View source for Yuri Andropov

{{short description|Leader of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1984}}
{{redirect|Andropov|the city|Rybinsk}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Yuri Andropov
| native_name         = {{nobold|Юрий Андропов}}
| native_name_lang    = ru
| image               = Yuri Andropov (cropped).jpg
| image_size          = 
| caption             = Andropov in 1982
| office              = [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start          = 12 November 1982
| term_end            = 9 February 1984
| predecessor         = [[Leonid Brezhnev]]
| successor           = [[Konstantin Chernenko]]
| premier1            = [[Nikolai Tikhonov]]
| office2             = [[List of heads of state of the Soviet Union|Chairman of the Presidium of the<br /> Supreme Soviet]]
| term_start2         = 16 June 1983
| term_end2           = 9 February 1984
| predecessor2        = Vasily Kuznetsov (acting)
| successor2          = Vasily Kuznetsov (acting)
| office3             = 4th [[List of Chairmen of the KGB|Chairman of the KGB]]
| term_start3         = 18 May 1967
| term_end3           = 26 May 1982
| premier3            = {{plainlist|
*[[Alexei Kosygin]]
*[[Nikolai Tikhonov]]}}
| predecessor3        = [[Vladimir Semichastny]]
| successor3          = [[Vitaly Fedorchuk]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1914|06|15|df=yes}}
| birth_place         = Stanitsa [[Nagutskaya]], Stavropol Governorate, Russian Empire
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1984|02|09|1914|06|15|df=yes}}
| death_place         = Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
| death_cause         = [[Kidney failure]]
| resting_place       = [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]]
| party               = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] (1939–1984)
| allegiance          = {{flag|Soviet Union}}
| branch              = [[Soviet Armed Forces]]<br />[[Soviet partisans]] <br />[[KGB]]
| serviceyears        = 1939–1984
| rank                = [[Army General (Soviet rank)|Army General]]
| spouse              = {{plainlist|
*Nina Ivanovna ({{abbr|div.|divorced}} 1941)
*[[Tatyana Andropova|Tatyana Filippovna]] ({{abbr|m.|married}} 1941)}}
| profession          = 
| residence           = [[Kutuzovsky Prospekt]]
| signature           = Yuri Andropov Signature.svg
| footnotes           = {{collapsible list
|titlestyle= background-color:#FCF;text-align:center;
|title=Central institution membership
|bullets=on
| 1973–1984: Full, [[24th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|24th]], [[25th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|25th]], [[26th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|26th]] Politburo
| 1967–1973: Candidate, [[23rd Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|23rd]], [[24th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|24th]] Politburo
| 1962–1967 & 1982–1984: Member, [[22nd Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|22nd]], [[23rd Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|23rd]], [[26th Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|26th]] Secretariat
| 1961–1984: Full member, [[22nd Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|22nd]], [[23rd Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|23rd]], [[24th Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|24th]], [[25th Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|25th]], [[26th Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|26th]] Central Committee
}}
----
{{Collapsible list
|titlestyle= background-color:#FCF;text-align:center;
|title=Other political offices held
|bullets=on
| 1957–1967: Head, [[Department for Relations with the Communist and Workers' Parties of the Socialist Countries of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Department for Relations with the Communist and Workers' Parties of the Socialist Countries]]
| 1954–1957: Ambassador, Hungary
}}
{{center|'''[[Leader of the Soviet Union]]'''<br />
{{flatlist|
* {{big|'''←'''}} [[Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev]]
* [[Konstantin Chernenko|Chernenko]] {{big|'''→'''}}
}}}}
| battles             = [[World War II]]<br />[[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Revolution]]<br />
[[Soviet–Afghan War]]
| deputy2             = [[Vasily Kuznetsov (politician)|Vasily Kuznetsov]]
}}

'''Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov'''{{Family name footnote|Vladimirovich|Andropov|lang=Eastern Slavic}}{{efn|1={{IPAc-en|æ|n|ˈ|d|r|oʊ|p|ɔː|f|,_|-|p|ɒ|f}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/andropov "Andropov"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{lang-rus|links=no|Юрий Владимирович Андропов|r=Yuriy Vladimirovich Andropov|p=ˈjʉrʲɪj vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ɐnˈdropəf}}}} ({{OldStyleDate|15&nbsp;June|1914|2 June}} – 9 February 1984)<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXz2okCSfq8C&dq=Yuri+Vladimirovich+Andropov+9+february&pg=PA17|title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture|date=28 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136787850 |via=Google Books}}</ref> was a Soviet politician who served as the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the [[List of Chairmen of the KGB|Chairman of the KGB]] from 1967 until 1982.

Earlier in his career, Andropov served as the [[List of ambassadors of Russia to Hungary|Soviet ambassador to Hungary]] from 1954 to 1957. During this period, he took part in the suppression of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|1956 Hungarian Uprising]]. Later under the leadership of [[Leonid Brezhnev]], he was appointed chairman of the KGB on 10 May 1967. As Brezhnev's health deteriorated from the mid-1970s onward, Andropov began to increasingly dictate Soviet policy alongside Foreign Minister [[Andrei Gromyko]] and Defense Minister [[Dmitry Ustinov]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Haslam |first=Jonathan |date=2011 |title=Russia's Cold War: From the October Revolution to the Fall of the Wall |url= |location= |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=299-300 |isbn=978-0-300-15997-4 |access-date= |quote=“Brezhnev’s sickness created a further problem….He collapsed in mid-August 1968, the eve of the invasion of Czechoslovakia. A further seizure occurred—which proved a turning point—immediately after the negotiations at Okeanskaya, Vladivostok, 23–24 November 1974. Brezhnev was then said to be working only a three-day week….Thereafter Brezhnev’s capacity to concentrate diminished with progressive arteriosclerosis leading to onset of senile dementia, doubtless hastened by beta-blockers taken to lower blood pressure for relief of the heart. Growing dependence on sleeping pills made matters worse…Although decisions still required Brezhnev’s assent, the substance of power tacitly passed to a troika: Andropov, Gromyko, and Ustinov, who met in the orekhovaya room (paneled in walnut) where the entire Politburo foregathered on Thursdays.”}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Figes |first=Orlando |date=2014 |title=Revolutionary Russia 1891-1991: A History |url= |location= |publisher=Henry Holt & Company |page=266 |isbn=978-0-8050-9131-1 |access-date= |quote="As Brezhnev's health deteriorated following a major stroke in 1975, real power passed into the hands of Yuri Andropov, Gromyko and Dmitry Ustinov, the new hawkish Defence Minister, who pushed for an even bolder policy abroad."}}</ref><ref>Dmitriĭ Volkogonov,'' Autopsy for an Empire: The Seven Leaders who Built the Soviet Regime'' (1998) pp. 297–298.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McCauley |first=Martin |date= |title=The Cold War 1949-2016 |url= |location= |publisher=Routledge |page=189 |isbn=9781138999015 |access-date= |quote=Brezhnev's health was a cause of concern, and there were many cruel Soviet jokes about his incompetence. By the mid-1970s, he was only able to work for short periods, and a troika took over: Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB; Andrei Gromyko, foreign minister; and Marshal Dmitry Ustinov, the minister of defence.}}</ref>

Upon Brezhnev's death on 10 November 1982, Andropov succeeded him as General Secretary and, by extension, as the [[leader of the Soviet Union]]. Subsequently, he sought to implement reforms to eliminate corruption and economic inefficiency in the country by criminalizing truancy in the workplace and investigating longtime officials for violations of party discipline. Under Andropov's leadership, [[Cold War (1979–1985)#1983: The year of crisis|the Cold War intensified]] while the regime struggled to handle the growing crisis in the Soviet economy. His major long{{nbh}}term impact was bringing to the fore a new generation of young reformers as energetic as himself, including [[Yegor Ligachyov]], [[Nikolai Ryzhkov]], and, most importantly, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].<ref>Mauricio Borrero, "Andropov, Yuri Vladimirovich 1914–1984." ''Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators'' (2006), pp. 7–10.</ref> 

Upon suffering [[kidney failure]] in February 1983, Andropov's health began to deteriorate rapidly. He died aged 69 on 9 February 1984, having led the country for about 15 months.

==Early life==
There has been much contention over Andropov's family background.<ref name="Aktürk2012">{{cite book|last=Aktürk|first=Şener|title=Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAUhAwAAQBAJ|date=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-85169-5}}</ref> According to the official biography, Andropov was born in [[Stanitsa]] Nagutskaya (modern-day [[Stavropol Krai]], Russia) on 15 June 1914.<ref name=jessup>{{cite book|last=Jessup|first=John E.|title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945–1996|year=1998|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|page=25|isbn=978-0-3132-8112-9}}</ref> His father, Vladimir Konstantinovich Andropov, was a railway worker of [[Don Cossack]] descent who died of typhus in 1919. His mother, Yevgenia Karlovna Fleckenstein (none of the official sources mention her name), was a school teacher who died in 1931.<ref name="Century Communism 2010">A Dictionary of 20th Century Communism. Edited by Silvio Pons and Robert Service. Princeton University Press. 2010.</ref><ref name='mlech'>[[Leonid Mlechin]]. ''[https://www.sovsekretno.ru/articles/id/1920 Yuri's childhood and other mysteries from the life of the Chairman]'' article from the Sovershenno Sekretno newspaper № 5, 2008 (in Russian)</ref> She was born in the [[Ryazan Governorate]] into a family of town dwellers and was abandoned on the doorstep of Jewish watchmaker and [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Finnish citizen]] Karl Franzevich Fleckenstein, who lived in Moscow. He and his wife, Eudoxia Mikhailovna Fleckenstein, adopted and raised her.<ref name=itogi>{{cite journal|author=Denis Babichenko|script-title=ru:Легендарная личность|trans-title=Legendary Personality|journal=Itogi|date=3 October 2005|issue=40|language=ru|pages=30–34|url=http://www.itogi.ru/Paper2005.nsf/Article/Itogi_2005_10_01_23_1219.html|access-date=3 July 2008|archive-date=22 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022183431/http://www.itogi.ru/Paper2005.nsf/Article/Itogi_2005_10_01_23_1219.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="sovietlife">{{cite journal|year=1983|title=Biography of Yuri Andropov|journal=Soviet Life|issue=323|page=1B|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soviet_Life,_1983-08,_%E2%84%96_323.pdf}}</ref>

