Word: konstantin
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...MAJOR FORCES in the Politburo are not young men. Andropov is 68, Konstantin Chernenko 71, Andrei Kirilenko 76 and Andrei Gromyko 73. In the not-too-distant future, a younger generation that did not live through the horrors of the war will take over. Despite the constraints of the Soviet system, these leaders might well be interested in improving the lot of their people--if only out of necessity. Growing labor unrest and dissidence within the Soviet Union have till now been successfully held in check, but history suggests the country will not stagnate forever. As Goldman puts...
...Soviet Union, the Politburo functions like a super-Cabinet that charts both foreign and domestic policy behind closed doors. Its membership includes representatives of the government like Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov, 74, and Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, 73, as well as key functionaries in the party bureaucracy such as Konstantin Chernenko, 71, and a handful of republic and urban party leaders like Moscow Boss Viktor Grishin, 68. The new General Secretary will have to appoint known loyalists if he hopes to prevail in Politburo debate...
...made his rise to power possible. Few of the contenders for the succession labored under more formidable handicaps. Leonid Brezhnev, wary of Andropov, opposed his police chiefs ambitions. But Brezhnev's first choice, Andrei Kirilenko, fell ill or was disgraced last year. Then Andropov gradually undercut the heir apparent, Konstantin Chernenko, a longtime Brezhnev crony who was vulnerable because he lacked both experience and political pull...
...fill the role of party "theologian" before Andropov took the job held by the late Mikhail Suslov. Not elder statesmen like Brezhnev's Premier, Nikolai Tikhonov, 77, a man with more experience in government than in the party apparatus, or the widely traveled and urbane Central Committee Secretary Konstantin Rusakov, 72, who lacks a vital prerequisite: Politburo membership. One contender seems to be on the way out. Party Secretary Andrei Kirilenko, 76, used to be Brezhnev's understudy, but apparently lost out on a chance for the starring role because he is in poor health or political disgrace...
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...