Word: yuri
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...meeting of the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union's nominal parliament. Gorbachev had been widely expected to use that session to assume the presidency, formally known as the Chairmanship of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. That would have followed the example of his three predecessors, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Chernenko. Instead, Gorbachev rose in Moscow's columned Great Kremlin Palace to declare that his duties demanded such "intensity" that he should concentrate on the party leadership. He then nominated Gromyko, 75, who he described as an "eminent political figure" and also, significantly, as "one of the oldest party...
...televised speech was one of the most dramatic demonstrations yet of Gorbachev's determination to spur the economy by using tactics advocated by his mentor, the late Yuri Andropov. Western analysts believe that the tough talk may signal a new phase in Gorbachev's ascendancy. Two months after he named three of his own men to the ruling Politburo, Western diplomats argue, Gorbachev is now increasing the pressure on some of the remaining gerontocrats in that body to retire. Most prominent among them may be Premier Nikolai Tikhonov, 80, who oversees all the ministers excoriated by Gorbachev. Kremlinologists noted...
...father's judgment and understanding of human nature. Andropov's 15 years as head of the KGB are given scant attention. If there was a deeper message in the week's events, it was that Comrade Mikhail's tough bureaucratic stance surely had the iconic blessing of Comrade Yuri...
...testimonials. "The competent organs," a common euphemism for the intelligence services, make up a kind of superelite. For years it was a basic tenet of Kremlinological wisdom that the head of the KGB was too much distrusted by his comrades ever to become General Secretary of the party. Yuri Andropov disproved that rule of thumb in 1982. He personified the Soviet obsession with security and reverence for the guardians of security...
These words and deeds signaled a definite switch in the Kremlin's mood after the painfully indecisive 13-month reign of Chernenko. They also seemed to confirm that, as some Western analysts had suspected, the new General Secretary is a disciple of policies conceived by Chernenko's predecessor, Yuri Andropov. Explained Jeremy Azrael, senior analyst of Soviet affairs at the Rand Corp.: "To say that there have been new ideas on the domestic front would be a gross overstatement." Gorbachev, said Azrael, "is the heir of Andropov...