Andropov's earliest documented name was Grigory Vladimirovich Andropov-Fyodorov which he changed to Yuri Andropov several years later.<ref name='appoint'>''Alexander Ostrovsky (2010)''. Who Appointed Gorbachev? – Moscow: Algorithm, p. 187 {{ISBN|978-5-699-40627-2}}</ref> His original birth certificate disappeared, but it has been established that Andropov was born in Moscow, where his mother worked at a women's [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] from 1913 to 1917.<ref name=itogi/><ref name='appoint'/>

On various occasions, Andropov gave different death dates for his mother: 1927, 1929, 1930 and 1931.<ref name='mlech'/><ref name=itogi/> The story of her adoption was also likely a mystification. In 1937, Andropov was vetted when he applied for [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] membership, and it turned out that "the sister of his native maternal grandmother" (whom he called his aunt), who was living with him and who supported the legend of his [[Ryazan]] peasant origins, was in fact his nurse, who had been working for Fleckenstein long before Andropov was born.<ref name='mlech'/><ref name=itogi/>

It was also reported that Andropov's mother came from a line of [[social estates in the Russian Empire|merchants]]. Karl Fleckenstein was the rich proprietor of a jewellery business which was run by his wife after his death in 1915 when he was mistaken for a German during the infamous anti-German [[pogrom]] in Moscow and killed, although Andropov characterized the pogrom as [[Pogroms in the Russian Empire|anti-Jewish]].<ref name='appoint'/><ref>[http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/2923-na-1914-god-m-1914#mode/inspect/page/845/zoom/5 Page 1007] scan from the [[Vsya Moskva]] city directory, 1914 (in Russian)</ref> The whole family could have been turned into [[lishenets|lishentsy]] and stripped of basic rights had she not abandoned the store after another pogrom in 1917, invented a [[proletariat|proletarian]] background, and left Moscow for the [[Stavropol Governorate]] along with Andropov's mother.<ref name='mlech'/><ref name=itogi/>

Andropov gave different versions of his father's fate: in one, he divorced his mother soon after his birth; in another he died of illness.<ref name='appoint'/> The "father" in question, Vladimir Andropov, was in fact his stepfather, who lived and worked in Nagutskaya and died of typhus in 1919. The Fyodorov surname belonged to his second stepfather, Viktor Fyodorov, a machinist's assistant turned schoolteacher. Andropov's biological father is unknown; he probably died in 1916, a date in Andropov's 1932 résumé.<ref name=itogi/><ref name='appoint' /> During the 1937 vetting, it was reported that his father served as an officer in the [[Imperial Russian Army]]. Andropov joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] in 1939.<ref name='mlech' /><ref name=itogi />

==Early career in the Communist Party==
[[File:Андропов Юрий Владимирович, комсомольский билет.png|thumb|The [[Komsomol]] membership card issued to Yuri Andropov in 1939.]]
Andropov was educated at the [[Rybinsk]] Water Transport Technical College and graduated in 1936.<ref name=jessup/> As a teenager he worked as a loader, a telegraph clerk, and a sailor for the [[Volga]] steamship line.<ref name="sovietlife"/><ref name="Century Communism 2010"/> At 16, then a member of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (YCL, or [[Komsomol]]), Andropov was a worker in the town of [[Mozdok, Republic of North Ossetia–Alania|Mozdok]] in the [[North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|North Ossetian ASSR]].<ref name=jessup/>

Andropov became [[exempt secretary|full-time secretary]] of the YCL of the Rybinsk Water Transport Technical School and was soon promoted to organizer of the YCL Central Committee at the Volodarsky Shipyards in Rybinsk. In 1938, he was elected First Secretary of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee of the YCL and was First Secretary of the Central Committee of [[Leninist Communist Youth League of the Karelo-Finnish SSR|Komsomol in the Soviet Karelo-Finnish Republic]] from 1940 to 1944.<ref name="sovietlife"/>

According to his official biography, during [[World War II]] Andropov took part in [[Soviet partisans|partisan guerrilla]] activities in Finland although modern researchers have found no trace of his supposed squad.<ref name='appoint' /> From 1944 onward, he left Komsomol for Communist Party work. Between 1946 and 1951, he studied at the university of Petrozavodsk. In 1947, he was elected Second Secretary of the [[Central Committee]] of the [[Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR]].<ref name="sovietlife" /><ref>[http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/andropov.html БИОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ УКАЗАТЕЛЬ]</ref>

In 1951, Andropov was transferred to the [[CPSU Central Committee]]. He was appointed an inspector and then the head of a subdepartment of the committee.<ref name="sovietlife"/>

==Suppression of the Hungarian Uprising==
{{Main|Hungarian Revolution of 1956}}
[[File:Андропов Юрий Владимирович, партийный билет 1955.png|thumb|The Communist party Membership card issued to Yuri Andropov in 1955.]]
In July 1954, Andropov was appointed [[List of ambassadors of Russia to Hungary|Ambassador to Hungary]]. He held this position during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|1956 Hungarian Revolution]]. Andropov played a key role in crushing the uprising. He convinced Soviet First Secretary [[Nikita Khrushchev]] that military intervention was necessary.<ref name="Andrew" /> Andropov is known as "The Butcher of Budapest" for his ruthless suppression of the uprising.<ref>{{cite journal |date=27 June 2004 |title=He may be an economic liberal, but Putin is an Andropov at heart |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/he-may-be-an-economic-liberal-but-putin-is-an-andropov-at-heart-1-1395380 |journal=[[The Scotsman]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406123129/http://www.scotsman.com/news/he-may-be-an-economic-liberal-but-putin-is-an-andropov-at-heart-1-1395380 |archive-date=6 April 2016 }}</ref> Hungarian leaders were arrested and [[Imre Nagy]] and others executed.

After these events, Andropov suffered from a "Hungarian complex", according to historian [[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]]: "He had watched in horror from the windows of his embassy as officers of the hated Hungarian security service [the ''[[Államvédelmi Hatóság]]'' (AVH)] were strung up from lampposts. Andropov remained haunted for the rest of his life by the speed with which an apparently all-powerful Communist [[one-party state]] had begun to topple. When other Communist regimes later seemed at risk – [[Prague Spring|in Prague in 1968]], [[Soviet–Afghan War|in Kabul in 1979]], [[Martial law in Poland|in Warsaw in 1981]], he was convinced that, as in [[Budapest]] in 1956, only armed force could ensure their survival".<ref name="Andrew">[[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]], ''The [[Mitrokhin Archive]]: The KGB in Europe and the West'', Gardners Books (2000), {{ISBN|0-14-028487-7}}.</ref>

==Chairmanship of the KGB and Politburo career==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-F0417-0001-028, Berlin, VII. SED-Parteitag, 1.Tag.jpg|thumb|250px|Andropov, [[Erich Honecker]] and [[Leonid Brezhnev]], 1967]]
In 1957, Andropov returned to Moscow from Budapest in order to head the Department for Liaison with Communist and Workers' Parties in [[Socialist]] Countries, a position he held until 1967. In 1961, he was elected full member of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU Central Committee]] and was promoted to the [[Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee]] in 1962. In 1967, he was relieved of his work in the Central Committee apparatus and appointed head of the [[KGB]] on [[Mikhail Suslov]]'s recommendation and promoted to candidate member of the Politburo.{{sfn|Vinogradov et al.|2005|pp=335–336}}<ref name="Beev"/>

In 1970, out of concern that the burial place of [[Joseph Goebbels|Joseph]] and [[Magda Goebbels]] and their children would become a shrine to [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazis]], Andropov authorized an operation to destroy the remains that were buried in [[Magdeburg]] in 1946. The remains were thoroughly burned and crushed, and the ashes thrown into the [[Biederitz River]], a tributary of the nearby [[Elbe]]. No proof exists that the Russians ever found [[Adolf Hitler]]'s body, but it is presumed that Hitler and [[Eva Braun]] were among the remains as 10 or 11 bodies were exhumed.{{sfn|Vinogradov et al.|2005|pp=335–336}}<ref name="Beev">{{cite book |last1=Beevor |first1=Antony |title=Berlin: The downfall, 1945 |date=2003 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=978-0141013442 |page=431}}</ref> Andropov gained additional powers in 1973 when he was promoted to full member of the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]].

===Crushing the Prague Spring===
During the [[Prague Spring]] in 1968, Andropov was the main advocate of taking "extreme measures" against [[Czechoslovakia]]. According to classified information released by [[Vasili Mitrokhin]], the "KGB whipped up the fear that Czechoslovakia could fall victim to [[NATO]] aggression or to a coup".<ref name="Andrew"/> At this time, agent [[Oleg Kalugin]] reported from Washington that he had gained access to "absolutely reliable documents proving that neither the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] nor any other agency was manipulating the Czechoslovak reform movement".<ref name="Andrew" /> His message was destroyed because it contradicted the [[conspiracy theory]] Andropov had fabricated.<ref name="Andrew" /> Andropov ordered a number of [[active measures]], collectively known as operation PROGRESS, against Czechoslovak reformers during the [[Normalization (Czechoslovakia)|Normalization]] period.

