Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich became the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPSU 11/12/1982, soon also centralizing the executive branch. He acted with captivating simplicity, pushed aside K. U. Chernenko and took the post of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, leaning on the support of the Army and the KGB. Neither L. I. Brezhnev nor N. S. Khrushchev had such power.
By that time he was a dock in the system of power in the state. This was an age politician: he received the highest official powers at the age of 69. For comparison: I. V. Stalin was 42 years old, N. S. Khrushchev - 59, L. I. Brezhnev - 57. As you can see, all previous general secretaries of the USSR took power into their own hands, being much younger. What is this talking about? Perhaps the fact that this man has gone too far towards his goal. Therefore, when the time came, he took power just like taking an apple. After all, the fact of its dominant influence on the highest state and party structures was not disputed by anyone. Unlike previous leaders, no one put forward Andropov, he did it himself.
Real biography of childhood and youth
It is hard to write about the life of a person who has two biographies - official and real. In the life of Yuri Vladimirovich the number 15 mystically repeats: in the date of birth - June 15, 1915; on the invented date of birth - June 15, 1914; For 15 years he led the KGB, having created 15 departments there and finally - 15 months ruled the country. Obviously, all the general secretaries of the USSR have their secrets, however, according to historians, Yuri Andropov has more of them than the rest. Therefore, we arm ourselves with research (S. Chertoprud, “Yu. Andropov: the secrets of the KGB chairman”) and try to understand something from the life of a man whom (through the eyes, of course) KGB colleagues called “chairman” and “jeweler”.
Let's start with a real biography. The journalist Mark Steinberg was the first to “unearth” the Jewish origin of the Secretary General. The biological father's name was Velv Lieberman, and his mother's name was Gena Fleckenstein. The future politician was born in a four-story Moscow mansion, and today towering at number 26 on the street. Big Lubyanka. The grandfather, engaged in jewelry, was called Karl Frantsevich Fleckenstein. Grigory Velvovich Lieberman was born in his house (later - Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich). Mom until 1913 taught music in the elite Mizbach Gymnasium for women. Then, in 1917, mother and son suddenly find themselves in a new place - Nagutskaya station in the Stavropol Territory. What is the reason for this? Jewish pogroms in the capital. In 1915, the pogrom started by the workers of the factories of Zindel and Schrader, claimed the life of his grandfather.
Moreover, the mother (the son is still a little) upon arrival at a new place of residence completely changes her biography. Here she marries Vladimir Andropov, a railway worker. Two years later, the husband dies with typhus. In the same year, Evgeny Andropov married another railwayman - Viktor Alexandrovich Fedorov.
At the end of the seven-year plan of the future, the politician was called by the names of stepfathers Grigory Vladimirovich Andropov-Fedorov. How the name Gregory turned into Yuri, and the second component of the surname disappeared, remains a mystery.
Legend
18-year-old projectionist from Mozdok Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich writes his biography, the legend of the Stavropol proletariat for admission to the Rybinsk River College. By that time, his mother had died (or maybe not, because Yuri leaves conflicting dates in different documents: 1929, 1930, 1931). He adapts biographical data to the "proletarian environment", leaving nothing behind his "bourgeois roots." In his presentation, he was born on June 15, 1914 in the Stavropol Territory, his mother is a foundling, raised in the family of a watchmaker (changed the profession of his grandfather) Flekenshtein, and his father is Vladimir Andropov (again a problem, mother could not teach music at the same time in 1914-1916 years in Moscow, and give birth and raise a son in the Stavropol Territory).
Studying at a technical school
After graduating from college in 1936, he remains in it to work as the freed secretary of the Komsomol. There was no desire to sail as a sailor. Note that secondary specialized education was actually the only one for the future party functionary. The episode of training at Petrozavodsk University cannot be called a serious study. The higher party school, which all the general secretaries of the USSR graduated as party functionaries, gave only a “crust”. In addition, this school traditionally ended in absentia and without exams.
