Word: andropov
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Between them, members of the Politburo share enough foreign policy savvy to have realized the consequence of destroying an unarmed passenger jet, particularly since memories of the world's revulsion after the invasion of Afghanistan and the toppling of Solidarity are still fresh. Surely Yuri Andropov would not discard his hopes for Western European neutralism, or the Soviet Union's image among impressionable Third World countries, in order to flex his military muscle. In all probability, Andropov and Co. were not even consulted about flight 007. Instead, a general on the ground followed standing instructions to the hilt and ordered...
Soviet attempts to woo the international peace movement clearly have been set back?and the antinuclear movement might be damaged by a wave of you-can't-trust-the-Soviets feeling. David Corn, a leader of U.S. antinuclear activists, writing an open letter to Andropov in the New York Times, asserted, "Your edge in the propaganda war of peace was shot down when the Korean jetliner fell from the sky ... A new 'get tough' attitude in the West will hinder our efforts . . . You now have to decide if the Soviet Union really gives a whit about peace...
...point, Ogarkov's presentation confirmed the speculations of Western Kremlinologists: the order to shoot down the plane was a military decision, not checked with Andropov, who was reported to have been on vacation in the Caucasus, or other Politburo members. The order was given, Ogarkov said, by a commander in the Soviet Far East. Without exactly saying so, Ogarkov indicated that he had been informed only after the Korean liner had been destroyed. That raises a terrifying question: Are Soviet military forces under firm enough control by the Kremlin civilian leadership to prevent their obvious hair-trigger mentality from creating...
Washington resorted to some musty translation of the radio dialogue between the Soviet pilots. As one of the pilots closed in on the fated airliner, he is quoted as exclaiming, "Fiddlesticks!" Fiddlesticks? Despite the fact that the word went out of fashion before Yuri Andropov could even have heard of Glenn Miller, it is a remarkably apt translation of the Russian. What the pilot said was "Yolki palki," an exceedingly mild oath that translates literally as "the sticks of a fir tree," and is the exclamatory equivalent of "Yipes!" on a preteen U.S. playground...
...general public in the Soviet Union .. . Andropov's election was unexpected. His KGB background was not an encouraging omen [and his] election met with no enthusiasm. The first gloomy anecdote to circulate was probably an accurate reflection of the general feeling: Andropov explains to a foreign journalist that he is sure the people will follow him. 'And those who don't follow me, will follow Brezhnev.' A later anecdote maintains that the Kremlin will probably be renamed - the Andropolis...