===Suppression of dissidents===
{{See also|Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union}} Throughout his career, Andropov aimed to achieve "the destruction of dissent in all its forms" and insisted that "the struggle for human rights was a part of a wide-ranging imperialist plot to undermine the foundation of the Soviet state".<ref name="Andrew"/> To this end, he launched a campaign to eliminate all opposition in the USSR through a mixture of mass arrests, [[involuntary commitment]]s to psychiatric hospitals, and pressure on rights activists to emigrate. These measures were meticulously documented throughout his time as KGB chairman by the underground [[Chronicle of Current Events]], a [[samizdat]] publication that was itself finally forced out of existence after its 30 June 1982 issue.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Chronicle of Current Events |url=https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/ |website=A Chronicle of Current Events|url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023222258/https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/ |archive-date=23 October 2016 }}</ref>

On 3 July 1967, Andropov proposed to establish the KGB's Fifth Directorate to deal with the political opposition<ref name="Nuti">{{cite book|last=Nuti|first=Leopoldo|title=The Crisis of Détente in Europe: From Helsinki to Gorbachev, 1975–1985|year=2009|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=978-0-415-46051-4|page=29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3k9ednYVbwC}}</ref>{{rp|29}} (ideological [[Counterintelligence|coun{{shy}}ter{{shy}}in{{shy}}tel{{shy}}li{{shy}}gence]]).<ref name="Albats">{{cite book|last=Albats|first=Yevgenia|title=KGB: state within a state|year=1995|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-995-0|page=177|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeYEhcHWjEUC}}</ref>{{rp|177}} At the end of July, the directorate was established and entered in its files cases of all Soviet dissidents, including [[Andrei Sakharov]] and [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]].<ref name="Nuti"/> In 1968, as KGB chairman, Andropov issued the order "On the tasks of State security agencies in combating the ideological sabotage by the adversary", calling for struggle against dissidents and their imperialist masters.<ref name="Andrew"/>

[[File:RIAN archive 101740 Yury Andropov, Chairman of KGB.jpg|thumb|Andropov in 1974 as [[List of chairmen of the KGB|KGB Chairman]]]]
After the [[Attempted assassination of Leonid Brezhnev|assassination attempt against Brezhnev]] in January 1969, Andropov led the interrogation of the captured gunman, [[Viktor Ilyin|Viktor Ivanovich Ilyin]].<ref>{{cite web |date=25 January 2009 |title=Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review |url=http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1742 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090130045925/http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1742 |archive-date=30 January 2009 |access-date=29 April 2011 |publisher=Axis Information and Analysis (AIA)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=McCauley|first=Martin |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-31786-783-8|page=354}}</ref> Ilyin was pronounced insane and sent to Kazan Psychiatric Hospital.<ref>{{cite book|last=Albats|first=Yevgenia |title=KGB: State Within a State |year=1995 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |location=London |isbn=978-1-85043-995-0 |pages=191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeYEhcHWjEUC&q=%22viktor%20ilyin%22%20%2Bbrezhnev&pg=PP1}}</ref> On 29 April 1969, Andropov submitted to the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] an elaborate plan to create a network of [[psychiatric hospital]]s to defend the "Soviet Government and socialist order" from dissidents.<ref name="Albats"/>{{rp|177}} 

In January 1970, Andropov submitted an account to his fellow Politburo members of the widespread threat of the mentally ill to the regime's stability and security.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/22-january-1970-pb-151xiii/|title="Report from Krasnodar Region KGB", 22 January 1970, Pb 151/XIII, ''The Bukovsky Archives: Communism on Trial''.|access-date=11 July 2017|archive-date=5 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005030209/https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/22-january-1970-pb-151xiii/|url-status=dead}}</ref> His proposal to use psychiatry for struggle against dissidents was implemented.<ref name="Коротенко">{{cite book|last1=Коротенко|first1=Ада|last2=Аликина|first2=Наталия|script-title=ru:Советская психиатрия: Заблуждения и умысел|year=2002|publisher=Издательство «Сфера»|location=Киев|isbn=978-966-7841-36-2|page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFEeAQAAIAAJ|language=ru}}</ref>{{rp|42}} As head of the KGB, Andropov was in charge of the widespread deployment of psychiatric repression.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bloch, Sidney |author2=Reddaway, Peter |title=Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow Over World Psychiatry|year=1985|publisher=[[Westview Press]]|isbn=978-0-8133-0209-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rgc1AAAAMAAJ|pages=187–188}}</ref>{{rp|187–188}} According to [[Yuri Felshtinsky]] and [[Boris Gulko]], Andropov and the head of the Fifth Directorate, [[Filipp Bobkov]], originated the idea to use psychiatry for punitive purposes.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Felshtinsky, Yuri |author2=Gulko, Boris |title=The KGB Plays Chess: The Soviet Secret Police and the Fight for the World Chess Crown|date=2013|publisher=SCB Distributors|isbn=978-1936490011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVwyH0XkbGkC&pg=PT136}}</ref>

The repression of dissidents<ref name=letter>Letter by Andropov to the Central Committee (10 July 1970), [http://www.yale.edu/annals/sakharov/sakharov_english_txt/e014.txt English translation] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311040614/http://www.yale.edu/annals/sakharov/sakharov_english_txt/e014.txt |date=11 March 2007 }}.</ref><ref name="Bruno">{{Cite web|url=http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/pdfs/dis80/lett83-1.pdf|title=Order to leave the message by Kreisky without answer; facsimile, in Russian. (Указание оставить без ответа ходатайство канцлера Бруно Крейского (Bruno Kreisky) об освобождении Орлова (29 июля 1983)|access-date=6 May 2007|archive-date=14 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614130337/http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/pdfs/dis80/lett83-1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> was a big part of Andropov's agenda and targeted such prominent figures as [[Andrei Sakharov]] and [[Roy Medvedev]]. Some believe that Andropov was behind the deaths of [[Fyodor Kulakov]] and [[Pyotr Masherov]], the two youngest members of the Soviet leadership.<ref>{{cite book|author =Seliktar, Ofira|title=Politics, Paradigms, and Intelligence Failures: Why So Few Predicted the Collapse of the Soviet Union|publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]]|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYApu5aBVboC|page=95|isbn=978-0-7656-1464-3}}</ref> A declassified document revealed that as KGB director, Andropov gave the order to prevent unauthorized gatherings mourning [[Murder of John Lennon|John Lennon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113935|title=Memorandum from the KGB Regarding the Planning of a Demonstration in Memory of John Lennon |publisher=Wilson Center Digital Archive|date=20 December 1980|access-date=16 August 2013}}</ref>

Beginning in January 1972, Andropov led the implementation of the Soviet [[détente]] strategy.{{sfn|Epstein|1996|pp=265–266}}

In 1977, Andropov convinced Brezhnev that the [[Ipatiev House]], where [[Tsar]] [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] and his [[House of Romanov|family]] were [[Execution of the Romanov family|murdered]] by [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] revolutionaries during the [[Russian Civil War]], had become a site of pilgrimage for covert [[Restoration of the Russian monarchy|monarchists]].<ref name="THE LAST ROMANOV MYSTERY">{{citation|title = THE LAST ROMANOV MYSTERY|url =https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/08/21/the-last-romanov-mystery|author = Robert K. Massie|magazine =The New Yorker|date = 13 August 1995|access-date = 6 June 2019}}</ref> With the Politburo's approval, the house, deemed to be not of "sufficient historical significance", was demolished in September 1977, less than a year before the murders' 60th anniversary.<ref>{{cite book|page=261|last=Pringle|first=Robert W.|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|date=2015|isbn=978-1-4422-5318-6|type=e-book}}</ref>

According to [[Yaakov Kedmi]], Andropov was particularly keen to persecute any sign of [[Zionism]] in order to distance himself from his [[Jews|Jewish]] heritage. He was personally responsible for orchestrating the arrest and persecution of [[History of the Jews in the Soviet Union|Soviet Jewish]] activist [[Natan Sharansky]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bergman |first1=Ronen |author-link1=Ronen Bergman |title=The KGB's Middle East Files: The fight against Zionism and world Jewry |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4886594,00.html |access-date=24 March 2020 |work=Ynetnews |date=12 January 2016 |language=en}}</ref>

===Role in the invasion of Afghanistan===
In March 1979, Andropov and the Politburo initially opposed military intervention in Afghanistan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113260.pdf|title=Deterioration of Conditions in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and Possible Responses From Our Side / 17–19 March 1979|publisher=Wilson Center Digital Archive|work=International History Declassified|access-date=2 August 2019|archive-date=29 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129173034/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113260.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Among their concerns were that the international community would blame the USSR for its "aggression" and that the upcoming [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks|SALT II]] negotiation meeting with U.S. President [[Jimmy Carter]] would be derailed.<ref>[http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/%7Ekaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/pdfs/afgh/afg79pb.pdf Minutes of the CPSU Politburo meeting, 17 March 1979] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190549/http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/%7Ekaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/pdfs/afgh/afg79pb.pdf |date=4 March 2016}}, in Russian.</ref> Andropov changed his mind after the assassination of [[Nur Muhammad Taraki]] and [[Hafizullah Amin]]'s seizure of power. He became convinced that the CIA had recruited Amin to create a [[Western world|pro-Western]] [[Expansionism|expansionist]] "[[Ottoman Empire|New Great Ottoman Empire]]" that would attempt to dominate [[Soviet Central Asia]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Coll|first=Steve|title=Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001|date=2004|publisher=Penguin Press|isbn=1-59420-007-6|location=New York|oclc=52814066}}</ref> Andropov's bottom line, "under no circumstances can we lose Afghanistan", led him and the Politburo to [[Operation Storm-333|invade Afghanistan]] on 24 December 1979. The invasion led to the extended [[Soviet–Afghan War]] (1979–1989) and a [[1980 Summer Olympics boycott|boycott]] of the [[1980 Summer Olympics|1980 Summer Olympic Games]] in Moscow by 66 countries, something of concern to Andropov since spring 1979.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bukovsky-archive.com/2017/06/02/25-april-1979-819-a/|title=Andropov to Central Committee, 25 April 1979, "Anti-Soviet activities with regard to 1980 Olympic Games", ''The Bukovsky Archives: Communism on Trial''.|date=2 June 2017}}</ref> Some have proposed that the Soviet–Afghan War also played an important role in the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union's dissolution]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://faculty.washington.edu/aseem/afganwar.pdf|title=The Afghanistan war and the breakdown of the Soviet Union|journal=Review of International Studies|date=1999|volume=25|pages=693–708|publisher=British International Studies Association|doi=10.1017/S0260210599006932 |last1=Reuveny |first1=Rafael|last2=Prakash|first2=Aseem|issue=4|s2cid=18194424 }}</ref>

