Word: brezhnevs
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...neoclassical chamber of the Great Kremlin Palace was different. As the 1,500 Deputies filed in to take their seats, diplomats and journalists who crammed the visitors' gallery animatedly discussed only one topic: Would there be a selection of the next President of the Soviet Union? Since Leonid Brezhnev's death on Nov. 10, the ceremonial and highly visible post has been vacant. Kremlin watchers now wondered if Yuri Andropov, the former KGB chief who had so swiftly succeeded Brezhnev as General Secretary of the Communist Party, would also aspire to a second title as head...
After the Deputies had paused for a minute of silence in memory of Brezhnev, Moscow Party Boss Viktor Grishin made his way to the podium. "Comrade Deputies," he began as a hush came over the huge hall, "the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ... proposes the election of General Secretary Comrade Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet." The Deputies burst into perfunctory applause. Onlookers in the gallery turned to each other to make sure they had heard the word "Presidium" rather than "presidency." They had. Andropov had been nominated...
...emphasizing that there would be no sudden changes in Russia following the death of Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev, Chertikov said that the U.S. government and press had "tried to read too much into" Andropov's experience as the director of Russia's KGB police service, and his thorough knowledge of the West...
...surprise. In a high-level shakeup, the Chinese government announced last week that Foreign Minister Huang Hua and Defense Minister Geng Biao had been replaced. Huang's fall seemed especially abrupt. He had just returned from the Soviet Union, where he had headed the Chinese delegation to Leonid Brezhnev's funeral. He had also held talks in Moscow with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, and delivered a warm expression of support for an improvement in relations between Peking and Moscow...
...U.S.S.R.'s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 surprised most U.S. Kremlin-watchers. So did Soviet inactivity during the recent war in Lebanon. After Leonid Brezhnev's death two weeks ago, American Kremlinologists were still suggesting the names of his potential successors when Yuri Andropov was chosen...