Yuri Vladimirovich
Andropov
1914-1984
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a soviet statesman and politician, head of the USSR in 1982-1984. He was a general Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1982-1984), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1983-1984), the Hero of Socialist Labour. He was born on June 2 (15), 1914 at the Nagutskaya station of the Alexandrovsk county (uyezd) of the Stavropol governorate, the Russian Empire (now it is the village of Soluno-Dmitrievskoe, Andropovsky district, Stavropol Territory (Krai), Russian Federation) in the family of a railway worker. He finished seven grades of school in the city of Mozdok in the North Caucasian Territory (Krai) (now North Ossetia). In April 1932 he moved to the city of Rybinsk, the Ivanovo Industrial (since 1936 – Yaroslavl) region and entered the technical school of water transport (ship faculty). He worked as a sailor on various ships in the Volga Shipping Company. In 1936 he graduated from the technical school and received the qualification of «navigator of the 1st category of the river and lake merchant fleet of the USSR for coastal operational work». Since that year he started to do Komsomol work– he was the released secretary of the Komsomol organization of this educational institution, then the Komsomol organizer of the Rybinsk shipyard named after L.V. Volodarsky, the head of the department of pioneers in the Rybinsk City Committee of the Komsomol. In August 1937 he was appointed as the head of the Student Youth Department, and two months later he was elected as the secretary of the Yaroslavl Regional Komsomol Committee. Since 1938 he was the First secretary of the Komsomol regional committee. In 1940 he was sent to the city of Petrozavodsk, where he was elected as the first secretary of the LYCL Central Committee of the newly formed Karelo-Finnish SSR. Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he participated in the organization of the partisan movement in Karelia, while continuing to lead the Komsomol organization in the unoccupied part of the Republic. After the liberation of Karelia from the Finns in 1944, he switched to party work. Since 1947 he was the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP(b) of Karelia. In 1946-1951 he studied by correspondence at the Faculty of History and Philology of Karelo-Finnish State University, in 1947 he also graduated by correspondence from the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the VKP(b). Since 1951 he worked in the Central Committee of the VKP(b) in Moscow. From June 1951 to March 1953 he was an Inspector of the Central Committee of the VKP(b), in 1953 he was a head of the sub-department of the Central Committee of the VKP(b). On May 15, 1953, by a resolution of the Central Committee of the VKP(b), it was sent to the disposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the USSR for use in leading diplomatic work. In June 1953 he was approved by the head of the 4th European Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the assignment of the diplomatic rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the 2nd class (the department was in charge of relations with the countries of people’s democracy in Europe, as well as Yugoslavia and Greece). From October 1953 to July 14, 1954 he was a Counselor of the Embassy. From July 14, 1954 to March 7, 1957 he was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the Hungarian People’s Republic. He played one of the key roles during the suppression of the Hungarian Uprising in October – November 1956. From March 1957 to May 1967 he was the Head of the Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU for Relations with Communist and Workers’ Parties of socialist countries. Simultaneously from November 23, 1962 to June 21, 1967 he was the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. From May 18, 1967 to May 26, 1982 he was the Chairman of the State Security Committee (KGB) under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (since 1978 – KGB of the USSR). By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 14, 1974, for his great services to the Communist Party and the Soviet State and in connection with the sixtieth anniversary of his birth, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was awarded the title of the Hero of Socialist Labour with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal. From May 24 to November 12, 1982 he was the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. After the death of Leonid Brezhnev, at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee on November 12, 1982, Andropov was elected as the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Since June 1983, he simultaneously held the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. After becoming the Secretary General, Andropov began to reduce his staff, as well as the fight against embezzlement and bribery among high-ranking officials.
Address: Moscow, Bolshaya Lubyanka str., 2
