Yuri Andropov

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (1914-1984) was Director of the KGB from 1967 to 1982, and in 1982 was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), succeeding Leonid Brezhnev. Despite his hard-line past, which included a leading role in the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 (he was Soviet Ambassador to Hungary at the time) and in the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, and the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Andropov was perceived in the West as a moderniser, and an opponent of the stagnation and corruption which was one of many factors impeding the Soviet economy. Apparently vigorous when he assumed supreme office, it was a surprise when his health rapidly declined. Following renal failure, he died on 9 February 1984 and was succeeded by the geriatric Konstantin Chernenko.