Word: brezhnevs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Even if the leadership did want to give power to a younger man rather than risk elevating another aging leader whose tenure could rapidly turn into a death watch, the choice was very limited. Brezhnev all but closed the upper ranks of the party to youthful aspirants. Only two younger contenders are now vying for the top party post...
Geidar Aliyev, 60, from the Muslim Transcaucasian Republic of Azerbaijan, is the most prominent of the other young contenders. Shortly after Andropov succeeded Brezhnev, Aliyev was promoted to full Politburo membership and named First Deputy Premier. Even if Aliyev is passed over, says Cornell's Rush, "he certainly has a future as somebody's strong-arm lieutenant...
Vitali Vorotnikov, 58, a party bureau crat whom Brezhnev once banished to the Soviet embassy in Havana, advanced rapidly under Andropov. But he is too new to the Politburo to figure prominently in this race. The handful of men who govern the Soviet Union now stand at a great historical and psychological divide. Most of them can measure the history of the Communist regime by the decades in their lives. They were born and reared amid revolution, reached maturity during despotism and global war, and grew old building a fortress nation second to none. As they choose a successor...
Unlike Leonid Brezhnev, who loved to wear row upon row of medals, Yuri Andropov kept his army general's uniform in the closet. But if the late Soviet leader gave every appearance of being a civilian, his ties to the military Establishment came under increasing scrutiny during his brief tenure. Andropov, it was believed, owed a debt to the military because Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov had backed him in the race to succeed Brezhnev. In what many saw as a disquieting sign of the brass hats' growing power, it was the military's Chief of Staff, Nikolai...
...Vladimirovich Andropov confounded such predictions when he assumed control of the country's Communist Party in November 1982. Within seven months, Andropov had also secured the important title of Chairman of the Defense Council and been elected President of the Soviet Union. It had taken his predecessor, Leonid Brezhnev, 13 years to accumulate all the same trappings of power. The new Soviet leader, it seemed, was a man in a hurry...