party has increased greatly [and] its Central
                Committee has decided that Nikita Sergeyevich should remain at his post as
                [First] Secretary of the Central Committee."

                This settled the major question in the minds of his listeners. More applause
                and, almost anticlimactically, the election itself followed. Every right hand
                except Mr. Khrushchev's was raised high at the chairman's request for
                affirmative votes. He asked whether there were votes against or abstentions
                and each time he answered "No."

                Mr. Khrushchev, obviously moved, kept his head bowed through most of
                Marshal Voroshilov's speech. During the final ovation Mr. Mikoyan reached
                over and pumped the new Premier's hand a half-dozen times and patted his
                shoulder. Marshal Voroshilov extended congratulations, Mr. Kirichenko
                shook hands and so did Mr. Suslov. The new Premier finally joined in the
                applause.

                Mr. Khrushchev then took the rostrum, expressed his thanks and began still
                another phase of his career.

                His accession caught many Muscovites by surprise. Several Russians said
                they welcomed one man instead of several in charge of things here. But most
                kept their own counsel this evening as they hurried past the Kremlin through a
                fine spring snow.