===Role in the non-invasion of Poland===
[[File:00595309(Andropov&Jaruzelski).jpeg|thumb|right|General [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]] meeting Andropov during the 1982 crisis]]
On 10 December 1981, in the face of [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Poland's Solidarity movement]], Andropov, Soviet Second Secretary [[Mikhail Suslov]], and Polish First Secretary [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]]<ref>Brown, Archie ''The Rise & Fall of Communism'' (2009) p.435</ref> persuaded Brezhnev that it would be counterproductive for the Soviet Union to invade Poland by repeating the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] to suppress the [[Prague Spring]].<ref>{{cite news|author1=Rutland, Peter |author2=Pomper, Philip |title=Stalin caused the Soviet collapse|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/tmt/442177.html|work=[[The Moscow Times]]|date=17 August 2011}}</ref> This effectively marked the end of the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]].<ref>Wilfried Loth. Moscow, Prague and Warsaw: Overcoming the Brezhnev Doctrine. Cold War History 1, no. 2 (2001): 103–118.</ref> The [[Martial law in Poland|pacification of Poland]] was thus left to Jaruzelski, [[Czesław Kiszczak|Kiszczak]] and their Polish forces.

===Promotion of Gorbachev===
From 1980 to 1982, while still chair of the KGB, Andropov opposed plans to occupy [[Poland]] after the emergence of the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity movement]] and promoted reform-minded party cadres, including [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].<ref name="Century Communism 2010"/> Andropov was the longest-serving KGB chairman and did not resign as head of the [[KGB]] until May 1982, when he was again promoted to the Secretariat to succeed [[Mikhail Suslov]] as secretary responsible for ideological affairs.

==Leader of the Soviet Union (1982–1984)==
{{Further|History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)}}
[[File:1982 Ceausescu la Moscova la 60 de ani de la formarea URSS.JPG|thumb|right|Andropov (seated second from right in the front row) presides over the USSR's 60th Anniversary shortly after succeeding Brezhnev as its [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union|leader]].]]

Two days after [[Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev's death]], on 12 November 1982, Andropov was elected general secretary of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]], the first former head of the KGB to become general secretary. His appointment was received in the West with apprehension in view of his roles in the KGB and in Hungary. At the time his personal background was a mystery in the West, with major newspapers printing detailed profiles of him that were inconsistent and in several cases fabricated.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Andropov Hoax |url=http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/andropov.htm |access-date=30 March 2013 |publisher=Edward Jay Epstein}}</ref>

Andropov divided responsibilities in the Politburo with his chief deputy, [[Konstantin Chernenko]]. Andropov took control of organizing the work of the Politburo, supervising national defense, supervising the main issues of domestic and foreign policy and foreign trade, and making leadership assignments in the top ranks of the party and the government. Chernenko handled espionage, KGB, the Interior Ministry, party organs, ideology, organizational matters, propaganda, culture, science, and higher education. He was also given charge of the Central Committee. It was far too much for Chernenko to handle, and other Politburo members were not given major assignments.<ref>Dimitri Volkogonov, ''Autopsy for an empire: The seven leaders who built the Soviet regime'' (1998) pp 344–345.</ref>

===Domestic policy===
[[File:CIA-RDP91B00135R000601030003-0.pdf|thumb|An August 1983 CIA profile of Andropov]]
====Economy====
At home, Andropov attempted to improve the [[Economy of the Soviet Union#1970–1990|USSR's economy]] by increasing its workforce's efficiency. He cracked down on Soviet laborers' lack of discipline by decreeing the arrest of absentee employees and penalties for tardiness.<ref>{{cite book|author= Sakwa, Richard |title= Soviet Politics in Perspective|date=1998|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-16992-9|pages= 73–74}}</ref> For the first time, the facts about [[Brezhnev stagnation|economic stagnation]] and obstacles to scientific progress were made available to the public and open to criticism.<ref name="GRE">[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] (2005), Moscow: Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya Enciklopediya Publisher, vol. 1, p. 742.</ref> Furthermore, Andropov gave select industries greater autonomy from state regulations<ref>{{cite book|author=Brown, Archie|title=The Gorbachev Factor|date=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-288052-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gorbachevfactor00brow_0/page/64 64–65]|url=https://archive.org/details/gorbachevfactor00brow_0/page/64}}</ref> and enabled factory managers to retain control over more of their profits.<ref>{{cite book|author= Sakwa, Richard |title= Soviet Politics in Perspective|date=1998|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-16992-9|page=74}}</ref> Such policies resulted in a 4% rise in industrial output and increased investment in new technologies such as robotics.<ref>{{cite book|author= Kort, Michael |title= The Soviet Colossus:History and Aftermath |date=2001 |publisher= M. E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-0396-8|page= 315}}</ref>

Despite such reforms, Andropov refused to consider any changes that sought to dispense with the [[Planned economy]] introduced under [[Joseph Stalin]]. In his memoirs, Gorbachev wrote that when Andropov was the leader, Gorbachev and [[Gosplan]] chairman [[Nikolai Ryzhkov]] asked him for access to real budget figures. "You are asking too much", Andropov responded. "The budget is off limits to you."<ref>{{cite book|author=Gorbachev, Mikhail|title=Memoirs|date=1996|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0385480192|page=[https://archive.org/details/memoirsgorb00gorb/page/147 147]|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsgorb00gorb/page/147}}</ref>

====Anti-corruption campaign====
In contrast to Brezhnev's policy of avoiding conflicts and dismissals, Andropov began to fight violations of party, state and labor discipline, which led to significant personnel changes during an anti-corruption campaign against many of Brezhnev's cronies.<ref name="Century Communism 2010"/> During his 15 months in office, Andropov dismissed 18 ministers and 37 first secretaries of [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|obkoms]], kraikoms and Central Committees of Communist Parties of Soviet Republics, and [[criminal case]]s against high-level party and state officials were started. Biographers including Solovyov and Klepikova<ref name="Solovyov-and-Klepikova-1983">{{cite book |last1=Solovyov |first1=Vladimir |last2=Klepikova |first2=Elena |year=1983 |title=Yuri Andropov: A Secret Passage Into the Kremlin |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=9780026122900}}</ref> and [[Zhores Medvedev]]<ref name="Medvedev-1983">{{cite book |last1=Medvedev |first1=Zhores A. |year=1983 |title=Andropov |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York |isbn=9780393017915}}</ref> have discussed the complex possibilities underlying the motivations of anti-corruption campaigning in the Soviet Union during the 1970s and early 1980s: it is true that Andropov fought corruption for moral, ethical, ascetic, and ideological reasons, but it was also an effective way for party members from the police and security organizations to defeat competitors for power at the party's senior levels. Thus Andropov himself, as well as such protégés as [[Eduard Shevardnadze]], could advance their power by the same efforts that also promised to be better for the country in terms of justice, economic performance, and even defense readiness (which depended on economic performance). Part of the complexity is that in the Brezhnev era, corruption was pervasive and implicitly tolerated (though officially denied), and many members of the police and security organizations participated in it to various degrees, but only those organizations had access to the power to measure it and monitor its details. In such an environment, anti-corruption campaigning is a way for police and security people to appear to be cleaning up villains' malfeasance and coincidentally increasing their own power, when in fact one set of antiheroes may be defeating another set in a [[wikt:grey area|morally gray]] power struggle.<ref name="Solovyov-and-Klepikova-1983"/><ref name="Medvedev-1983"/>

===Foreign policy===
[[File:Anti kernwapendemonstratie in Den Haag ( 550 duizend deelnemers ) overzichten m, Bestanddeelnr 253-8819.jpg|thumb|Protest against the [[nuclear arms race]] between the U.S./NATO and the Soviet Union, [[The Hague]], Netherlands, 1983]]
Andropov faced a series of foreign policy crises: the [[Soviet–Afghan War#Impact|hopeless situation of the Soviet army in Afghanistan]], [[Martial law in Poland|threatened revolt in Poland]], [[Sino-Soviet relations (1969–1991)|growing animosity with China]], the [[International aid to combatants in the Iran–Iraq War|polarization threat of war in the Middle East]], and [[Ethiopian Civil War|civil strife in Ethiopia]] and [[Internal resistance to apartheid|South Africa]]. The most critical threat was the "[[Cold War (1979–1985)|Second Cold War]]" U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] launched, and the specific attack of rolling back what he called the "[[Evil Empire speech|Evil Empire]]". Reagan used American economic power and Soviet economic weakness to escalate massive spending on the [[Cold War]], emphasizing technology that Moscow lacked.<ref>Lawrence T. Caldwell, and Robert Legvold, "Reagan through Soviet eyes." ''Foreign Policy'' 52 (1983): 3–21 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1148230 Online].</ref> The main response was to raise the Soviet military budget to 70% of the total budget and supply billions of dollars of military aid to [[Ba'athist Syria|Syria]], [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraq]], [[Libyan Arab Jamahiriya|Libya]], [[South Yemen]], the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]], [[Cuba]], and [[North Korea]]. That included tanks and armored troop carriers, hundreds of fighter planes, anti-aircraft systems, artillery systems, and other high{{nbh}}tech equipment of which the USSR was its allies' main supplier. Andropov's main goal was to avoid an open war.<ref>Dimitri Volkogonov, ''Autopsy for an empire''  (1998) pp 358–360.</ref><ref>Taylor Downing, ''Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink'' (2018) pp. 34–50.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Jonathan Steele|title=Soviet Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYqQYs8lnWQC&pg=PA4|year=1984|publisher=Simon and Schuster|pages=4–5|isbn=9780671528133}}</ref>