The young man further built his career as a Komsomol leader. Soon, in 1937, he was transferred by the Komsomol to the Rybinsk shipyard, then to the Yaroslavl regional committee of the Komsomol.
Party Komsomol work
What does 1937 mean in the life of our country? It developed rapidly, overtaking Great Britain and France in the production of cast iron, steel, and electricity; 4,500 industrial enterprises were built. Over five years, industrial production grew 2.2 times.
However, against the background of this, a wave of political purges was carried out in all layers of Soviet society: from peasants to the party nomenclature. Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich excitedly embarked on a "new business", the spirit of the times and succeeded in it. According to the testimony of writer Sergei Viktorovich Chertoprud, who worked with archival documents, the young man soon "managed to discover" that all members of the regional committee bureau (except the first secretary) were enemies. They were planted. Why do you think so? However, the first secretary "got" even cooler - he was shot.
How did the career of the Komsomol member Yuri develop at that time? Like a yeast:
- 05.1937 - candidate of the CPSU (b);
- 09.1937 - the head. Department of Pioneer and Student Youth of the Rybinsk City Committee of the Komsomol;
- 10.1937 - transferred to the Yaroslavl regional committee;
- 11.1937 - acting III Secretary of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee;
- 12.1938 - I-th Secretary of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee; note that a person who has no party experience was appointed (obviously, other merits were supposed);
- 02.1939 - admitted to the party.
First marriage
"Burning to the ground" at the Komsomol work, Yuri Andropov marries a graduate of the Rybinsk technical school Engalycheva Nina Ivanovna. She is from a wealthy family of employees, her father is the director of a branch of the state bank. The young have two children: in 1937, the daughter of Valery, and in 1939 - the son of Volodya. The wife is studying in Leningrad as an investigator and refuses to go with her husband to Karelia, where he is sent for Komsomol work. The family is breaking up.
Karelian stage
In 1940, a young energetic worker was sent to the Karelian-Finnish SSR formed in the same year to the post of I Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee. In the same 1940, he divorced Engalycheva and married Tatyana Filippovna Lebedeva. He loved this woman.
Tatyana Filippovna subsequently, while staying with her husband-ambassador in Hungary during the rebellion, received a severe mental trauma - fear of crowding and open spaces, she was constantly in the apartment on Kutuzovsky Prospekt.
According to the official version, Yuri Andropov led the partisans of Karelia, for which in 1944 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Whether this fact corresponded to the truth is not known, because we are dealing with a talented hoaxer.
Therefore, we will trust the documents. Moreover, there is a clue: Yuri Vladimirovich did not have a medal “For Victory in the Great Patriotic War” or a medal “For the Liberation of Karelia”, for which award sheets were made by direct commanders at the front.
It is no secret that in Karelia, the first secretary of the Karelian regional party committee G. N. Kupriyanov did not agree with Andropov, the I-th secretary of the Karelian Komsomol. In his memoirs, he accuses Yuri Vladimirovich of cowardice, "selfishness." According to him, the Komsomol leader skillfully sent and recruited people into partisans, but he himself was personally afraid of the hostilities (I. A. Minutko “Yuri Andropov ...”). Here is such a "heroism."
In addition, subsequently he managed to bring under arrest both Kupriyanov himself and a number of underground members who honestly worked behind enemy lines, the vengeful "Komsomolets" Andropov. The biography of a man who worked for 10 years as a deputy of Leningrad Kupriyanov and accused his boss of a non-existent crime was marked by another leap in service. Inherent in his instinct, he felt the situation: Malenkov and Beria were just removing managers who could compete with them for the struggle for power in the Leningrad region.
Should I mention that Yuri Vladimirovich took the post of the arrested I-th secretary of the regional committee? Gennady Kupriyanov served 10 years, and then, having left, addressed both N. S. Khrushchev and L. I. Brezhnev, testifying to the role of Andropov in his destiny. He was restored to the general rank, but Andropov was not touched.
