Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov
In May 1967, Brezhnev dismissed the chairman of the KGB, V. Semichastny, and in his place appointed Andropov. This was a big surprise not only for Semichastny, but for Andropov himself, who was mostly known as an ideologist and politician. The reputation of state security agencies in public opinion was low, and it is unlikely that Brezhnev could have foreseen that Andropov would become a real professional leader of the state security bodies.
While the KGB is best known for its secret police activities, it also performed foreign intelligence functions, and Andropov was the first secret police head in Soviet history with substantial preparation for these latter responsibilities. The KGB's three major deputy chairmen for internal security - Semen Tsvigun, Georgiy Tsinev, and Viktor Chebrikov - had been associated with Brezhnev in Dnepropetrovsk or Moldavia," and one suspects that Andropov had only partial control over them at best. For both these reasons, it is likely that Andropov gave considerable attention to the foreign policy responsibilities of the KGB. In fact, he was promoted to full membership in the Politburo at a 1973 CC plenary session that ratified detente and simultaneously named the ministers of foreign affairs (Gromkyo) and defense (Dmitriy Ustinov) to the Politburo.
Andropov was a categorical opponent of illegal Yezhov-Beriev methods of investigation and inquiry, political murders in particular. Although some actions of this nature were still conducted, it must be borne in mind that apart from Andropov's personal control, there was the GRU of the Main General Staff, and almost independently, Brezhnev's proteges acted in the KGB.
A serious justification for Andropov's position, was the successful work of the KGB headed by him to protect the national security of the USSR. This side of the KGB's activities was not only inferior, but significantly superior in importance to "work" to combat dissidents, since the latter was engaged in only one of the nine main departments of the Committee - the 5th to protect the Constitution, which accounted for only 0.5% of personal composition of the KGB. In addition, this administration, in addition to its direct functions, dealt with more specific tasks, for example, the localization of cholera in Astrakhan and Odessa in 1972.
Successfully confronted the CIA and other intelligence agencies of the West, the 1st and 2nd main departments of the KGB were engaged in foreign intelligence and counterintelligence. A special role was played by scientific and technical intelligence (management "T"), which saved the country significant material and financial resources in such important areas as computerization, medicine, defense industries. In 1980, Soviet intelligence was instructed to collect secret technical data abroad on 3167 topics, and by 1985 this task was completed. Examples include obtaining technical documentation for the production of a medicine - insulin, for creating a plant for the production of a new generation of computers, etc.
Outlining his own concept of national security, Andropov drew four concentric circles - the security belts: "The first circle and - the main one - is the internal unity, economic well-being and moral health of our own country - the USSR, the second circle is the reliability of our own allies in worldview, in arms, the third circle is the international communist movement, the fourth is the rest of the world."
At this time in many states, including in the USSR, there was an intensification of terrorism. So, in 1969, a terrorist attack was carried out on Brezhnev's car during a meeting of cosmonauts G. Beregovoy and A. Nikolaev. In the Moscow metro, as a result of the explosion, several dozen people died. On the direct initiative of Andropov, the famous anti-terrorist unit of the KGB, the Alfa group, was created, which later became the main and most effective "in the fight against terror in the years of restructuring and reform. The KGB conducted an investigation of the biggest accidents like a fire in the Moscow hotel "Rossiya" or an explosion in the Minsk television plant.
Andropov constantly accumulated data on negative trends, manifestations of corruption in the leadership and, when the opportunity appeared, brought down the blow to their carriers. Security agencies investigated the "diamond case" in the jewelry trade, "fish business", "Sochi case", conducted a number of operations to combat the mafia in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Krasnodar Territory, Rostov-on-Don. With these actions, the KGB dealt such a blow to Brezhnev's "Dnepropetrovsk mafia," from which she no longer managed to recover. But the nomenclature pseudo-communist elite was like a hydra, in which new heads were growing to replace the severed ones.
Ideological and political actions were carried out at the initiative of Andropov to increase the prestige of security agencies. A whole series of books and films appeared about the exploits of scouts and counterintelligence, especially during the Great Patriotic War, for example the famous film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" based on the novel by Julian Semenov.
Andropov was not a part of Brezhnev's Dnepropetrovsk environment, but together with Defense Minister D.F.Ustinov, in the 1970s he influenced the foreign and domestic policy of the USSR. In particular, he certainly bears his share of responsibility for the decision to introduce Soviet troops to Czechoslovakia in 1968, for interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs in 1979. He personally controlled the situation in Poland in the late 1970s. and in other socialist countries in the period of crises.
After the suicide of Brezhnev's personal protege in the KGB, General S.Tzvigun, Andropov's position in the KGB became sharply strengthened, and he was able to arrest a number of persons involved in the "diamond scam" of Galina's daughter Brezhnev. Brezhnev himself during this time experienced a severe stroke after the Tashkent accident. In the foreign press, the imminent departure of Brezhnev from a big politics for reasons of illness was predicted.
The death of M.A.Suslov opened the post of Secretary of the Central Committee on ideology, and unexpectedly for many, Andropov took over. The former candidate for the post of General Secretary, Kirilenko, by this time was in his old age and ill. It should be noted that many members of the Politburo (Gromyko, Tikhonov, Solomentsev, etc.) were not just conservatives, but all were in old age, and this had a noticeable effect on the quality of strategic decisions. After taking the post of the second secretary of the Central Committee, Andropov held meetings of the Politburo in the absence of the patient Brezhnev and in fact became the second-most important figure in the party state. But some members of the Politburo, headed by K.U.Chernenko, feared Andropov, not wanting to have him as Secretary General.
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