In foreign policy, the [[Soviet–Afghan War|conflict in Afghanistan]] continued even though Andropov, who now felt the invasion was a mistake, half-heartedly explored options for a negotiated withdrawal. Andropov's rule was also marked by deterioration of relations with the [[United States]]. During a much-publicized "walk in the woods" with Soviet dignitary Yuli Kvitsinsky, American diplomat [[Paul Nitze]] suggested a compromise for reducing nuclear missiles in Europe on both sides that the Politburo ignored.<ref>{{cite book |last=Matlock | first=Jack F. Jr. |title=Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=2005|location=New York |pages=41–46 |isbn=978-0-8129-7489-8}}</ref> Kvitsinsky later wrote that, despite his efforts, the Soviet leadership was not interested in compromise, instead calculating that peace movements in the West would force the Americans to capitulate.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kwizinskij|first=Julij A. |title=Vor dem Sturm: Erinnerungen eines Diplomaten |publisher=Siedler Verlag |year=1993 |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-88680-464-1}}</ref> On 8 March 1983, Reagan called the Soviet Union an "[[Evil Empire speech|evil empire]]". On 23 March, he announced the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]]. Reagan claimed this research program into ballistic missile defense was "consistent with our obligations under the [[Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty|ABM Treaty]]". Andropov dismissed this claim, saying, "It is time they [Washington] stopped ... search[ing] for the best ways of unleashing [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]]. ... Engaging in this is not just irresponsible. It is insane".<ref>''[[Pravda]]'', 27 March 1983.</ref>
[[File:1981-09-15 12-00-00 United States Hawaii Aliamanu 2 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|A photograph of Korean Air Lines HL7442, the airliner shot down by Soviet aircraft after drifting into [[prohibited airspace]] during the [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007|KAL 007 Flight]].]]

In August 1983, Andropov made an announcement that the USSR would stop all work on [[Space weapon|space-based weapons]]. One of his most notable acts as leader of the Soviet Union was in response to a letter from a 10-year-old American child, [[Samantha Smith]], inviting her to the Soviet Union. She came, but he was too ill to meet with her, thus revealing his grave condition to the world. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union suspended talks with the U.S. on intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe in November 1983, and by the end of the year the Soviets had broken off all arms control negotiations.<ref>{{cite news|last=Church|first=George J.|title=Person of the Year 1983: Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov|newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]|date=1 January 1984 |url=http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1983.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070109235052/http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/archive/stories/1983.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 January 2007|access-date=2 January 2008}}</ref>

Massive bad publicity worldwide came when Soviet fighters shot down a civilian jet liner, [[Korean Air Flight KAL-007]], which carried 269 passengers and crew. It had strayed over the Soviet Union on 1 September 1983 on its scheduled route from [[Anchorage, Alaska]], to [[Seoul]], South Korea. Andropov kept secret that the Soviet Union held in its possession the [[Flight recorder|black box]] from KAL 007 that proved the pilot had made a typographical error when entering data in the automatic pilot. The [[Soviet Air Defence Forces|Soviet air defence system]] was unprepared to deal with a civilian airliner, and the shooting down was a matter of following orders without question.<ref>Jonathan Haslam,  "The KAL shootdown (1983) and the state of Soviet air defence." ''Intelligence and National Security'' 3.4 (1988): 128–133.</ref> Instead of admitting an accident, Soviet media proclaimed a brave decision to meet a Western provocation.<ref>Gail Warshofsky Lapidus, "KAL 007 and Chernobyl: The Soviet management of crises." Survival 29.3 (1987): 215–223.</ref>

==Death and funeral==
[[File:Reagan at the USSR Embassy.jpg|thumb|left|President [[Ronald Reagan]] at the Soviet Embassy in D.C., signing a condolence book shortly after the death of Andropov.]]
In February 1983, Andropov suffered total [[kidney failure]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=An autopsy report on President Yuri Andropov confirmed Friday... - UPI Archives |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/02/10/An-autopsy-report-on-President-Yuri-Andropov-confirmed-Friday/8233445237200/ |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=UPI |language=en}}</ref> In August 1983, he entered Moscow's [[Moscow Central Clinical Hospital|Central Clinical Hospital]], where he would spend the rest of his life.

In late January 1984, Andropov's health deteriorated rapidly. Due to growing toxicity in his blood, he had periods of falling into unconsciousness. He died on 9 February 1984 at 16:50, aged 69.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/11/world/andropov-dead-moscow-69-reagan-asks-productive-contacts-names-bush-attend.html|title=Andropov is Dead in Moscow at 69; Reagan Asks 'Productive Contacts' and Names Bush to Attend Funeral|last=Burns|first=John F.|date=11 February 1984|work=The New York Times|access-date=11 July 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Few of the top Soviet leaders learned of his death on that day. According to the Soviet post-mortem medical report, Andropov suffered from several medical conditions: [[interstitial nephritis]], [[nephrosclerosis]], residual [[hypertension]] and [[diabetes]], worsened by chronic kidney deficiency.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Константин Черненко (28-05-1984) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Konstantin Chernenko, Yuri Andropov's successor as [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union|leader of the Soviet Union]].]]
A four-day period of mourning across the USSR was announced. [[Baathist Syria|Syria]]<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/11/world/syria-orders-7-days-of-mourning.html | title=Syria Orders 7 Days of Mourning | newspaper=The New York Times | date=11 February 1984 }}</ref> declared seven days of mourning; [[Cuba]] declared four days of mourning;<ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/02/11/andropov-death-of-a-soviet-leader/fba54f56-0733-48f1-87fd-e9e921c5f637/ |title=ANDROPOV: DEATH OF A SOVIET LEADER |date=11 February 1984 |author1=Michael Dobbs |author2=Peter Osnos |author3=William Drozdiak |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}}</ref> [[India]], [[Baathist Iraq|Iraq]],<ref>[https://books.google.pl/books?id=t32OO3DkDikC&dq=iraq+declared+three+days+of+mourning+for+andropov+death&pg=PA487&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=iraq%20declared%20three%20days%20of%20mourning%20for%20andropov%20death&f=false]</ref> [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]],<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/12/world/bush-sees-chance-for-warmer-ties.html]</ref> [[Ghana]],<ref>[https://talkingdrumsmagazine.com/1984-02-20/tributes.html]</ref> [[People's Republic of Benin|Benin]],<ref>[https://talkingdrumsmagazine.com/1984-02-20/tributes.html]</ref> and [[Brazil]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.normasbrasil.com.br/norma/decreto-89377-1984_44479.html | title=Decreto nº 89.377 de 10/02/1984 }}</ref> declared three days of mourning;<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/> [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]],<ref>Указ № 428 от 10 февруари 1984 г. Обн. ДВ. бр. 13 от 14 февруари 1984 г.</ref> [[North Korea]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WT6kLwt349MC&q=north+korea+declared+nine+day+of+mourning+for+mao&pg=PA60 | title=North Korean Foreign Policy: Security Dilemma and Succession | isbn=9780739148648 | last1=Kim | first1=Yongho | date=16 December 2010 | publisher=Lexington Books }}</ref> [[People's Republic of the Congo]],<ref>[https://talkingdrumsmagazine.com/1984-02-20/tributes.html]</ref> and [[Zimbabwe]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OT7cAAAAMAAJ&q=declared+three+day+of+mourning+andropov+death34&pg=RA2-PA | title=Strategic Review | year=1984 }}</ref> declared two days of mourning; [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]]<ref>{{cite news | url=https://chrudimsky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/polsko_tragedie_mse_hradec_20100413-36ab.html | title=Polská tragédie: Hradec vyvěsí vlajky na půl žerdi | newspaper=Chrudimský Deník | date=14 April 2010 | last1=Šprinc | first1=Radek }}</ref> [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]],<ref>[https://istorijskenovine.unilib.rs/view/index.html#panel:pp%7Cissue:UB_00064_19840213%7Cpage:1]</ref> [[Sri Lanka]]<ref>[https://www.google.pl/books/edition/Final_Record_of_the_Meeting/0GsqAQAAMAAJ?hl=pl&gbpv=1&bsq=day+of+national+mourning+in+sri+lanka+for+andropov&dq=day+of+national+mourning+in+sri+lanka+for+andropov&printsec=frontcover]</ref> and [[Costa Rica]]<ref name="MourningCR">{{cite web|title=Decretos Ejecutivos sobre Duelo Nacional|website=cijulenlinea.ucr.ac.cr|url=https://cijulenlinea.ucr.ac.cr/portal/descargar.php?q=MjgxMA==}}</ref> declared one day of mourning. 

