Degenerations of flag and Schubert varieties to toric varieties

In this paper, we prove the degenerations of Schubert varieties in a minusculeG/P, as well as the class of Kempf varieties in the flag varietySL(n)/B, to (normal) toric varieties. As a consequence, we obtain that determinantal varietes degenerate to (normal) toric varieties. Both of the authors are partially supported by NSF Grant DMS 9502942.