Word: andropov
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...head of the Politburo"-an interesting title since the Politburo supposedly has no head. If there is opposition to détente in Moscow, Brezhnev has effectively silenced it, at least publicly, and even those who are thought to be ideological hardliners, like Secret Police Chief Yuri Andropov and Party Ideologue Mikhail Suslov, now publicly support Brezhnev's foreign policy...
...members dismissed (the official phrase was "relieved of duty")-Pyotr Shelest and Gennady Voronov-have been notable opponents of his diplomatic initiatives, as well as of some of his domestic efforts. Among the four men promoted -Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, Defense Minister Andrei Grechko, KGB (secret police) Chief Yuri Andropov and Leningrad Party Secretary Grigory Romanov-at least two are expected to play large roles in helping Brezhnev's plans work...
...Brezhnev's promotion of Andropov, 59, some Western diplomats saw it as a signal to political ideologues that detente will not be permitted to weaken party strength or orthodoxy. Then again, Brezhnev may simply have felt that it was better, in a major shakeup, to have the top cop inside the tent instead of outside it. The elevation of Romanov, 50, was interpreted as a reward for a dutiful party boss, who becomes a "candidate" member of the Politburo with no voting rights...
...Soviet secret police, of course, have a dual function. At home they were never busier than during the Stalin era, when they organized and executed the purges and ran the labor camps. Today the KGB is headed by Yuri Andropov, 57, a Brezhnev Protégé who is clearly subordinate to the political arm of the party. A powerfully built man over 6 ft. tall, Andropov proved his ruthlessness in Hungary as ambassador at the time of the 1956 uprising. It was he who encouraged a delegation of Hungarians to meet with top Soviet officers in Budapest to talk about...
...Defiance. The KGB men tried to prevent Gorlov from telling Solzhenitsyn about the raid. They threatened to destroy his career as an engineer, and even to imprison him. Although viciously mauled, Gorlov refused to give in. So did Solzhenitsyn. In his letter to Andropov he demanded an investigation of the whole sinister affair, adding in a note to Premier Aleksei Kosygin that he held the KGB chief "personally responsible...