Andropov had a [[state funeral]] in [[Red Square]], in a service attended by numerous foreign leaders, such as U.S. Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mrs. Thatcher will attend Andropov funeral|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/02/11/Mrs-Thatcher-will-attend-Andropov-funeral/2611445323600/|access-date=30 May 2021|website=UPI|language=en}}</ref> British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Press Conference after Andropov's funeral {{!}} Margaret Thatcher Foundation|url=https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105620|access-date=30 May 2021|website=www.margaretthatcher.org}}</ref> West German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]], Italian President [[Sandro Pertini]], East German First Secretary [[Erich Honecker]], Polish First Secretary [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]], Indian Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]], Cuban President [[Fidel Castro]], and Irish President [[Patrick Hillery]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The funeral of President Yuri Andropov gave Western leaders...|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/02/14/The-funeral-of-President-Yuri-Andropov-gave-Western-leaders/8160445582800/|access-date=30 May 2021|website=UPI|language=en}}</ref> Eulogists were Chernenko, Ustinov, Gromyko, [[Georgi Markov (writer)|Georgi Markov]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Похороны Юрия Владимировича Андропова|url=http://smena-online.ru/stories/pokhorony-yuriya-vladimirovicha-andropova|access-date=30 May 2021|website=Журнал «Смена»}}</ref> (head of the [[Union of Soviet Writers]]), and Ivan Senkin (First Secretary of the [[Karelian Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Karelian Regional Committee]] of the CPSU).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Burns|first=John F.|date=15 February 1984|title=ANDROPOV BURIED AMID SOMBER MARTIAL GRANDEUR|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/15/world/andropov-buried-amid-somber-martial-grandeur.html|access-date=30 May 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Andropov was buried in the [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]], in one of the 12 tombs between the [[Lenin Mausoleum]] and the [[Kremlin wall]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=USSR: New Soviet Leader Konstantine Chernenko Pledges To Continue Reforms Started By His Predecessor Yuri Andropov |url=https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/2884 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817040049/https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/2884 |archive-date=August 17, 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |website=Reuters Archive Licensing |language=en}}</ref>

Andropov was succeeded by [[Konstantin Chernenko]], even though Andropov had wanted a younger Politburo member, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] to succeed him. Andropov went as far as to add a paragraph to his report at a Central Committee plenum that did not meet until his death. However, he was ignored. In most respects, Chernenko seemed to mirror Andropov's tenure. Chernenko was already terminally ill when he ascended to the USSR's top spot, and served even less time in office (13 months).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Associated Press |date=1985-03-11 |title=Gorbachev New Soviet Leader : Youngest Chief in 60 Years; Reagan Won't Go to Funeral : 54-Year-Old Succeeds Chernenko, Dead at 73 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-03-11-mn-33963-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203045922/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-03-11-mn-33963-story.html |archive-date=December 3, 2021 |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union/The-U-S-S-R-from-1953-to-1991|title=The USSR from 1953 to 1991|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|date=2025}}</ref> Similarly to Andropov, Chernenko spent much of his time hospitalized, and also died in office, in March 1985.<ref name=":1" /> Chernenko was succeeded by Gorbachev, who implemented [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]] policies to reform the Soviet Union politically and economically. On 26 December 1991, [[Post-Soviet states|the USSR was dissolved]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cohen |first=Stephen F. |date=2005-02-27 |title=The Political Tragedy of Russia |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-feb-27-oe-cohen27-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624090008/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-feb-27-oe-cohen27-story.html |archive-date=June 24, 2021 |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Personal life==
[[File:Andropov House.jpg|thumb|Andropov's House]]
Andropov lived at 26 [[Kutuzovsky Prospekt]], the same building in which Suslov and Brezhnev lived.<ref>{{cite book|title=The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution| last=Slezkine| first=Yuri| publisher =Princeton University Press |year=2017| page=926| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U_KnDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA926| isbn=978-06911-927-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rbth.com/history/329294-russian-leader-homes-peter-great-gorbachev| title=Peter I's cottage to Gorbachev's lavish dacha: Russian leaders' residences in pictures| author=Tommy O'callaghan|date=10 October 2018|accessdate=15 December 2023|publisher=rbth}}</ref>

Tatyana and Andropov had two children, {{ill|Igor Andropov|lt= Igor|ru| Андропов, Игорь Юрьевич}} and Irina.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Annual Obituary |date=1985 |publisher=St. Martin's |isbn=978-0-912289-53-3 |page=74 |language=en}}</ref> Igor joined the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as ambassador to Greece.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.passport-collector.com/ussr-diplomatic-passport-igor-y-andropov/|title=USSR Diplomatic Passport – Igor Y. Andropov|first=Tom|last=Topol|date=2 May 2022}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Andropov's legacy remains the subject of much debate in Russia and elsewhere among scholars and in the popular media. He remains the focus of television documentaries and popular nonfiction, particularly at important anniversaries. As the head of the KGB for fifteen years, Andropov was ruthless against dissent, and author [[David Remnick]], who covered the Soviet Union for ''[[The Washington Post]]'' in the 1980s, called him "profoundly corrupt, a beast".<ref name="D">Remnick, David, ''Lenin's Tomb:The Last Days of the Soviet Empire''. New York; Random House, 1993, p. 191.</ref> 

[[Alexander Yakovlev]], later an advisor to Gorbachev and the ideologist of [[perestroika]], said: "In a way I always thought Andropov was the most dangerous of all of them, simply because he was smarter than the rest."<ref name="D" /> But Andropov himself recalled Yakovlev back to high office in Moscow in 1983 after a ten-year exile as ambassador to Canada after attacking Russian chauvinism. Yakovlev was also a close colleague of Andropov associate KGB General [[Yevgeny Primakov]], later [[Prime Minister of Russia]]. Andropov began to follow a trend of replacing elderly officials with considerably younger ones.
[[Image:Yuri andropov grave in the kremlin wall necropolis july 2016.jpg|thumb|upright|Andropov's grave at the [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]], Moscow.]]

According to his former subordinate [[Securitate]] general [[Ion Mihai Pacepa]]:

<blockquote>In the West, if Andropov is remembered at all, it is for his brutal suppression of political dissidence at home and for his role in planning the [[Prague Spring|1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia]]. By contrast, the leaders of the former [[Warsaw Pact]] intelligence community, when I was one of them, looked up to Andropov as the man who substituted the KGB for the Communist party in governing the Soviet Union, and who was the godfather of Russia's new era of deception operations aimed at improving the badly damaged image of Soviet rulers in the West.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040922034710/http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/pacepa200409200814.asp No Peter the Great. Vladimir Putin is in the Andropov mold], by [[Ion Mihai Pacepa]], ''[[National Review]]'', 20 September 2004.</ref></blockquote>

Despite Andropov's hard-line stance in [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungary]] and the numerous banishments and intrigues for which he was responsible as head of the KGB, many commentators regard him as a reformer, especially in comparison with the [[Era of Stagnation|stagnation]] and corruption of Brezhnev's later years. A "throwback to a tradition of Leninist asceticism",<ref name = "D"/> Andropov was appalled by the corruption of Brezhnev's regime, and ordered investigations and arrests of the most flagrant abusers. The investigations were so frightening that several members of Brezhnev's circle "shot, gassed or otherwise did away with themselves."<ref name="D"/> He was generally regarded as inclined to more gradual and constructive reform than was Gorbachev; most of the speculation centers on whether Andropov would have reformed the USSR in a manner that did not result in its [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|eventual dissolution]]. Some experts, including political scientist [[Sergei Gavrov]], believed that Andropov could become a "Russian [[Deng Xiaoping]]" if he had implemented the reforms necessary to save the Soviet Union from dissolution.<ref>http://www.5-tv.ru/video/505629/ Итоговый выпуск программы «Суд времени» «Андропов: завинчивание гаек или политика с двойным дном?» на федеральном телевизионном канале Петербург — Пятый канал {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205135233/http://www.5-tv.ru/video/505629/}}</ref>

The Western media generally favored Andropov,<ref>Suny, Ronald Grigor, ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the successor states'' Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 449.</ref> but the short time he spent as leader, much of it in ill health, leaves debaters few concrete indications as to the nature of an extended rule. The 2002 Tom Clancy novel ''[[Red Rabbit]]'' focuses heavily on Andropov during his tenure of KGB chief, when his health was slightly better. It mirrors his secrecy in that British and American intelligence know little about him, not even able to confirm he was married. The novel also depicts Andropov as a fan of [[Marlboro (cigarette)|Marlboros]] and [[starka]] vodka, almost never available to ordinary Soviet citizens.

==Attitudes toward Andropov==
[[File:Артимарка Юрий Андропов 2014.jpg|thumb|A 2014 postage stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth]]

===Leadership persona and strategy===
Various people who knew Andropov well, including [[Vladimir Medvedev]], [[:ru:Чучалин, Александр Григорьевич|Aleksandr Chuchyalin]], [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]]<ref>{{cite book|year=2004|url=http://old.redstar.ru/2004/07/01_07/4_01.html |author=Kryuchkov, Vladimir|title=Личность и власть|publisher=Просвещение |isbn=5-09-013785-4}}</ref> and [[Roy Medvedev]], remembered him for his politeness, calmness, unselfishness, patience, intelligence and exceptionally sharp memory.<ref>{{cite book|author=Medvedev, Vladimir |title=Человек за спиной|year=1994|publisher=Russlit|isbn=5865080520|pages=120–121}}</ref> According to Chuchyalin, while working at the Kremlin, Andropov would read about 600 pages a day and remember everything he read.<ref>[https://tass.ru/interviews/6114762 Личный пульмонолог Черненко: чтобы генсек дышал, мы применяли космические технологии]. TASS (14 February 2019)</ref> Andropov read English literature and could communicate in Finnish, English and German.<ref>[https://www.kp.ru/daily/26940.7/3990798/ Рой Медведев: Андропов не дожил до своей оттепели...] kp.ru</ref>

Historian [[Moshe Lewin]] characterizes Andropov during his brief tenure as Soviet leader as "a politician interested in intellectual issues, but who was also a realist" and states that "Andropov was free of the habitual arrogance of Soviet leaders, who considered their empire invulnerable". This led him to seek dialogue with [[Social democracy|social democrats]] in Western countries instead of only building relationships with fellow [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninists]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewin |first=Moshe |author-link=Moshe Lewin |date=2016 |title=The Soviet Century |location=London |publisher=[[Verso Books|Verso]] |pages=254–255 |isbn=9781784780661}}</ref>

