Silence broken, Kosygin praised

The Soviet Union has officially announced the passing of former Prime Minister Alexei N. Kosygin and said he would be buried in the Kremlin wall. The announcement by the Tass news agency ended 36 hours of silence by the Soviet news media. Official word that Mr. Kosygin would be accorded a top-level funeral ended speculation that he might be blamed posthumously for mistakes in managing the national economy.

The official obituary, signed by President Leonid I. Brezhnev and Mr. Kosygin's successor, Nikolai A. Tikhonov, praised the former prime minister as "a true son of the Communist Party and the Soviet people. . . ."

He was referred to as "a prominent organizer of economic construction" who had "truly served our motherland and the Soviet people" in foreign policy. Acknowledging the high popularity that Mr. Kosygin enjoyed among the public, the party leaders praised his "modesty and tactful attitude," and said he was always "demanding and principaled" when it came to executing party policy.