Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (1914-1984)

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1982-84); Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1983-84). Born on June 15, 1914, in Nagutskaya in Stavropol border area, to a Russian railway staff family. He graduated from Water Transport Technical School in 1936, and then served as a member of the Communist Youth League organization in Rybinsk shipyard. In 1937, he was Secretary of the Yaroslavl State Committee of the Communist Youth League. In 1938, he was elected First Secretary of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee of the Communist Youth League. During this period, he studied at Petrozavodsk University and the central senior Party School of the Communist Party (Bolshevik). He joined the Communist Party in 1939. From 1940 to 1944, he was the first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of Karelia Finland. From 1944 to 1947, he was the Second Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Karelia–Petrozavodsk of the Finnish Communist Party, and from 1947 to 1951, he was the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Karelo- Finnish Communist Party. From 1950 to 1954, he served as the third Supreme Soviet representative of the Soviet Union. From 1951 to 1953, he was appointed an inspector and then the head of a sub-department of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee. From 1953 to 1957, he successively served as Counselor and then Soviet Ambassador to Hungary and participated in the handling of Hungarian events.

In May 1957, he served as the head of the Department for Liaison with Communist and Workers’ Parties in Socialist Countries. In 1961, he was elected full member of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee. In the years between 1962-67 he served as a member of the Secretariat of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee. From 1967 to 1982, he served as the Chairman of the National Security Council for 15 years. In 1967, he was also promoted a Candidate Member of the Political Bureau of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee. He became a full member in 1973. He was promoted to the rank of general in 1976. In May 1982, he was elected Secretary of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee. In November of the same year, he was elected General Secretary of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee and Chairman of the Soviet National Defense Council. In June 1983, he was elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

Andropov received many awards, including four Lenin medals, the title of “Hero of Socialist Labor”, “Order of the Red Banner of Labor”, “Order of the October Revolution”, “Order of the Red Banner” and others.

When Andropov was the leader of the C.P.S.U., he put forward new ideas and new practices on building socialism in the Soviet Union: revised Brezhnev’s theory of “developed socialism”, put forward the new thought of “starting point of developed socialism”, reevaluated concrete development stage of socialism in the Soviet Union; emphasized the importance of studying the contradictions in the socialist society, as well as correctly handling the contradictions in the socialist society, and regarded these contradictions as the driving force and source of developing and improving socialism; doubting that the socialist state-owned system was imperfect, and that it needed a process of improvement Andropov examined the question of reforming the traditional socialist ownership structure. He also opposed a biased “idolization” of the political system in the Soviet Union, recognized the lack of democracy in the political system, and “declared war” against the practice of making people’s democracy a mere formality and advocated vigorous development of socialist people’s autonomy. As for the relationship between different socialist countries and the transition from development stage to socialism, he proposed that due to the different specific conditions and starting points of each country, the paths and ways of building socialism in each country cannot be “uniform”, but could be diverse; each country should employ “its own unique creativity” and should not “imitate” others. Compared with Brezhnev’s view that all countries must follow the so-called “common law of socialist development” and that the member countries of the socialist camp should have “limited sovereignty”, these new views of Andropov constituted a significant change.

In practice, Andropov promoted reform in response to the situation of overstaffed institutions, aging personnel, chaotic social order and stagnant economic development during Brezhnev’s period. The main measures are: to improve the legal system, strengthen labor discipline, provide incentives and penalties; to strengthen ideological and political work and publicity; to seriously investigate and deal with the disciplinary violations and bureaucratic style of Party and government cadres; to promote the agricultural collective and family contract system, to promote and improve the contract operation team in the industry and construction industry, to further expand the autonomy of state-owned and collective enterprises, and to adopt economic leverage to mobilize the enthusiasm of enterprises and workers, and so on. Due to health reasons, he only had one year and three months. Some reform measures were not implemented. In terms of foreign policy, he continued to implement the basic policies adopted by Brezhnev, but he was more cautious and restrained, and did not take the initiative to stir up trouble. In terms of Sino-Soviet relations, his policy advocated “improving Sino-Soviet relations” and “restoring friendship between the two peoples”, but there were no substantive measures.

Andropov died of kidney disease in Moscow on February 9, 1984.