Word: chernenko
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...whether the septuagenarians in the Politburo would choose the top man from their own ranks or would boldly pick a younger man. The two likeliest young candidates: Grigori Romanov, 61, and Mikhail Gorbachev, 52. With few clues to go on, Kremlin watchers seized on the appointment of Konstantin Chernenko, 72, a onetime Brezhnev protégé, to head the funeral committee as an indication that the old guard had triumphed. Although Andropov had been chosen for the same position when Brezhnev died, the signal was not as clear this time. As Andropov's nominal deputy, Chernenko was the logical choice...
...Saturday a motorcade of black limousines carrying Politburo members arrived at the green-and-white neoclassical House of Trade Unions, which was decorated with an enormous portrait of Andropov. In a columned hall inside, Andropov's body lay in an open coffin banked with carnations, red roses and tulips. Chernenko, acting as the first among equals, led the delegation. Tikhonov came next, followed by a trio of senior Politburo members walking three abreast: Defense Minister Ustinov, in his familiar uniform with rows of ribbons, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Moscow Party Boss Victor Grishin. Behind them came Gorbachev and Romanov...
...silver-haired Chernenko, who was once thought to be Brezhnev's hand-picked heir, paused for a moment before the coffin of the man who had defeated him in the leadership race last time. Andropov's face was bony and drawn, his nose almost beaklike. His long ordeal seemed reflected on the faces of his wife, his son Igor and his daughter Irina, who sat near the flower-bedecked bier. While an orchestra played Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony in the background, Chernenko went up to Andropov's widow, kissed her and touched her gently on the shoulder. When Ustinov embraced...
Should the Soviet leadership opt for age over youth, there was always standby Candidate Konstantin Chernenko, 72, who took Andropov's place on the Lenin Mausoleum during the military parade through Red Square in November and was named chairman of Andropov's funeral committee last week. Chernenko worked his way to positions on the Politburo and the Secretariat largely by serving as an aide to Leonid Brezhnev, and he was thought to have been his boss's hand-picked heir. But he lost out, probably when the military and party colleagues decided to back Andropov. Since then, Chernenko has given...
...last week, this is "a time for caution;" the Soviet leaders will be jockeying amongst each other for position and in the next week or so, the Kremlin will have a new leader. The choices range from younger, more worldly candidates like Mikhail Gorbaschev to the more conservative Konstantin Chernenko and Grigory V. Romanov, but speculation also includes the hawkish Defense Minister Dmitri F. Ustinov, who seems singlehandedly to have masterminded much of Russia's military buildup Further, Ustinov is one of the major power-brokers in the Politburo and is likely to influence heavily the choice of Andropov...