Word: chernenko
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...news about Chernenko's death was hardly unexpected, given his age, 73, and his increasingly poor health. The medical report, signed by Dr. Yevgeni Chazov, the chief Kremlin physician, revealed that Chernenko had died of heart failure brought on by chronic emphysema. The report noted that the late General Secretary had also suffered from "chronic hepatitis, which worsened into cirrhosis," a deterioration of the liver...
...newspaper kiosks to buy Pravda. The front page of the Communist Party daily was not dominated by a black-bordered picture of the late Soviet President, as had been the case when Brezhnev and Andropov died; readers had to turn to the second page for a glimpse of Chernenko. Instead, the front-page space was devoted to the official portrait of the new leader, a balding, round-faced man, and the announcement that Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, had been chosen by the Central Committee as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
...decision to give over the front page of Pravda to Gorbachev was more a matter of protocol than an intended slight of Chernenko. But it did reflect the unprecedented speed of the latest succession in the Kremlin. News of Gorbachev's promotion to the highest post in the land came only five hours after Chernenko's death was announced. In Geneva, Soviet negotiators signaled the U.S. delegation, which had arrived there early last week to resume arms- control talks, that business would go on as usual, despite the death of Chernenko. Said a Moscow housewife: "It looks as if they...
...better known in the West than in his own country thanks to extensive Western press coverage of his visit to Britain last December. Evening news programs showed Gorbachev and the Politburo delegation as they paused inside the House of Trade Unions to contemplate the alabaster profile of Chernenko; the open coffin was set high amid a bank of purple, red and white flowers. At one point, Gorbachev bent over to express his condolences to Chernenko's widow Anna. Gorbachev's wife Raisa was seated at her side. During the 42 hours that Chernenko's body lay in state, convoys...
...most details, the Chernenko funeral differed little from the final rites for Brezhnev and Andropov. The crack gray-uniformed honor guards, goose- stepping beside the red and black-bedecked gun carriage, each balancing his rifle on one hand, seemed as coldly perfect as a precision gear wheel put through one more rotation. Portraits of Chernenko bobbed above the crowds in a regular pattern as the cortege made its way into Red Square...