Grigory V. Romanov, Former Gorbachev Rival, Is Dead at 85

Grigory V. Romanov, a Politburo member who was Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s chief rival to become Soviet leader in the mid-1980s, has died in Moscow. He was 85 and had lived in retirement in Moscow since losing out to Mr. Gorbachev in 1985.

The Communist Party announced the death but gave no date or cause.

Mr. Romanov became a full member of the ruling Politburo in 1976, when the Soviet Union was led by Leonid I. Brezhnev, who treated Mr. Romanov as his successor.

But when Mr. Brezhnev died in 1982, he was succeeded by Yuri V. Andropov, the leader of the K.G.B.