Word: brezhnevs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Compared with the exuberant bear-hugging Brezhnev, Andropov appeared stern, almost ascetic in his thick glasses. He impressed Western visitors to the Kremlin with his command of facts, his sharpness of mind and his sardonic sense of humor. But somehow a sense of his true personality always seemed to elude them. The Soviet leader, French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson remarked after a trip to Moscow in February 1983, was "extraordinarily devoid of the passion and human warmth" that he had encountered elsewhere in the country...
...photographs. Given Andropov's years at the helm of the Committee for State Security (in Russian, Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti, or KGB), some of his countrymen feared that he would turn out to be a reconstructed Stalinist, intent on imposing order on a society grown lax and corrupt in Brezhnev's final years. Others wishfully thought that he might emerge as a liberal, eager to improve relations with the West and reform the Soviet Union's cumbersome system of centralized planning. Andropov proved to be neither. Having taken hold of the reins of power late in life...
...After Brezhnev's long, debilitating illness, many in the Soviet Union had hoped that his successor would be able to project a reassuring image of vigor and strength. But as early as Andropov's appearance at the state reception following Brezhnev's funeral, many foreign dignitaries were struck by the telltale signs of frailty and age that belied his reputation for mental agility. During the visit of Finnish President Mauno Koivisto in June 1983, Andropov had to be helped to his seat at a Kremlin banquet. When the Soviet leader met with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl...
Andropov's time in power may have been marked by failures at home and abroad, but important, if measured, steps were taken to overhaul and rejuvenate the gerontocratic party machine. Brezhnev holdovers who hoped to retain cherished sinecures at the middle and lower levels of the bureaucracy found their jobs going to younger men. At least 34 of an estimated 150 provincial party posts changed hands during Andropov's 15 months in power. It was the largest turnover of party officials around the country in two decades...
...Andropov was too physically frail to attend last December's party plenum, he appeared to come out of the meeting politically stronger. The balance of power in the Politburo seemed to tilt in his favor by the appointment of two new men whose careers had been stalled under Brezhnev. Politburo Newcomer Vitali Vorotnikov, 58, joined a number of younger leaders who appeared to owe their growing prominence to the ailing leader. They included former Azerbaijan Party Chief Geidar Aliyev, 60, who was the first Andropov appointee to the party's inner circle, and two technocrats, Nikolai Ryzhkov...