Diplomatic work
The death of Stalin and Beria, his patrons, probably seemed to him the end of the world and force majeure, Andropov did not expect such events. His biography was not impeccable; the functionary was threatened with proceedings for his Karelian and Yaroslavl affairs. However, help did come - in the person of Otto Kuusinen, chairman of the Communist Party of the Karelian-Finnish SSR. He recommended Andropov to the Foreign Ministry - for diplomatic work in Hungary.
Upon arrival, the newly-made Goodwill Ambassador discovered that in the fall of 1956 a powerful national liberation movement began in this country, which grew into an uprising. Willingly took on a key mission in suppressing this movement, diplomat Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich. His biography was marked by new Jesuits. In particular, he managed to deceive the government of Imre Nagy by convincing him that the USSR was interested in democratic Hungary. Thus, the insidious negotiator diverted attention from the actual invasion of the Soviet troops and the bringing to power of the government of Janos Kador. And when Imre Nagy hid from the Soviet troops in the Yugoslav embassy, Andropov “by acquaintance” promised him help in leaving the country, and then surrendered in cold blood for execution. He also surrendered to the Hungarian military, located at the military base of the USSR, inviting them to leave the territory and giving them an “honest noble word” that they would not be touched. Similarly, smiling, he betrayed the reprisal of one of the organizers of the uprising, police chief Sandor Kopachi.
After the operation in Hungary ended, Andropov remained in that country for another year as the Soviet governor, leading the final sweep of the rebels.
Hungary still remembers the "bloody diplomat."
CPSU Central Committee
After Hungary, from March 1957, by the will of N. S. Khrushchev, the new head of the department, Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich, began working in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. His biography again connected him with the supreme power, giving him indulgence for his previous cooperation with Beria. Four years later, in 1961, he became a member of the Central Committee. The energetic party man adjoins the promising party wing of L.I. Brezhnev and takes part in the dismissal of General Secretary Khrushchev in 1964. In gratitude for the service, Leonid Ilyich appoints him the head of the KGB.
Let us dwell for a moment in the character of the new KGB chief. Andropov loved to show his power. Let us give an example: Yury Vladimirovich expresses his concern with the increasing memorandum of letters from the Central Committee on the Central Committee dated December 25, 1970 to N. S. Khrushchev, and also suggests limiting this flow. Why is he doing this? Answer: The former General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Khrushchev, when considering personnel decisions, once did not nominate Andropov, explaining the decision by the lack of recent experience in organizing economic or administrative work.
KGB
The 15 years during which Andropov led the State Security Committee are worth telling about them. Let us build our reasoning on the evidence of eyewitnesses. Politburo member Vadim Andreevich Medvedev recalls that at the meetings Andropov to please Leonid Ilyich prevented those present from expressing their point of view. The Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPSU, L. I. Brezhnev, in many matters relied entirely on his gray cardinal, the KGB chief.
Under the leadership of this department, Andropov’s struggle against “anti-Soviet elements” intensified significantly. The functionary deftly argued that the bloated KGB apparatus is a trend of the times. 15 departments of this department in all possible directions influenced people and public opinion (any institutions were obliged to assist them).
Andropov's know-how was applied - treatment in a psychiatric hospital. Of honest, thinking, principled opponents, executioners made “vegetables”. And it was put on the conveyor. Progressive art was subjected to severe pressure: Lenkom, Taganka Theater, the magazines "New World", "Youth". An absurd struggle was sometimes waged against dissidents, acquiring manic forms. According to the testimony of V.V. Fedorov, who held high ranks in the KGB, Andropov personally informed the republics of plans for how many dissidents should be arrested.
Tough and hidden for citizens and the state, the vertical of secret power was built by Andropov. The KGB, for example, in 1976 carried out preventive work with 68 thousand citizens. This refers to moral pressure and intimidation by imprisonment. 851 political prisoners were in prison, 261 of them because of anti-Soviet agitation.
