Word: plenum
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...first news from the closed-door Central Committee plenum came early in the evening. The official TASS press agency wire fell silent and then, as Western newsmen hovered over their teleprinters, the news agency's English-language service clicked back to life, teasingly printing out a test line again and again: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." Then came an equally puzzling message. The Central Committee members had "acquainted themselves" with the text of an Andropov speech, reported the TASS dispatch. But had they heard Andropov speak? When the text of the address finally clattered over...
...Andropov supporters, had been blocked from advancing further in their careers under Leonid Brezhnev. Andropov also promoted an old KGB comrade to candidate membership in the party council and gave greater authority to a like-minded technocrat on the Central Committee Secretariat. Andropov's address to the party plenum conveyed a similar feeling that he was in command. In language not heard since the days of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader railed against "intolerable" waste in the economy and accused factory managers of "marking time." Said a prominent Moscow intellectual: "Andropov came out of the plenum stronger than...
...putting his stamp on the ruling elite, but last week the long-anticipated changes finally began to take shape. Mikhail Solomentsev, 70, a former premier of the Russian Republic, was given a voting position on the Politburo commensurate with his new job on the Party Control Commission. The plenum confirmed the importance of the KGB in inner Kremlin councils by elevating the KGB chief, General Victor Chebrikov, 60, to candidate membership in the Politburo. Yegor Ligachev, 63, a technocrat from Siberia who shares Andropov's concern for economic discipline, was given greater leeway in controlling party personnel appointments, making...
After Andropov failed to appear at the Central Committee plenum, attention turned to the ensuing two-day session of the Supreme Soviet. As the delegates filed into the vaulted neoclassical chamber of the Great Kremlin Palace, visitors in the gallery kept their eyes fixed on the brightly illuminated podium. Vorotnikov, whose thatch of dark hair sets him apart from his graying and balding comrades, stepped into the second row next to Agricultural Expert Mikhail Gorbachev, 52, and former Leningrad Party Boss Grigori Romanov, 60. Members of the "young guard" in the Kremlin, both have been mentioned as possible successors...
...question of the moment, however, is how much longer the Soviets will be able to impose a bland countenance on their leader's absence. Important public events continue to loom in Moscow, including a semiannual Central Committee plenum that is held in late November or early December. That closed-door session is traditionally followed by a highly publicized meeting of the country's Supreme Soviet, which is normally announced 30 days in advance. Failure to hold those events on schedule would cause muffled embarrassment in the Kremlin, and further uncertainty about the Kremlin abroad. -By George Russell. Reported...