Andropov, Yuri Vladimirovich

Andropov, Yuri Vladimirovich (1914-1984), General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) between 1982 and 1984. Andropov was born near Stavropol, Russia. The son of a railway worker, Andropov studied water transport at a vocational-technical school and worked as a telegraph operator, projectionist, and boatman. He rose rapidly in the Young Communist League (Komsomol) to become a league official in 1936 and a member of the Communist Party in 1939. He fought during World War II in the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (now the republic of Karelia in Russia) and became a party official in 1944. Andropov went to Moscow in 1951 and served as ambassador to Hungary from 1954 to 1957. Although he studied Hungarian and was relatively popular in local circles, Andropov firmly supported the Soviet crackdown on the reformist Hungarian Revolution of 1956. After the Soviet invasion of Hungary, Andropov’s reputation rose in his home country.

Andropov returned to Moscow in 1957 after being appointed to the Central Committee, the highest organ of the Communist Party. For the next ten years he oversaw Soviet relations with other Communist nations. In 1961 he was elected as a secretary of the Central Committee, where he served from 1962 to 1967.

From 1967 to 1982 Andropov was chairman of the KGB, the Soviet secret police. Under him the KGB became more efficient, increased its international espionage efforts, and stifled incipient liberal movements within the country.

After the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, Andropov succeeded him as general secretary of the Communist Party, and in 1983 became chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (a post equivalent to head of state) and head of the Defence Council. His term was noted for efforts to clean up corruption within the government, increase adherence to the party’s ideals throughout the country, and improve work standards. Perhaps one of his most important decisions was to make Mikhail Gorbachev his second–in-command. (Gorbachev became general secretary of the party, and thus Soviet leader, in 1985.) Andropov also undertook efforts to improve the Soviet economy and expand détente (a relaxation of international tensions) before succumbing to ill health at the beginning of 1983. He died from kidney failure a year later. Andropov was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko, a Brezhnev loyalist.