Under Yuri Vladimirovich, special units were created to combat terrorism within the country: Alpha and abroad - Pennant. The training of the Vympel residents was impressive; for “working with people,” these generalists even knew how to use astrology.
What did Andropov really serve?
Having familiarized himself with the entire previous biography of this member of the CPSU Central Committee, it is naive to believe that Yuri Vladimirovich would suddenly stop in his career, would cease to push everyone apart in his path, especially since such a powerful tool of power as the KGB, unquestioningly obeying his orders, was nurtured by his efforts. He fully trusted and indulged Brezhnev. Andropov used this.
Since 1979, he began to push his patron to disastrous decisions. In particular, the idea of a scam with the introduction of troops into Afghanistan was planted precisely by the KGB chief. At the December meeting of the Politburo, he raised an obvious misinformation about the emerging Islamic caliphate with its capital in Turkey. In addition, the KGB chief saw the prospect of America deploying medium-range missiles in Afghanistan. Which, of course, the United States could not even imagine. After all, the risk of deploying nuclear weapons in an unstable country was more than high. It was this hysterical appearance that led to the entry of our troops into Afghanistan, 14,000 casualties and a 10-year stupid war. Did Andropov want to take the place of “beloved Leonid Ilyich”? Photos of his times of the 80s, if you know the physiognomy, testify to this. His gaze is not the gaze of his subordinate.
Politburo death conveyor
A difficult question arises about the rather alarming tendency of deaths of members of the Politburo that developed in the 80s. This question, of course, is a mystery behind seven seals. However, the abnormality of such a phenomenon as the stream of deaths in the 80s of the members of the Politburo is certainly alarming.
Was this the secret policy of Andropov? We will not draw conclusions, but consider the facts.
04/26/1976 died a member of the Central Committee, Minister of Defense of the Central Committee Andrei Grechko. Seventy years old, he was in good shape for his age: he loved jogging, tennis, led an active lifestyle, and devoted a lot of time to CSKA. Colonel General Varennikov openly expressed his disbelief in the naturalness of the death of this strong old man not complaining about his health: in his house, in an armchair, with a book in his hands. It is characteristic that A. Grechko, like M. Suslov, who died later, M. A., represented the old guard of the Politburo, which did not recognize Andropov’s ambitions.
On July 17, 1978, the sixty-year-old Fedor Davydovich Kulakov, a real contender for the post of Secretary General of the CPSU, was suddenly killed. A powerful man died suddenly, "from acute heart failure." And a couple of hours before that he was seen in good health. In his posthumous diagnosis, Academician Chazov was unconvincing. In addition, the deceased was unusually quickly cremated.
Needless to say, for some reason, it was precisely politicians, rivals or opponents of Andropov, who died with surprising stability, “by chance". If the version is correct, then even during the life of Brezhnev, the 80s are actually the years of Andropov’s rule, however, by the methods of the gray cardinal.
10/04/1980 the most important contender for Brezhnev’s father, Pyotr Mironovich Masherov, perishes. He dies in a car accident near the village of Smolevichi. Circumstances of death: Olympic road, as if by needle, perfectly visible, experienced personal driver. Whether there was a collision with a state-owned dump truck in general remains a mystery. Arriving, the police found that the collective farmer Pustovit Nikolai Mitrofanovich for some reason (which is not typical for such accidents) was completely burned, but miraculously survived. Three months later, the collective farmer is planted for 15 years, and ... he disappears.
01/19/1982 the first deputy KGB chief Andropov “shot himself” - General Semyon Tsvigun, curator of the 3rd and 5th directorates, Brezhnev’s man, assigned by Leonid Ilyich to oversee Andropov.
01/25/1982 Mikhail Andreevich Suslov illogically dies. Although it was the core, but the circumstances are still atypical of death. With stable good health, Mikhail Andreevich went to a special hospital for an annual medical examination. And then suddenly - an extensive stroke and death.
