Word: andropov
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...testimonials. "The competent organs," a common euphemism for the intelligence services, make up a kind of superelite. For years it was a basic tenet of Kremlinological wisdom that the head of the KGB was too much distrusted by his comrades ever to become General Secretary of the party. Yuri Andropov disproved that rule of thumb in 1982. He personified the Soviet obsession with security and reverence for the guardians of security...
These words and deeds signaled a definite switch in the Kremlin's mood after the painfully indecisive 13-month reign of Chernenko. They also seemed to confirm that, as some Western analysts had suspected, the new General Secretary is a disciple of policies conceived by Chernenko's predecessor, Yuri Andropov. Explained Jeremy Azrael, senior analyst of Soviet affairs at the Rand Corp.: "To say that there have been new ideas on the domestic front would be a gross overstatement." Gorbachev, said Azrael, "is the heir of Andropov...
...influence of Andropov, a former KGB chief who was Gorbachev's mentor, was particularly evident in the new leader's Politburo choices. First among them, in terms of seniority, was Viktor Chebrikov, 62, Andropov's handpicked successor as head of the KGB. Chebrikov was trained as a metallurgical engineer, then labored as a Communist Party functionary in Dnepropetrovsk before Andropov made him a KGB deputy chairman in 1968. Chebrikov is well chosen as a guardian of Communist conformity: in 1981 he railed against the "contamination of Soviet youth by Western ideas" and has since waged campaigns against "reactionary theological concepts...
None of Gorbachev's exhortations were new. During his 15-month tenure, Andropov addressed many of the same issues and proposed the same solutions that his protege is now advocating. There were warnings in Moscow that Gorbachev would soon reintroduce another Andropov tactic, a crackdown on the endemic problem of alcoholism. Rumors have swept the capital that vodka will be rationed in the future...
Then when Andropov came along, I practically lost my breakfast when I read some of that sappy stuff about him in the morning papers--how he liked Western pop music and so on. Now we're hearing about how Mikhail Gorbachev has good eye contact and a firm handshake and a good sense of humor and how his wife wears stylish shoes. Just because Gorbachev uses charm does not mean he is going to be swayed by it. And as for this facade about a modern, Western- style technocrat--it's just that, a facade...