Andropov, Yuri Vladimirovich, << ahn DRAWP uhf, YOO rih vlah DYEE myih ruh vyihch >> (1914-1984), served as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from November 1982 until his death in February 1984. The post of general secretary was the most powerful in the Soviet Union at the time. Andropov also served as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet—the Soviet Union’s official head of state at the time—from June 1983 until his death. Andropov had been head of the country’s secret police, the KGB, from 1967 until May 1982. He was a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party before and after heading the KGB.
Andropov was born on June 15, 1914, near the village of Nagutskaya, in the Stavropol region between the Black and Caspian seas. His early career was spent in Komsomol (Young Communist League) activities. Andropov joined the Communist Party in 1939. He helped direct Soviet operations on and around the Soviet Union’s border with Finland during and after World War II (1939-1945). From 1953 to 1957, he served as Soviet ambassador to Hungary. There, he helped direct Soviet troops who put down the 1956 uprising by Hungarians against their Communist government. From 1957 to 1967, Andropov headed the department of the Central Committee responsible for relations between Communist-bloc countries. He became a member of the Central Committee in 1961. In 1967, he was named a candidate (nonvoting) member of the Communist Party’s policymaking Politburo, as well as head of the KGB. He became a full member of the Politburo in 1973. He died on Feb. 9, 1984.
