Word: chernenko
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Judging from Chernenko's speech, the new Soviet leader seems intent on doing just what his predecessor did?at least for the immediate future. In the area of foreign policy, Chernenko does not appear to be any more willing than Andropov to resume nuclear arms talks. Nor does he seem to be eager for an early summit meeting with Reagan. Given Chernenko's limited experience with diplomacy and defense, he will probably rely on the advice of two Politburo veterans, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Defense Minister Ustinov. Richard Thomas, director of the Center for Strategic Technology at Texas...
...same principle may apply to the new leader's handling of domestic problems. Chernenko will probably continue the limited economic experiments that Andropov began, which give some enterprises the power to make decisions more independently of centralized control. He has given indications that he wants to pursue Andropov's campaign for greater discipline and efficiency. The former leader had cracked down on absenteeism and drunkenness on the shop floor and on corruption in government ministries. But Chernenko is a conservative by instinct, with more experience in carrying out than in initiating policies. Says French Sovietologist Hélène Carr?...
...Chernenko moved to take control, Kremlinologists set about the task of unraveling the mystery surrounding the new leader's rise to power. A Western envoy concluded that Chernenko's acceptance speech was almost three times as long as Andropov's because he had to please more factions. Many Soviet experts viewed the delay in announcing a new leader as an indication of serious divisions within the Politburo. But in fact there was no concrete information about what took place between Andropov's death and the announcement of Chernenko's elevation...
With the benefit of hindsight, many experts concluded that Chernenko's election was predictable. For months his name had appeared near the top of the lists of dignitaries who signed official obituaries. Chernenko's collected writings and speeches were reprinted amid glowing reviews in the press. When workers nominated their candidates for next month's elections to the Supreme Soviet, the nominal parliament, Chernenko along with Premier Nikolai Tikhonov, 78, consistently placed second, after Andropov. The selection of Chernenko as chairman of the funeral committee was the final hint...
...Chernenko staged his political comeback? According to speculation at the time of Andropov's election, Chernenko had been passed over because of his close ties to the Brezhnev bureaucracy. According to this theory, the party apparatus, and hence Chernenko, had lost out when Defense Minister Ustinov tipped the balance in support of Andropov, who had been head of the KGB for 15 years and shared the military's concern for discipline and efficiency. The actual explanation may have been far simpler. Andropov's colleagues on the Politburo apparently considered him to be the more qualified of the two. But once...