Word: brezhnevs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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WHEN FORMER KGB CHIEF Yuri Andropov was named Thursday to head the organizing committee for Leonid Brezhnev's funeral, no serious Kremlinologist was surprised. The signs had been pointing that way for three years, ever since a loan Andropov had applied for to buy the apartment next to Brezhnev's had been approved Since then, Andropov's bosses had granted his request for a brand new Volga sedan. And they had even given him a full extra week's paid vacation that his hadn't asked...
...real clincher came last May, when the boys in the Kremlin set out to organize their annual office party in celebration of Karl Marx's birthday. In the hallways of that impressive building on Red Square, secretaries spent their lunch hours gossiping would Andropov or Brezhnev's top assistant Konstantin Chernenko be put in charge of the festivities...
...days, Andropov was nervous True, he reasoned, he had recently spent the weekend at Brezhnev's dacha on the Baltic. That was a good sign. But Brezhnev had also been seeing more and more of Chernenko. The two often lunched together at a little French restaurant near the Kremlin and went out for a drink after work. Besides, Ninushkin, Andropov's aide, had overheard Brezhnev compliment Chernenko on the completion of a business deal with the Canadians. "Much better job than Andropov did on the natural gas business: he lost us that contract." Brezhnev had said...
...decision, though, everything had gone in Andropov's favor. First, Chernenko arrived late for work because of a flat tire. That had been enough to infuriate the boss, a stickler for punctuality. Then Brezhnev complimented Andropov on his new Pierre Cardin suit and suggested they go shopping together in the near future...
...when Brezhnev called the two rivals into his office to dole out assignments for the celebration of Marx's birthday. Andropov felt reasonably confident. As they sat down. Andropov noticed Chernenko was sweating profousely...