Third Soviet official commits suicide

MOSCOW -- The business manager of the Soviet Communist Party has killed himself, the third top official to commit suicide since the collapse of last week's coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev, the official Tass news agency said.

Tass gave no details of the suicide of Nikolai Kruchina, who controlled the vast resources of the party that were ordered nationalized by Gorbachev in a decree Saturday in the aftermath of the right-wing coup attempt.

Gorbachev's military adviser, Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev, shot himself Saturday night and former Interior Minister Boris Pugo, one of the eight acknowledged coup leaders, killed himself as officials were coming to arrest him sdayesday.