Word: chernenko
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...Soviet, a.government post that Brezhnev held concurrently with that of Party General Secretary for the last five years of his life. Although the presidency is largely a ceremonial position, it does confer an aura of importance on the man who fills it. Speculation in Moscow last week centered on Chernenko or Tikhonov for the presidency if Andropov does not aspire to it himself. Andropov's behind-the-scenes maneuvering should keep him fully occupied as he moves to consolidate his power. Meanwhile, the signals emanating from Moscow are likely to remain ambiguous, if not downright confusing. -By Patricia Blake...
Political Valet: When Konstantin Chernenko, 71, won East Germany's highest honor in 1979 (the Order of Karl Marx), Party Chief Erich Honecker described him as Brezhnev's "closest comrade-in-arms." Others have had less kind things to say of the stocky, silver-haired bureaucrat, labeling him Brezhnev's "briefcase carrier." "page turner" and "political valet." No one else on the Politburo owed his position so completely to Brezhnev...
Born to a Russian peasant family in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, Chernenko was trained as a party propagandist. After a meeting in postwar Moldavia with Brezhnev, then local party boss, Chernenko was brought to Moscow in 1956. By the time Brezhnev took over the party in 1964, he had made Chernenko his chief of staff. Chernenko arranged Brezhnev's appointment schedule and kept close watch on the daily operation of the party bureaucracy...
...Chernenko traveled widely with Brezhnev, giving rise to speculation that the Soviet President had picked him as his heir apparent. But without his patron's protection, Chernenko was apparently unable to win votes from Politburo members who remembered all too well how he had opened mineral-water bottles for his boss during Kremlin meetings...
...analyst: "He's only served in one part of the country, dealing with one issue. His party and functional bases are very narrow." But as a member of the Party Secretariat as well as a full member of the Politburo, an overlapping of posts matched only by Kirilenko, Chernenko and Andropov, seasoning could favor Gorbachev next time around...