Foreign and domestic policy of Andropov
Having become at the helm of the state, Yuri Vladimirovich began to implement his political views, naturally, without publicizing them. As a shrewd person, he was aware of the crisis situation in the USSR economy, threatening to become a landslide.
His main idea was to gradually isolate the Communist Party from real power. The authorities, according to Andropov, should be taken by security officials who pragmatically control well-thought-out state investments in the economy. In addition, a certain niche in the national economy was assigned to private property.
They say that the PRC subsequently used the Andropov plan. This gave experts grounds to argue that thanks to this project, the USSR could have been preserved.
Unfortunately, these were only Andropov's declared reforms. They were not destined to come true. In fact, the fifth general secretary personally ruled the country for only 5 months, and the last ten were tied to inpatient treatment. What did Andropov manage to do? That he knew how. And he knew how to commit repression and create an atmosphere of fear. Immediately, he began to fight corruption. A high-profile “cotton case” was opened. An old opponent of Yuri Vladimirovich, chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nikolai Shchelokov, was ousted from power (he shot himself, foreseeing a subsequent arrest). Broad repressions against the population were sanctioned: police officers raided shops, cinemas during working hours, and took violators of labor discipline in pencil. Further, the leadership of the “notebook truants”, according to a letter from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was obliged to either dismiss or punish.
Secretary General Andropov showed incomprehensible cruelty a la Beria. Galina Brezhneva and Yuri Churbanov were arrested, and the directors of the Yeliseyevsky deli, Yu. Sokolov, were blamed for all the sins of Soviet trade and were "instructively" shot.
In addition, Yuri Vladimirovich caught up with fear on the ground, replacing the thirty-seven first secretaries of the regional committees and eighteen ministers.
Actually, the years of Andropov’s reign were actually limited to superficial repressive measures that did not lead to the revival of the crisis-hit economy. For comparison: at the same time, Turkey managed to lay the foundations of the resort industry. At the checkpoints, inspectors appeared, the legality of loading and unloading was checked.
Economic innovations, perhaps, limited themselves to the fact that on the shelves appeared cheaper than other types (4 rubles. 70 kopecks) vodka, nicknamed the people andropovka.
In foreign policy, Andropov did two fundamental things: the process of normalizing relations with the PRC began, and negotiations on medium-range missiles with the United States were disrupted.
Accents in Terror of Andropov
Was Andropov's terror uncompromising? Perhaps not. The all-powerful KGB chief even managed to pursue his policy in this area. Andropov’s subordinate, the next KGB chief V.V. Fedorov, is no stranger to defining undercover intrigues, and speaks of the asymmetric use of punitive function by Andropov. According to him, writers-statists were sent to prisons. Liberals, for example, Brodsky, Bukovsky, Aksenov, Solzhenitsyn, Andropov took care of. Is expulsion abroad a punishment? Yuri Vladimirovich also favored and promoted such cultural figures as Yevtushenko, Lyubimov and Vysotsky.
And with Solzhenitsyn’s novel “The Gulag Archipelago” - a generally muddy story. Where did the rural teacher get access to top-secret archives?
What was the purpose of this? Obviously - creating the image of a liberal politician.
Death and funeral
The year before the death, in February 1983, the fifth general secretary's kidneys failed. Then he was saved by hemodialysis. Health returned to normal. But on vacation in Crimea, Andropov caught a cold, after which he was forced to live in the Kuntsevo hospital.
02/09/1984 Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov died. Official diagnosis: kidney failure. Andropov’s funeral was marked by a short speech by his successor, K. Chernenko. Having uttered the words, he asked others: “Will we take off our hats?” - then he answered himself: "No, it's cold."
Conclusion
Andropov’s cool-blooded consecutive party functionary, acting all his life, proceeding from expediency, had a clear dominant in politics. He strove for a liberal state with elements of private property. The greatest power in the "country of Andropov" was granted to law enforcement agencies. At the same time, his illegibility in the methods of achieving the goal, his wolfish grip, his tendency to destroy competitors is striking.