Within the party elites, he actively encouraged disagreements and debates, while also preserving the image of [[Democratic centralism|ideological unity]] towards the outside. Despite his KGB connections and his repressive tendencies, Andropov mused over ways to encourage "forms of political as well as economic [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|pluralism]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewin |first=Moshe |author-link=Moshe Lewin |date=2016 |title=The Soviet Century |location=London |publisher=[[Verso Books|Verso]] |pages=254–255 |isbn=9781784780661}}</ref> [[Vladislav M. Zubok|Vladislav Zubok]] even states that "The idea of renovating the Soviet Union originated not with [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], but with his mentor Yuri Andropov", who was in favor of "controlled, conservative reforms".<ref>{{cite book |last=Zubok |first=Vladislav |author-link=Vladislav M. Zubok |date=2021 |title=Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union |location=New Haven and London |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |pages=13–14 |isbn=9780300262445}}</ref>

===Attitudes among dissidents===
According to Russian historian [[Nikita Petrov]], "He was a typical Soviet jailer who violated human rights. Andropov headed the organisation which persecuted the most remarkable people of our country."<ref>{{cite news|title=Andropov birth centenary evokes nostalgia for Soviet hardliner|url=http://gulfnews.com/news/europe/andropov-birth-centenary-evokes-nostalgia-for-soviet-hardliner-1.1365191|work=[[Gulf News]]|date=29 July 2014}}</ref> According to Petrov, it was a shame for the USSR that a persecutor of intelligentsia and of freedom of thought became leader of the country.<ref name=Kara-Murza>{{cite news|author =Кара-Мурза, Владимир|title=Как изменилась оценка обществом ставленников спецслужб в госвласти со времен Андропова?|newspaper=Радио Свобода |trans-title=How has society's assessment of security services proteges in state power changed since the time of Andropov?|url=http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/1490818.html|publisher=[[Radio Liberty]]|language=ru|date=10 February 2009}}</ref>

[[Roy Medvedev]] stated that the year that Andropov spent in power was memorable for increasing repression against dissidents.<ref name=Kara-Murza/> During most of his KGB career, Andropov crushed dissident movements, isolated people in psychiatric hospitals, imprisoned them, and deported them.<ref>{{cite journal|author =Cichowlas, Ola|title=In Russia, it is deja-vu all over again: how Russians fell back in love with the KGB and Stalin|journal=The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs|date=2013|volume=22|issue=2|pages=111–124|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/058261a71237054d5fb4c503a68d6d7c/1}}</ref> According to political scientist [[Georgy Arbatov]], Andropov is responsible for many injustices in the 1970s and early 1980s: deportations, political arrests, persecuting dissidents, the abuse of psychiatry, and notorious cases such as the persecution of academician [[Andrei Sakharov]].<ref>{{cite book|author =Arbatov, Georgy|title=The System: An Insider's Life in Soviet Politics|date=1992|publisher=Times Books|isbn=978-0812919707|page=270|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cm5pAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author =Neimanis, George|title=The view from inside: A review essay|journal=[[Journal of Baltic Studies]]|date=Summer 1993|volume=24|issue=2|pages=201–206|doi=10.1080/01629779300000071}}</ref> According to [[Dmitri Volkogonov]] and [[Harold Shukman]], Andropov approved the numerous trials of human rights activists such as [[Andrei Amalrik]], [[Vladimir Bukovsky]], [[Viacheslav Chornovil]], [[Zviad Gamsakhurdia]], [[Alexander Ginzburg]], [[Natalya Gorbanevskaya]], [[Petro Grigorenko]], and [[Natan Sharansky|Anatoly Sharansky]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Volkogonov, Dmitri |author2=Shukman, Harold |title=Autopsy for an empire: the seven leaders who built the Soviet regime|date=1998|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0684834207|page=342|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5XlHA_75YwC&pg=PA342}}</ref>

According to [[Natalya Gorbanevskaya]], after Andropov came to power the dissident movement went into decline, not on its own but because it was strangled.<ref name=Kashin>{{cite journal|author =Кашин, Олег|title=Хроника утекших событий. Наталья Горбаневская: немонотонная речь|journal=Русская жизнь|date=22 May 2008|url=http://rulife.ru/mode/article/725/|trans-title=A Chronicle of Past Events. Natalya Gorbanevskaya: non-monotonous speech|language=ru}}</ref> In the late 1970s and early 1980s, repression was most severe; many people were arrested a second time and sentenced to longer terms. The camp regime was not strict but specific, and when Andropov became [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]], he introduced an Article under which violations of camp regime resulted in a punishment cell and an additional term up to three years. For two or three remarks a person could be sent to another camp with non-political criminals.<ref name=Kashin/> In those years, there were many deaths in camps from disease and lack of medical care.<ref name=Kashin/>

===Attitudes among Russian leaders===
In a message read at the opening of a new exhibition dedicated to Andropov, [[Vladimir Putin]] called him "a man of talent with great abilities".<ref>{{cite news |author=Miletitch, Nicolas |date=29 July 2014 |title=Andropov birth centenary evokes nostalgia for Soviet hardliner |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Arts-and-Ent/Culture/2014/Jul-29/265406-andropov-birth-centenary-evokes-nostalgia-for-soviet-hardliner.ashx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729120037/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Arts-and-Ent/Culture/2014/Jul-29/265406-andropov-birth-centenary-evokes-nostalgia-for-soviet-hardliner.ashx |archive-date=29 July 2014 |work=[[The Daily Star (Lebanon)]]}}</ref> Putin has praised Andropov's "honesty and uprightness".<ref>{{cite news|title=Putin puts Yuri Andropov back on his pedestal|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/putin-puts-yuri-andropov-back-on-his-pedestal-1.1145047|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|date=16 June 2004}}</ref>

==Honors and awards==
;Soviet Awards
{|
|-
|[[File:Hero of Socialist Labor medal.png|20px]]
|[[Hero of Socialist Labor]] (14 June 1974)<ref name="sovietlife" />
|-
|[[File:Order of Lenin Ribbon Bar.svg|60px]]
|[[Order of Lenin]], four times (23 July 1957, 13 June 1964, 2 December 1971, 1–4 June 1974)<ref name="sovietlife" />
|-
|[[File:SU Order of the October Revolution ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Order of the October Revolution]] (14 June 1979)<ref name="sovietlife" />
|-
|[[File:SU Order of the Red Banner ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Order of the Red Banner]] (14 July 1944)<ref name="sovietlife" />
|-
|[[File:SU Order of the Red Banner of Labour ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Order of the Red Banner of Labour]], thrice (23 September 1944, 24 July 1944, 15 February 1961)<ref name="sovietlife" />
|-
|[[File:SU Medal To a Partisan of the Patriotic War 1st class ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War"]], 1st class (1943)
|-
|[[File:Order of Glory Ribbon Bar.svg|60px]]
|[[Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"]] (1945)
|-
|[[File:SU Medal For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 ribbon.svg|60px]]	
|[[Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"]] (1945)	
|-
|[[File:SU Medal For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"]]
|-
|[[File:SU Medal Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"]] (1965)
|-
|[[File:SU_Medal_Thirty_Years_of_Victory_in_the_Great_Patriotic_War_1941-1945_ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"]] (1975)
|-
|[[File:SU Medal In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"]] (1969)
|-
|[[File:SU Medal 60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR ribbon.svg|60px]]
|[[Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"]] (1978)
|-
|[[File:SU Medal In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad ribbon.svg|60px]]	
|[[Medal "In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad"]] (1957)
|-
|[[File:SU Medal In Commemoration of the 1500th Anniversary of Kiev ribbon.svg|60px]]	
|[[Medal "In Commemoration of the 1500th Anniversary of Kiev"]] (1982)
|-
|}
* Honorary Member of the [[KGB]], 1973

