Word: viktor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After the Deputies had paused for a minute of silence in memory of Brezhnev, Moscow Party Boss Viktor Grishin made his way to the podium. "Comrade Deputies," he began as a hush came over the huge hall, "the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ... proposes the election of General Secretary Comrade Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet." The Deputies burst into perfunctory applause. Onlookers in the gallery turned to each other to make sure they had heard the word "Presidium" rather than "presidency." They had. Andropov had been nominated...
Finally, it was the turn of the U.S. delegates, Vice President George Bush and Secretary of State George Shultz. The Americans and the Russian looked at each other carefully as Viktor Sukhodrev, who had been Brezhnev's interpreter, translated for Andropov. The new Soviet leader showed no inclination to display his reputed command of English. Knowing they had been invited to talk privately with Andropov in two hours, the Americans then moved on toward a large portrait of Brezhnev, draped in black, that had been set up on a table just beyond the receiving line. Nearly every delegation...
...Huang had arrived from Peking with a message from the Chinese leadership expressing a desire to speed up consultations designed to normalize relations between the two Communist giants. Following his meeting with Andropov, Huang conferred for 90 minutes with Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko. The same day, Pravda Editor Viktor Afanasyev told a group of visiting Japanese journalists that both Peking and Moscow might agree to reduce their military forces along the Soviet-Chinese border. Though just such a proposal has been expected by diplomats since Brezhnev made overtures to Peking earlier this year, the timing of Afanasyev's statement...
...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...
Dark Horse: With his puffy face and bulbous nose, Viktor Grishin, 68, is a ringer for Chicago's late mayor Richard Daley. He resembles him in more than just appearance. As First Secretary of the Communist Party apparatus in Moscow, Grishin can deliver the Soviet equivalent of the Cook County vote to anyone vying for the top party slot. Like onetime Moscow Party Boss Nikita Khrushchev, he could use his post to help himself...