;Foreign Awards
{|
|-
|[[File:Solnce svobody rib.png|60px]]
|Order of the Sun of Liberty ([[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]])
|-
|[[File:Ord_star_afg_rib.PNG|60px]]
|Order of the Star (Afghanistan)
|-
|[[File:Hero of the Soviet Union medal.png|20px]]
|[[Hero of the People's Republic of Bulgaria]] ([[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]])
|-
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|[[Orders, decorations, and medals of Bulgaria|Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria]], 1st class (Bulgaria)
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|[[Order of Georgi Dimitrov]] (Bulgaria)
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|[[File:100thAnniversaryOfLiberationRibbon.jpg|60px]] 
|[[Orders, decorations, and medals of Bulgaria|Medal "100 Years of Liberation from Ottoman Slavery"]] (Bulgaria)
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|[[Order of the White Lion]], 1st class ([[Czechoslovakia]])
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|[[File:Medal for Strengthening Brotherhood in Arms 1 kl.png|60px]]
|Medal "For Strengthening Friendship in Arms", Golden class (Czechoslovakia)
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|[[Order of Karl Marx]] ([[East Germany]])
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|[[Order of the Red Banner]] (Mongolia)
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|Jubilee Medal "50 Years Anniversary of the Mongolian Revolution" (Mongolia)
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|Military Merit Cross of Colonel [[Francisco Bolognesi]] ([[Peru]])
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==Speeches and works==
* {{cite book|title=Ленинизм озаряет наш путь|trans-title=Leninism illumes our way|date=1964|publisher=Издательство политической литературы|location=Moscow|language=ru}}
* {{cite book|title=Ленинизм – наука и искусство революционного творчества|trans-title=Leninism is science and art of revolutionary creativity|date=1976|publisher=Издательство политической литературы|location=Moscow|language=ru}}
* {{cite book|title=Коммунистическая убежденность – великая сила строителей нового мира|trans-title=Communist firm belief is a great power of builders of new world|date=1977|publisher=Издательство политической литературы|location=Moscow|language=ru}}
* {{cite news|title=Доклад на торжественном заседании по случаю столетия со дня рождения Ф.Э. Дзержинского|trans-title=The report at the solemn meeting on the occasion of the centenary of F.E. Dzerzhinsky's birth|work=[[Izvestiya]]|date=10 October 1977|language=ru}}
* {{cite book|title=Шестьдесят лет СССР: доклад на совместном торжественном заседании Центрального Комитета КПСС, Верховного Совета СССР и Верховного Совета РСФСР, в Кремлевском Дворце съездов, 21 декабря 1982 года|trans-title=The sixty years of the USSR: a report of a joint solemn meeting of the CPSU Central Committee, the USSR Supreme Soviet and the RSFSR Supreme Soviet in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, 21 December 1982|date=1982|publisher=Издательство политической литературы|location=Moscow|language=ru|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0gtLAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{cite news|title=Text of Andropov's speech at Brezhnev's funeral|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/16/world/text-of-andropov-s-speech-at-brezhnev-s-funeral.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=16 November 1982}}
* {{cite book|title=Speeches and writings|date=1983|publisher=Pergamon Press|url=https://archive.org/details/AndropovSpeechesWritings|location=Oxford; New York|isbn=978-0080312873}}
* {{cite book|title=Selected speeches and articles|date=1984|publisher=Progress Publishers|location=Moscow|asin=B003UHCKTO}}
* {{cite book|title=Speeches, articles, interviews. A Selection|date=1984|publisher=South Asia Books|isbn=978-0836411652}}
* {{cite book|title=Учение Карла Маркса и некоторые вопросы социалистического строительства в СССР|trans-title=The teaching of Karl Marx and some issues of socialist building in the USSR|date=1983|publisher=Издательство политической литературы|location=Moscow|language=ru}}
* {{cite book|title=Ленинизм – неисчерпаемый источник революционной энергии и творчества масс. Избранные речи и статьи|trans-title=Leninism is an inexhaustible source of revolutionary energy and creativity of masses. Selected speeches and articles|date=1984|publisher=Издательство политической литературы|location=Moscow|language=ru}}
* {{cite journal|title=The birth of ''samizdat''|journal=[[Index on Censorship]]|date=1995|volume=24|issue=3|pages=62–63|doi=10.1080/03064229508535948|last1=Andropov|first1=Y.V.|s2cid=146988437|doi-access=free}}
* Supreme Soviet - 16 June 1983.<ref>{{Citation |title=Об избрании Юрия Андропова на пост Председателя Президиума Верховного Совета СССР. Эфир 16 июня 1983 | date=4 November 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yj7oueJjwo |access-date=20 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref> [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=niQPJOt2mcA&pp=ygUTU3VwcmVtZSBTb3ZpZXQgMTk4Mw%3D%3D]
* Speech against the use of atomic Bombs - {{Circa|December 1982}}.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Atomic explosion and blast, Andropov's speech against atomic bombs,... |url=https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/atomic-explosion-and-blast-andropovs-speech-against-news-footage/120900850 |access-date=2 September 2023 |website=Getty Images |date=9 August 2011 |language=en-us}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
* {{Source-attribution|{{cite journal |year=1983 |title=Biography of Yuri Andropov |journal=[[Soviet Life]] |issue=323 |page=1B |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soviet_Life,_1983-08,_%E2%84%96_323.pdf |access-date=19 August 2013}}}}
{{reflist|33em}}

==Further reading==
{{See also|Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union}}
* {{cite book|author1=Beichman, Arnold|author2=Bernstam, Mikhail|title=Andropov, New Challenge to the West|publisher=Stein and Day|date=1983|isbn=978-0812829211|oclc=9464732|url=https://archive.org/details/andropovnewchall00beic}}
* {{cite journal|author =Bialer, Seweryn|title=The Andropov succession|journal=[[The New York Review of Books]]|date=3 February 1983|volume=30 |issue=1 |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1983/02/03/the-andropov-succession/}}
* Downing, Taylor. ''1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink'' (Hachette UK, 2018).

* {{cite book|author =Ebon, Martin|title=The Andropov file: the life and ideas of Yuri V. Andropov, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|url =https://archive.org/details/andropovfilelife00ebon|url-access =registration|date=1983|publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=978-0070188617}}
* {{cite magazine|author =Epstein, Edward|author-link=Edward Jay Epstein |title=The Andropov hoax|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|date=7 February 1983|url=http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/andropov.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020225053843/http://edwardjayepstein.com/archived/andropov.htm |archive-date=25 February 2002|url-status=live}}
*{{cite book |last=Epstein |first=Edward Jay |author-link=Edward Jay Epstein |url=https://archive.org/details/dossiersecrethis00edwa |title=Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer |location=New York |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=1996 |isbn=978-0679448020}}
* Fischer, Ben B. ''A Cold War conundrum: the 1983 soviet war scare'' (Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1997). [https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/19970901.pdf online]

* {{cite book|author =Glazov, Yuri|title=The Russian Mind Since Stalin's Death |chapter=Yuri Andropov: A Recent Leader of Russia |date=1985|publisher=D. Reidel Publishing Company|isbn=978-9027718280|pages=180–221|doi=10.1007/978-94-009-5341-3_10}}
* {{cite journal|author =Goodman, Elliot|title=The Brezhnev-Andropov legacy: implications for the future|journal=Survey|date=Summer 1984|volume=28|issue=2|pages=34–69}}
* {{cite book|author =Granville, Johanna|title=The first domino: international decision making during the Hungarian crisis of 1956|date=2004|publisher=Texas A & M University Press|isbn=978-1585442980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RkaWTipqnecC}}
* {{cite journal|author1=Gribanov, Alexander |author2=Kowell, Masha |title=Samizdat according to Andropov|journal=[[Poetics Today]]|date=2009|volume=30|issue=1|pages=89–106|doi=10.1215/03335372-2008-004}}
* {{cite news|author =Herman, Victor|title=In Stalin's footsteps: Yuri Andropov: rise of a dictator|url=http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/in-stalins-footsteps-yuri-andropov-rise-of-a-dictator/|work=[[Imprimis]]|date=September 1983}}
* Hough, Jerry F. "Soviet politics under Andropov." ''Current History'' 82.486 (1983): 330–346. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/45315201 online]
* Kotkin, Stephen. ''Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000'' (2nd ed. 2008) [https://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Averted-Soviet-Collapse-1970-2000-dp-0195368649/dp/0195368649/ excerpt]
* {{cite journal|author =Medvedev, Roy|title=Andropov and the dissidents: the internal atmosphere under the new Soviet leadership|journal=Dissent|date=1 January 1984|volume=31|issue=1|pages=97–102|url=http://search.opinionarchives.com/Summary/Dissent/V31I1P97-1.htm}}
* Olcott, Martha Brill. "Yuri Andropov and the ‘national question’." ''Soviet Studies'' 37.1 (1985): 103–117.
* Ostrovsky, Alexander (2010). [https://ru.bookshome.net/book/3299571/e53580 Кто поставил Горбачёва? (Who put Gorbachev?)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807112401/https://ru.bookshome.net/book/3299571/e53580 |date=7 August 2022}} — М.: Алгоритм-Эксмо, 2010. — 544 с. ISBN 978-5-699-40627-2.
* {{cite journal |title=П.Л. Капица и Ю.В. Андропов об инакомыслии |trans-title=P.L. Kapitsa and Yu.V. Andropov about dissent |journal=[[Kommunist]] |issue=7 |date=1991 |language=ru}}
* {{cite journal |last=Sayle |first=Timothy |title=Andropov's Hungarian complex: Andropov and the lessons of history |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=427–439 |date=August 2009 |s2cid=154971262 |doi=10.1080/14682740902764528}}
* {{cite book |last1=Solovyov |first1=Vladimir |last2=Klepikova |first2=Elena |title=Yuri Andropov: a secret passage into the Kremlin |url=https://archive.org/details/yuriandropovsecr00solo |url-access=registration |publisher=Macmillan |date=1983 |isbn=978-0026122900}}
* Steele, Jonathan; Abraham, Eric. ''Andropov in Power: From Komsomol to Kremlin'' (HIA Book Collection, 1984), [https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jonathan-eric-abraham-steele/andropov-in-power-from-komsomol-to-kremlin/ online review]
* Ticktin, Hillel. "Andropov: Disintegration and discipline: The disintegration of the USSR under the banner of discipline. Andropov and his inheritance". ''Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory'', 16.1 (1988): 111–122.
* {{cite book |last=Whelan |first=Joseph |title=Andropov and Reagan as negotiators: contexts and styles in contrast |publisher=Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress |date=1983 |asin=B00DDVND9I}}
* {{cite book |last1=Vinogradov |first1=V.K. |last2=Pogonyi |first2=J.F. |last3=Teptzov |first3=N.V. |title=Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlersdeathruss0000vino |url-access=registration |publisher=Chaucer Press |location=London |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-904449-13-3 |ref={{sfnRef|Vinogradov et al.|2005}}}}

===Primary sources===
* Johanna Granville, trans., [https://www.scribd.com/doc/14152546/Soviet-Archival-Documents-on-Hungary-OctoberNovember-1956-Translated-by-Johanna-Granville "Soviet Archival Documents on the Hungarian Revolution, 24 October – 4 November 1956"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818100839/http://www.scribd.com/doc/14152546/Soviet-Archival-Documents-on-Hungary-OctoberNovember-1956-Translated-by-Johanna-Granville |date=18 August 2011 }},
* [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/bulletin-no-5-spring-1995 ''Cold War International History Project Bulletin'', no. 5] (Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Washington, D.C.), Spring 1995, pp.&nbsp;22–23, 29–34.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Yuri Andropov}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070521130856/http://www.yale.edu/annals/sakharov/sakharov_list.htm List of Andropov documents related to Andrei Sakharov and other dissidents]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070627184248/http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/documents/kgb.report/ The KGB's 1967 Annual Report, signed by Andropov] by [[CNN]]
* {{YouTube|ZmGC_5Qu3bg|Похороны Андропова (Andropov's funeral, in Russian, 21 min)}}

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